Delving into Brazil’s vast artistic and cultural modernist output, this symposium is conceived to complement the Royal Academy of Arts' exhibition 'Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism'. It brings together international artists, scholars and academics to illuminate the rich Brazilian cultural tapestry of the twentieth century, including how this vibrant period of cultural production is responded to today. From the visual arts, to architecture and urban planning, new research analyses complex interactions between Western, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultural models, as well as the development of Brazilian artistic and cultural expressions. The conversations aim to capture the bold and contrasting cultures which still shape today’s country.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

8.30 – 10.00 Optional Exhibition Visit: Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism, Main Galleries, Burlington House, Royal Academy of Arts

10.00 – 10.15 Welcome and Opening Remarks

10.15 – 11.00 Keynote Speech: Unsilencing: Brazil Beyond Modernity, Ana Maria Tavares, Artist
Respondent: Adrian Locke, Royal Academy of Arts

11.00 – 11.30 Break

11.30 – 13.15 Panel 1: Exploring Modern Visual Arts and Cultures
Chair: Michael Asbury, University of the Arts London
11.35 – 11.55 Making Brazil Modern, Adjoa Osei, University of Cambridge
11.55 – 12.15 Brazilian Modernism's Repressed Other: Graphic Arts and Design in the 1910s and 1920s, Rafael Cardoso, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro & Freie Universität Berlin
12.15 – 12.35 Rubem Valentim and Afro-Brazilian Modernism, Roger Sansi, Universitat de Barcelona
12.35 – 13.15 Panel Discussion and Q&A

13.15 – 14.45 Lunch

14.45 – 16.00 Panel 2: Modern Architecture and Urban Planning
Chair: Isobel Whitelegg, University of Leicester
14.50 – 15.10 Brazilian Modernisms in Public Architecture: A Tale of Two Cities? Panu Minkkinen, University of Helsinki
15.10 – 15.30 Lina Bo Bardi: An Impossible Reality, Jane Hall, Assemble
15.30 – 16.00 Panel Discussion and Q&A

16.00 – 16.30 Break

16.30 – 17.45 Panel 3: Modernisms through Contemporary Lenses
Chair: Sofia Gotti, The Courtauld
16.35 – 16.55 Narratives and temporalities in curating: how presence is institutional, Keyna Eleison, Co-curator at Large of the 36th Bienal De São Paulo
16.55 – 17.15 Abstraction in Brazil: A Modern Racial Project, A Contemporary Escape Strategy, Diane Sousa da Silva Lima, Independent Curator, Writer and Researcher
17.15 – 17.45 Panel Discussion and Q&A

17.45 – 18.00 Concluding Remarks

18.00 – 19.00 Wine reception

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/event/brasil-brasil-the-birth-of-modernism-symposium

If you have any access requirements that you’d like to discuss, please contact public.programmesroyalacademy.org.uk.