Tatiana Pinto

Carta ao Arquiteto

2023

Text and image published as a book chapter.

Letter,  Book
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(PT)

No dia 8 de janeiro de 2023, um grupo de pessoas que se autodenominavam manifestantes patriotas invadiu as sedes do governo brasileiro na Praça dos Três Poderes, na capital Brasília. A invasão foi parte de uma tentativa de golpe de Estado, insuflada pelo então ex-presidente de extrema-direita, que não havia sido reeleito.

O Palácio do Congresso Nacional e o Palácio do Supremo Tribunal Federal, considerados obras-primas da arquitetura de Oscar Niemeyer, foram completamente depredados. Esculturas e quadros de grandes nomes do modernismo brasileiro, como Candido Portinari e Alfredo Ceschiatti, foram danificados, assim como os mobiliários desenhados especificamente para os edifícios. As imagens da destruição são impressionantes.

O projeto de construção de Brasília, entre 1957 e 1960, envolveu diversos profissionais, mas teve como figura central o arquiteto Oscar Niemeyer. Havia muito tempo que alguns fatos relacionados à construção de Brasília me perturbavam. Niemeyer, o arquiteto moderno que levou a arquitetura brasileira à projeção internacional, a meu ver sempre foi pouco questionado no Brasil, sendo frequentemente tratado como uma espécie de gênio intocável.
A destruição de 8 de janeiro intensificou meu incômodo. Carta ao Arquiteto nasce da urgência de traçar um diálogo para tentar compreender o ocorrido.

Cartas atravessam espaços e tempos, e assim, de maneira fabulosa e ficcional, entro em diálogo com Oscar Niemeyer no dia seguinte à invasão, para relatar os fatos e compartilhar com ele meus sentimentos e inquietações.

Carta ao Arquiteto pergunta se a insurreição fascista já não estaria, de alguma forma, inscrita na própria gênese de Brasília: uma ilha de poder instaurada sobre um território sem reconhecer plenamente o que já existia ali, impondo-se sobre a natureza e ignorando tanto os povos originários quanto os trabalhadores que migraram para construí-la. Construiu-se a sede da democracia, a “casa do povo”, sem incluir o povo brasileiro ou sequer compreender quem era, e quem é o povo.

Carta ao Arquiteto traz esses questionamentos ainda de forma afetuosa, como uma conversa entre colegas de profissão, mas também profundamente indignada.

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(ENG)

On 8 January 2023, a group of people who called themselves patriotic protesters invaded the buildings of the Brazilian government in Brasília at the Three Powers Square. The invasion was part of an attempted coup d’état, incited by the former far-right president, who had failed to be re-elected.

The National Congress Palace and the Supreme Federal Court Palace, considered masterpieces of Oscar Niemeyer’s architecture, were extensively vandalised. Sculptures and paintings by major figures of Brazilian modernism, such as Candido Portinari and Alfredo Ceschiatti, were damaged, along with furniture specifically designed for the buildings. The images of the destruction are striking.

The construction of Brasília, between 1957 and 1960, involved many professionals, but architect Oscar Niemeyer was one of its central figures. For a long time, certain aspects of Brasília’s construction had troubled me. Niemeyer, the modern architect who brought Brazilian architecture to international prominence, has, in my view, rarely been critically questioned in Brazil, where he is often treated as a kind of untouchable genius.
The destruction of 8 January intensified my unease. Carta ao Arquiteto (Letter to the Architect) emerges from an urgent need to establish a dialogue to understand what had happened. Letters travel across space and time, and so, through a fictional gesture of confabulation, I enter a dialogue with Oscar Niemeyer on the day after the invasion, narrating the events and sharing my feelings and concerns.

Carta ao Arquiteto asks whether the fascist insurrection might, in some ways, already have been inscribed in Brasília’s very genesis: an island of power established upon a territory without fully acknowledging what was already there, imposing itself upon nature and disregarding both Indigenous peoples and the workers who migrated there to build it. The symbol of democracy, the “house of the people”, was built without including the Brazilian people, or even understanding who the people were or who they are.

Carta ao Arquiteto raises these questions with a certain affection, as a conversation between fellow architects, but also with profound indignation.

Published in the collection “The Planalto Riots. Making and unmaking a failed coup in Brazil” edited by Lou Caffagni, Isabel Löfgren, Gizele Martins and Paola Sartoretto.

Carta ao Arquiteto, 2023.

The Planalto Riots Book Cover, 2023.

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