Refoundations: New Narratives on the Founding of São Paulo

Read the original version in Portuguese here.

Published on February 06, 2020

Throughout 2019, the Minas Gerais-based architecture collective Micrópolis partnered with Museu Paulista and SESC Ipiranga to carry out the project Refundações [Refoundations]—a series of public programs that create new readings and meanings for the museum's collection, based on the desires and demands found in the urban practices of contemporary activists and thinkers in São Paulo.

The project's starting point was three paintings from the Museu Paulista collection that depict key moments in São Paulo's urban development—Fundação de São Paulo [Foundation of São Paulo] by Oscar Pereira da Silva, completed in 1909; Avenida Paulista no dia da inauguração [Paulista Avenue on Opening Day] by Jules Martin, painted in 1891; and Rua do Rosário [Rosário Street] by José Wasth Rodrigues, dating from 1855.

Historical paintings like these have frequently been viewed as representations of "truth" and, as such, absorbed into the collective imagination of their society. Once in museum collections and later featured in history textbooks, they became "windows to the past," serving an educational purpose by allowing thousands of citizens to visualize the past.

These works often highlight certain facts at the expense of others while narrating and recording history, bringing to the forefront the subjectivity and intentions of the storyteller. First and foremost, these paintings represent political projects that, once crystallized as icons and official documents, can end up overshadowing the critiques, ideas, and agency of other voices, bodies, and narratives that were present in the depicted events. Given that a painting, like any other artistic expression, conveys the social, political, and cultural values of its creator as well as the mindset of its era, what would the narrative of these events look like if these paintings—especially the painting of the Foundation of São Paulo—were created today?

Building on this reflection, the project organized a series of workshops centered on these paintings, inviting feminist groups, Black artists, Indigenous leaders, young refugees, LGBTQI+ activists, Museu Paulista staff, residents of urban occupations, and the general public at SESC to imagine how they would create their own narratives for a new, future foundation of São Paulo if they were the narrators of the city's history.

The workshops featured the participation of, among others, architects Nabil Bonduki, Marcos Rosa, and Maria Claudia Levy; curator Hélio Menezes and artist Rosana Paulino; feminist activists Amelinha Teles and Maria Clara Araújo; Guarani leaders Davi Popygua and Sonia Ara Mirim; and representatives from the Museu da Diversidade (Museum of Diversity) and Casa 1, an LGBTQI+ shelter.

These meetings resulted in the emergence and sharing of diverse reflections on the paintings, yielding alternative narratives about different possible (re)foundations for the city of São Paulo—not to seek historical reparations, but to use the artwork as a starting point to envision new urban imaginaries. These narratives were audio-recorded and later sent to other collaborators who interpreted them through paintings, drawings, collages, and various other visual mediums. Both the audio tracks and these new images are on display at SESC Ipiranga's Parede em Arco until March 1, 2020.