Estátuas em Jardins: Roberto Burle Marx and the Statuary of Brazil’s Modernist Landscapes

• In Event: Arte popular, diseños participativos y saberes económicos

Abstract

In 1968, the Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx delivered a scathing deposition against the misuse of commemorative statues in the public parks and gardens of Rio de Janeiro. Entitled “Estátuas em Jardins,” this position piece railed against military heroes astride horses, ancient Greek hermes, and even a radio exercise personality appearing on pedestals throughout the city. The deposition was one of seventeen that Burle Marx presented during his tenure as a member of the Conselho Federal de Cultura from 1966-1973. Appointed by President Castelo Branco shortly after the coup that led to twenty-one years of military dictatorship in Brazil, Burle Marx’s “Estátuas em Jardins” is a bold statement against the nationalist self-aggrandisement sought by the regime. Yet Burle Marx is not against all use of statuary. The history of Brazilian modern architecture and its correspondent tropical landscapes is replete with statuary from its beginnings in the 1930s through the construction of the new capital city of Brasília from 1956-1961. This modernist statuary program, including work by such artists Celso Antônio, Bruno Giorgi, and Adriana Janacópulos, was embraced by Burle Marx and his cadre of modern architects as an integral part of the synthesis of art, architecture, and the landscape. This paper examines the complex history and symbolic role of statues in the modernist landscapes of Brazil from the unexecuted “Homem Brasileiro” by Celso Antônio for the plaza of the Ministério de Educaçao e Saude, Rio de Janeiro to the “Meteoro” by Bruno Giorgi for the Palácio do Itamaraty, Brasília.

Author

• Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, The City College of New York