{"id":46646,"date":"2018-09-04T13:23:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T16:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=46646"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:08:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:08:52","slug":"the-national-museum-from-a-historical-affective-and-suburban-favela-based-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=46646","title":{"rendered":"The National Museum from a Historical, Affective, Favela Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Over the course of the week, RioOnWatch will be publishing a series of notes on the tragic fire that destroyed the National Museum<\/a> this past Sunday. The following note was\u00a0posted on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0by Thain\u00e3 de Medeiros.<\/i><\/p>\n

I am a museologist and favela activist. These two <\/span>qualifications lead me to reflect on what the damage from the National Museum<\/a> fire yesterday represents from a historical, affective, but also peripheral\/favela-based perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can affirm that most of my friends had their first museum experience there\u2014if not the only one. I myself was like that. The first time my father took me there, he said I was going to see a mummy and dinosaurs! Imagine what that information does to a child\u2019s imagination! I also went there on a school trip, where we raised hell\u2014<\/span>in a good way, in that the kids made the museological space their own, running around to see it all! That whale skeleton was awesome!! We went nuts!<\/span><\/p>\n

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

It’s impossible to think about this museum without remembering one of the unforgettable times with my friend Hugo. There were afternoon soccer games on the grass<\/a>, the zoo, and kites! Indeed, that lawn was very much used and appropriated by the favela. It was a spot for parties on Children\u2019s Day, sunny afternoons, hanging out with school friends, concerts! That lawn was constructed<\/a>\u2014it is the result of a landscaping project from the time when the museum building was former residence to the royal family. It is also a piece of the city\u2019s memory that remains preserved and alive,\u00a0and it will continue to be used by the favela this weekend. Meanwhile, the National Museum will be closed.<\/span><\/p>\n

When a museum like this is lost, historical heritage<\/a> and affective bonds are also lost. It is an invaluable loss of our collective memory (some might say social memory), but not individual memory. I see a lot of friends, professionals from museums, expressing themselves\u2014but I also see a lot of people from favelas who are not from that field also expressing their regrets, and this is an important fact! In some way, the Museum was a part of these people\u2019s memory. Not any museum can achieve this in Rio de Janeiro.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time that I was there, I was already a professional in the field of museology. With sadness, I saw that the museum didn\u2019t have ideal operating conditions<\/a>\u2014but even so, it continued to function with the work of professionals who lacked [the necessary financial] means. The technical view [I have today] dims some of the magic, but it is because I like museums in the first place that I decided to study this field. It was because of going there that first time with my father, and later with my friends, that I decided to become a museologist. Other museums played a part in this [decision], such as the Fine Arts Museum<\/a> or the Museum of the Republic<\/a>\u2014but the National Museum was the very first.<\/span><\/p>\n

June 2018 video commemorating 200 years of the National Museum, with its team of researchers and staff, and expressing the need for support:<\/h4>\n