{"id":25724,"date":"2015-12-17T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-17T09:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=25724"},"modified":"2016-10-02T22:25:30","modified_gmt":"2016-10-03T01:25:30","slug":"not-even-launched-yet-a-critique-of-rios-museum-of-tomorrow-set-to-open-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=25724","title":{"rendered":"A Critique of Rio’s Museum of Tomorrow, Set to Open This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Museum of Tomorrow<\/a>, one of the most ambitious works\u00a0of the Porto Maravilha<\/a>\u00a0Port revitalization program, is due to open its doors this Saturday, December\u00a019. Occupying the pier that enters the Guanabara Bay<\/a> in Rio’s Port Region<\/a>, the museum\u00a0is notable for both its spectacular appearance and for the controversies and criticisms the project has triggered during\u00a0the four years of its building process, a period during which Rio’s policymakers have been criticized for actively attempting to trample over\u00a0the city’s past<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Guggenheim attempt, the Calatrava trap <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The prioritization of transforming the Port Region into a tourist attraction comes at the forefront of a wider criticism of\u00a0the city model being implemented during Mayor Eduardo Paes\u2019<\/a> mandate which focuses on mega-events<\/a> and speculative development\u00a0of the South<\/a>, West<\/a> and central<\/a> zones\u00a0of the city.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0urban transformations realized\u00a0by Paes are reminiscent of projects realized or\u00a0attempted by his predecessor and party colleague, Cesar Maia, who also sought to revitalize Barra da Tijuca<\/a>\u00a0in the West Zone and the downtown Port Region through the construction of expensive and supposedly emblematic cultural buildings. Maia\u2019s failed attempts include the City of Music (now called the City of Arts<\/a>), a giant white, underused building designed by French architect Christian Portzamparc and costing R$515 million in Barra da Tijuca and the project to build a branch of the Guggenheim Museum in Rio<\/a>, exactly where the Museum of Tomorrow is located. Maia promoted the project as the catalyst for the revitalization of the long-abandoned Port Region.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0time, in the early\u00a02000s, a resistance movement led by city councilman Mario del Rei, with the support and activism of local residents\u00a0and other members of civil society, insisted on\u00a0the absurdity of the Guggenheim project<\/a>. The project was suspended after a judicial process against Mayor Maia’s attempt was initiated. Local residents claimed there were other, more urgent priorities in the Port Region such as the building of a school and the improvement\u00a0of public services.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Guggenheim Rio project, the Museum of Tomorrow construction has gone ahead. Along\u00a0with the\u00a0Rio Museum of Art<\/a>, huge sculpture-signs celebrating Rio as the \u201cOlympic City\u201d and the works for a\u00a0light rail transport system<\/a>, the Museum of Tomorrow\u00a0is a cornerstone of a spectacular assemblage in the renovated Pra\u00e7a Mau\u00e1<\/a>, encapsulating the ideal of a city-model finally put into practice by Paes under the Porto Maravilha, or Marvelous Port, project.<\/p>\n

\"Santiago
Santiago Calavtrava in front of unfinished museum. Photo by Filippo Fitipaldi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the key differences between the Museum of Tomorrow and Guggenheim projects is the participation of the Roberto Marinho Foundation<\/a>, an organization set up by the owners of Brazil’s biggest media group Globo<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0support cultural projects. The Globo media network very much supported the Guggenheim project, despite the widespread criticism and resistance. With the Museum of Tomorrow, the Roberto Marinho Foundation is the primary builder of the museum<\/a>\u00a0in the public-private partnership<\/a> that has made the project possible. In 2011, the Foundation received R$24 million<\/a> from the State Environmental Conservation Fund for the construction\u00a0of the Museum of Tomorrow in a transfer that was subsequently investigated by the Public Ministry. It is important to note that Globo confessed to supporting Brazil’s brutal military regime<\/a> between 1964 and 1985, thus we shouldn’t exactly be expecting it to champion a Museum of Memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The museum’s building\u00a0costs are a major source of public criticism, as is often the case<\/a> with the works of Santiago Calatrava<\/a>. The Spanish architect is known for doubling or tripling the budget after projects have been approved. In the case of the Museum of Tomorrow, budgetary readjustments saw an increase from R$70 million in the original project to a final cost of R$213 million. Calatrava\u2019s buildings often impose\u00a0high maintenance costs, mainly due to problems with the construction materials and the design of the structures, resulting in further public expenditure.<\/p>\n

\"Museum<\/a>
Museum of Tomorrow pre-launch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A museum for tomorrow but what of the past?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Porto Maravilha revitalization project is underway in an\u00a0area historically known as Pequena \u00c1frica <\/em>(Little Africa). As the largest slave port<\/a> in world history, Rio\u2019s Port Region was the point of arrival for two million\u00a0enslaved Africans.\u00a0Professor of Anthropology at\u00a0the Federal Fluminense University (UFF) and member of the Black Movement, Rolf Malungo de Souza<\/a>\u00a0emphasizes the importance of black heritage<\/a>\u00a0to understand the cultural-historical configuration, not only of the Port Region, but of the city of Rio and Brazil as a whole. He argues that the black population of Little Africa suffered the first form of spatial segregation<\/a> in the city of Rio and were\u00a0protagonists in the revolts against the imperial and military absolutist powers.<\/p>\n

The New Blacks Institute and Cemetery<\/a> (IPN<\/a> by Portuguese acronym) is one of the few institutions devoted to preserving African memory in the Port Region. The IPN was founded in 1998 after Merced and Petrunio Guimar\u00e3es\u00a0found<\/a> the remains of a mass slave grave in\u00a0the foundations\u00a0of their home. Following archaeological research, it was discovered the site was a cemetery for thousands of Africans who had died upon arrival or prior to sale. The Institute\u00a0received some official recognition in 2009 and strategic attention and symbolic funding from the Urban Development Company of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Port Region (CDURP)<\/a>, however it\u00a0operates on\u00a0basic resources and relies on the volunteer work of professors, archaeologists, researchers and curators.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Instituto<\/a><\/p>\n

Merced Guimar\u00e3es, founder and director of IPN, views\u00a0the Museum of Tomorrow as a positive asset for the region, but\u00a0is critical of\u00a0the way the City\u00a0is managing the area’s archaeological heritage: \u201cI\u2019m not going to say that I agree with the way the archaeological preservation is being carried out. But they\u2019re inventing new concepts of museums, and it is important to have a museum like that in our region<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rolf Malungo de Souza, however, is more critical of\u00a0the Museum of Tomorrow’s futurist content and form, and shares\u00a0concern\u00a0over the preservation of black heritage in the context of revitalization. He says:\u00a0\u201cThe City\u00a0only wants to preserve the festive part of black heritage.\u201d He argues that the emphasis of the City’s\u00a0African Heritage Circuit<\/a> is samba<\/a>, capoeira<\/a> and carnival<\/a>–cultural assets that are easily commodified<\/a>\u00a0to be sold as part of the Port-as-tourist-attraction, different from the Black Movement-informed African Heritage Circuit<\/a> currently being promoted by Rio’s World Heritage Institute, or the UNESCO bid for world heritage status<\/a> put forth by local institutions including IPN reflecting the region’s important history.<\/p>\n

Given\u00a0Rio\u2019s urban segregation<\/a>, Malungo de Souza\u00a0argues, almost all of the city’s cultural institutions and attractions are located in the South and Central zones. Much more cultural investment, he says,\u00a0should be made in the underserved West and North Zones<\/a>.\u00a0But, he concludes, the museum that would most adequately honor and represent the Port Region of Rio, one of the most significant sites in Afro-Brazilian history, is\u00a0a Museum of the African Diaspora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The Museum of Tomorrow, one of the most ambitious works\u00a0of the Porto Maravilha\u00a0Port revitalization program, is due to open its doors this Saturday, December\u00a019. Occupying the pier that enters the Guanabara […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":25729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1267,1668,1736,1288,1329],"tags":[315,662,29,225,1669,1261,776,1075,272,674,390,531,170,188,1870,673,716,2178,148,146,1899,1347,149,421,279],"writer":[1786],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gentrificationwatch","8":"category-participationwatch","9":"category-1736","10":"category-highlight","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-african-diaspora","13":"tag-afro-brazilian-culture","14":"tag-architecture","15":"tag-barra-da-tijuca","16":"tag-cdurp","17":"tag-central-rio","18":"tag-cesar-maia","19":"tag-critique","20":"tag-mayor-eduardo-paes","21":"tag-memory","22":"tag-globo","23":"tag-guanabara-bay","24":"tag-historic-preservation","25":"tag-history","26":"tag-light-rail","27":"tag-misplaced-public-priorities","28":"tag-museum","29":"tag-museum-of-tomorrow","30":"tag-port-region","31":"tag-porto-maravilha","32":"tag-praca-maua","33":"tag-pretos-novos","34":"tag-public-private-partnership","35":"tag-segregation","36":"tag-slavery","37":"writer-marta-ill-raga"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25724"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=25724"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=25724"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=25724"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=25724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}