{"id":53610,"date":"2019-06-10T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=53610"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:08:38","slug":"mares-open-air-museum-center-for-memory-and-identity-creates-sites-of-memory-in-the-favela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=53610","title":{"rendered":"Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum: Center for Memory and Identity in the Favela"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum<\/a> is a project that promises to bring a new museological perspective to the favelas of Mar\u00e9<\/a>, in Rio’s North Zone<\/a>. A historical tour, sites of memory, and urban art are just a few features of the project, which will resemble an outdoor gallery in the favela\u2014or, in the language of\u00a0social museology<\/a>, a territorial museum that takes visitors on a journey through the community.<\/p>\n

The project is an initiative of the Mar\u00e9 Center for Memory and Identity<\/a> (NUMIM)\u2014part of Redes da Mar\u00e9<\/a> (Mar\u00e9 Development Networks NGO), an organization that has been working to preserve the memory and history of Mar\u00e9’s favelas<\/a> since 2007\u2014in partnership with Azulejaria<\/a> and the It\u00e1u Cultural Institute. Neighbor to the award-winning Mar\u00e9 Museum<\/a>\u2014founded in 2006 and, in a huge victory, granted ownership<\/a> of the building it occupies just a few weeks ago\u2014the two initiatives are increasingly putting Mar\u00e9 on the map when it comes to social museology<\/a>. Today, Rio has over a dozen community museums<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Thus far, the first steps for Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum have included a talk on memory and ancestry featuring activists and researchers such as M\u00e3e Celina de Xang\u00f4, Keyna Eleison Ailton Krenak, and Paulo Knauss, which took place at the Mar\u00e9 Arts Center<\/a> (CAM) in February; and a field lesson<\/a>, guided by the team, along the route of the Mar\u00e9 Open-Air Museum in March.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the end of the year, the project aims to set up five sites of memory in Parque Uni\u00e3o<\/a>, Nova Holanda<\/a>, Baixa do Sapateiro<\/a>, and Vila do Pinheiro<\/a>\u2014four of the favelas that make up Complexo da Mar\u00e9. Depending on access to funding, new sites will be added later. Edson Diniz\u2014a historian, director of Redes da Mar\u00e9, and head coordinator of NUMIM\u2014explains that the sites of memory will be placed in locations that have been specially chosen because of their significance to the favela: \u201cWe\u2019re going to have artwork on tiles to mark specific historical routes. We\u2019re going to invite artists from Mar\u00e9 and beyond to come and create works of art that help retell these stories. The historic streets of Mar\u00e9 will act as pathways connecting these sites.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The sites chosen for this phase of the project are the Parque Uni\u00e3o Plaza, the Mar\u00e9 Women\u2019s Center<\/a>, the Nova Holanda Plaza, Plaza 18, and the Mar\u00e9 Ecological Park<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

Tereza On\u00e3, a researcher and one of the coordinators of the Mar\u00e9 Open-Air Museum, says that the proposed ideas have been well received by residents. Between May 13-19, coinciding with National Museum Week, the project organized meetings<\/a> with local groups and organizations, including schools and residents\u2019 associations. \u201cProject coordinators and local residents responded really well to the idea of learning about and contributing to new space for collective memory in Mar\u00e9. All of the institutions willingly offered us spaces to act as focal points for the ‘collection’ of memories, allowing the exhibits to reflect the culture of Mar\u00e9 and its residents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum was inspired by ethical tourism and social museology projects such as Memories of Cerro Cor\u00e1<\/a> and the Favela Museum<\/a> (MUF), located in favelas in Rio\u2019s South Zone<\/a>, as well as the urban art gallery at the Cardine Cultural Center<\/a> in Lisbon’s Padre Cruz neighborhood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I learned about the MUF, I was amazed by the idea of a living territorial museum\u2014of connecting with a museum where nature [and the community’s evolution] is part of the exhibit,\u201d On\u00e3 recalls enthusiastically. \u201cI\u2019ve also visited the community museum in Cerro Cor\u00e1. The work that they’ve done there, commemorating the residents, is fascinating. I really admire Ricardo Rodrigues<\/a>. This was yet another favela museum that inspired us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On\u00e3 explains that she visits various favelas on the weekends and has high hopes for Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about an area with 140,000 people, spread across 17 communities, where art and culture are expressions of community,\u201d she asserts. \u201cI think that memory and affect play an important role in sustainable development<\/a>. I truly believe in this project as a means of boosting self-worth and dialogue with the city of Rio de Janeiro and with the world. Being able to take part in the creation of a social museum that combines art, culture, memory, and identity together with residents of Mar\u00e9 offers us a glimpse of transformation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Diniz recounts that Redes da Mar\u00e9 also tried out the concept of a journey with the Favela Food Festival<\/a> back in 2015. \u201cThe Favela Food Festival worked similarly in that people wandered around the favela, in well-known spots where there were bars and restaurants. It was great. People walked around Mar\u00e9 discovering food, which is what we want to happen again\u2014only this time, people will be wandering around discovering history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mar\u00e9 ‘s Open-Air Museum is the result of twelve years of work by NUMIM dedicated to preserving the favela’s memory and history. “Our work used to revolve more around research and the production of knowledge,\u201d says Diniz, whose series of books<\/a> <\/span>Mapping the Stories of Mar\u00e9<\/span><\/i> featured studies on the \u201cMemory and Identity of Residents of Nova Holanda<\/a>\u201d in 2012, and on the \u201cMemory and Identity of Residents of Morro do Timbau and Parque Prolet\u00e1rio da Mar\u00e9<\/a>\u201d in 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

NUMIM\u2019s collection of resident testimonies has been digitalized and the material is expected to become available next year. Diniz continues, \u201cThe idea is to give people an access portal, which will be publicized\u2014with families\u2019 permission, of course.\u201d In addition to the online portal and physical journey, NUMIM is planning to create a documentation center that will be open for researchers from Mar\u00e9 and elsewhere to make appointments, carry out research, and come together. \u201cWe don\u2019t want it all to be closed off\u2014we want people to be able to come and find information.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Long before the start of his professional relationship with the history of Mar\u00e9, Diniz details his arrival in the favela of Nova Holanda when he was only six months old. \u201cI was born in Para\u00edba [State], in a small city called Serra Branca. A lot of people in Mar\u00e9 have come from there. I was part of that wave of migration. My father came here in the 19<\/span>70s when I was six months old,\u201d he says. \u201cI stayed here, got married, and lived here for forty years. I left after that. But I still go to Mar\u00e9 every day. My family still lives in Mar\u00e9 and I\u2019ve maintained many connections with it in my life. I\u2019ve been through everything that residents are currently facing. I lived there for a long time, so it\u2019s part of my identity and I have a strong emotional connection with it. Today, my work is closely tied to my experience as a resident of Mar\u00e9 and the decision to work with memory and history is closely tied to my journey and the memories that I have. This work\u2014my career, my activism, and my personal life\u2014are all connected.”<\/span><\/p>\n

As Diniz recalls, \u201cEverything that happens in Mar\u00e9 affects the city.\u201d The main access routes to downtown Rio<\/a>\u2014the Linha Amarela<\/a>, Linha Vermelha<\/a>, and Avenida Brasil<\/a> highways\u2014all go through Mar\u00e9 and are used by around a million people each day, in addition to the 140,000 who live in Complexo da Mar\u00e9. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not just about preserving memory within the community. In addition to being a process oriented towards the community, it\u2019s also about promoting a dialogue with the city,\u201d says Diniz. \u201cMar\u00e9 is a place of memory, history, and identity. We are going to enshrine this in the community.”<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Over the next six months, Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum will undertake a number of activities, including azulejo <\/em>tile workshops for children and conversation circles with Mar\u00e9\u2019s griots<\/em><\/a>\u2014a<\/span> group composed of women from the favela, led by On\u00e3. There are already plans to start making guidebooks. The organizers hope to begin scheduling visits in January of next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Miriane Peregrino is a researcher, community journalist, and teacher with a master\u2019s degree in literature from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). In 2013, she created the Literatura Comunica! (“Literature Speaks!”) literacy project, which is active in schools, community libraries, and cultural centers. She moved to Rio de Janeiro from the interior of Rio state, where she was born, and currently lives in Vila do Pinheiro, Mar\u00e9. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Mar\u00e9’s Open-Air Museum is a project that promises to bring a new museological perspective to the favelas of Mar\u00e9, in Rio’s North Zone. A historical tour, sites of memory, and urban […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":53613,"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":[1288,1328,1268,329],"tags":[1552,1144,168,1098,2109,280,2806,674,1560,170,2265,511,716,2426,37,281,362,1555,2463,156,194,1321],"writer":[1532],"translator":[2861],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-53610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-by-community-contributors","9":"category-favelaculture","10":"category-solutions","11":"tag-avenida-brasil","12":"tag-baixa-do-sapateiro","13":"tag-centro","14":"tag-cerro-cora","15":"tag-community-museum","16":"tag-complexo-da-mare","17":"tag-cultural-preservation","18":"tag-memory","19":"tag-favela-tour-operator","20":"tag-historic-preservation","21":"tag-linha-amarela","22":"tag-linha-vermelha","23":"tag-museum","24":"tag-museum-week","25":"tag-north-zone","26":"tag-nova-holanda","27":"tag-parque-uniao","28":"tag-redes-de-desenvolvimento-da-mare","29":"tag-social-museology","30":"tag-south-zone","31":"tag-tourism","32":"tag-vila-do-pinheiro","33":"writer-miriane-peregrino","34":"translator-elfie-lawson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53610","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\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81671,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53610\/revisions\/81671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53610"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=53610"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=53610"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=53610"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=53610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}