Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

Superimposed on a striped background in Brazil’s national colors – green and yellow, two black and white photographs of a palace illustrate the cover of the sixth issue of Módulo magazine in December 1956. This register would first depict Brazil’s new capital, Brasilia. Sixty-two years later, Brazilian artist Lais Myrrha presented the installation entitled “Estudo de Caso” at the Gwangju Art Biennale, in South Korea. The art piece showcases a physical model of the above-mentioned palace’s column, now known as the Alvorada’s column. In a rather fragile balance, the modernist column is being supported by another column, of the same material and scale. This other column that resembles a greek column is modeled after the column of the “Fazenda do Colubandê” – a building that is deeply connected to Brazil’s colonial past. The correlation between both buildings – and columns – stems from 1965, and it was first established by the Brazilian architecture historian Paulo Santos. Rekindled through Myrrha’s work, this correlation instigates the debate about the role colonization had in Brazil’s modernization effort. Through the lens of the object – here, represented by the column – and through Myrrha’s work, this article intends to explore the unlikely pair: modernity and coloniality. Departing from the historical research of the column, discussing its role as a symbol of national identity and the intrinsic contradictions of its creation.