Starting September 14, 2019, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (MAM) presents the exhibition "Zanine 100 Years – Form and Resistance," featuring 18 works by the renowned architect, designer, artist, landscape architect, and professor José Zanine Caldas (1919–2001), stemming from his deep research into native woods. Curated by MAM design curator Tulio Mariante, the selected works represent Zanine’s iconic and prolific production between the late 1960s and 1980s, known as "protest furniture." Crafted from solid wood, these pieces were a pioneering indictment of deforestation in Brazilian forests. Mariante notes that Zanine "collected wood from logging remnants, often irregular, as a form of protest and resistance."
More than mere furniture, experts consider these works functional sculptures—a means for the artist to express his perception of Brazilian culture. The creative process was deliberate, utilizing traditional tools such as saws, adzes, chisels, and planes, with the craftsmanship provided by the canoe makers of Bahia. Many of the exhibited pieces were created during the period Zanine Caldas lived in Nova Viçosa, Bahia, from the 1970s to the 1980s. There, he established a workshop that became a meeting point for prominent figures in Brazilian culture, including Oscar Niemeyer, Carlos Vergara, Chico Buarque, Amelia Toledo, and Odete Lara, among others. It was there that he built the famous treehouse for artist Frans Krajcberg.
