Museu Nacional da Cultura Afro-brasileira.
We set out on Saturday to visit our second museum, the Museu Nacional da Cultura Afro-brasileira. This was an excellent trip that featured art from Projeto Afro–an exhibit that focuses on works from various Afro-Brazilian visual artists. The pieces were very moving and included works in multiple mediums–paintings, sculptures, and audio-visual performance. Themes of history, resistance, exclusion, colonization and decolonization, and societal progression and regression were all explored.
Some particularly compelling works that I saw were sculptures by Rubem Valentim and Mestre Didi and paintings by Guilhermina Augusti, Massuelen Cristina, and Moisés Patricio. These pieces explored African and Afro-Brazilian spirituality, aesthetics, as well as histories of racialized subordination and resistance.
The other major exhibit titled, “Òná Írín: Caminho de Ferro” was a collection of sculptures by Nádia Taquary that explored various themes related to Ogum, the Orixa of iron, warriorhood, technology, and the forging of the path. It featured various visually striking works including a statue of Mami Wata and an oríkì (a praise poem) to Ogum.
Memorial das Baianas
We also visited the Memorial das Baianas, a small museum located in Pelourinho near the Elevador Lacerda. This museum focused on the role of Afro-Brazilian women within their cultural traditions. Exhibits explored the history of Black women going back to the era of enslavement, their roles as keepers of tradition, in addition to their labor and economic impact. Further, there were beautiful representations of traditional clothing from across time that were also displayed.
