By WALNICE NOGUEIRA GALVÃO*
A look at the most memorable celebrations of January 25th
As part of the 1954th Centennial celebrations in XNUMX, Ibirapuera Park, a work by Oscar Niemeyer, was opened to the public, with the simultaneous inauguration of the Bandeiras Monument, by Vitor Brecheret. Highlights were given to the construction of a gigantic sculpture by Oscar Niemeyer, entitled “Aspiral” (a pun on espIraL and aspirar). It consisted of a spiral crossed by a pillar, both vertical, symbolizing the development of São Paulo. The piece was destined to be destroyed for technical reasons.
The City Ballet was also created, with the collaboration of the greatest artists of Modernism. The bias was modern and avant-garde, and a foreign choreographer was hired to coordinate the work. The result was a project to cover the entire year, with four programs of four ballets each, with one Brazilian ballet being mandatory in each program. Architects and painters were called in for sets and costumes, as well as native composers for the music; the list of foreign composers already shows the bias: Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky... Everything had to be modern and even avant-garde: taking inspiration from the Russian Ballets of Diaghilev and Nijinsky, the “total ballet” was thought of.
In addition, the law creating the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra was enacted, under the baton of Eleazar de Carvalho.
And a competition was launched to award the popular song celebrating the date, to which thousands of candidates flocked. The melodies flooded the air, but above all this one: which came in first place: the dobrado Four Hundred Years of St. Paul, by the great composer of Rio de Janeiro samba Garoto, who died prematurely. The album sold almost 1 million copies.
The three days of the festivities themselves included plenty of popular entertainment in the public square, in anticipation of the future Viradas Culturais, which annually celebrate the city's anniversary. All of this exactly 71 years ago.
However, at the turn of the century, or precisely in the year 2000, another grand celebration would take place: the Mostra dos Descobrimentos, held to mark the 500th anniversary not of the city of São Paulo, but of all of Brazil. The choice of the city of São Paulo as the venue was already a confirmation of its hegemony in the country. The celebrations required much pomp and circumstance, in addition to ample resources, and occupied the pavilions of Ibirapuera.
The Exhibition was subdivided into nine exhibits, such was its magnitude: Archaeology, Indigenous Arts, Afro-Brazilian Art, Art of the 17th and 18th Centuries, Popular Art, Art of the 19th Century, Images of the Unconscious, The Distant Gaze and Art of the 20th Century. It even involved foreign countries, such as Portugal, but also others that had something very distant to do with the conquest and colonization. A good example is Denmark, the origin of the Tupinambá cloak of red feathers that enchanted crowds. Portugal, in a gesture never sufficiently praised, sent us our birth certificate, the Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, which was displayed under an armored dome and in an empty white room – such was its importance,
The São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (Osesp) celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Discovery throughout the year 2000. To this end, it focused on performing compositions by 23 local authors, in the project that received the name Creators of Brazil.
Under the baton of maestro John Neschling, the first concert, on March 16, in the then new Sala São Paulo, at Estação da Luz, presented a program that included the Concerto for Piccolo and String Orchestra, by Osvaldo Lacerda; Congada, by Francisco Mignone; and the opening of Salvador Rosa, a little-known opera by Carlos Gomes.
The project entitled “Nau Capitânia”… was intended to create a replica of Pedro Álvares Cabral’s caravel, manufactured in Porto Seguro, where the landing took place, under the auspices of the Ministry of Sports and Tourism. It was a fiasco: it was four months late, had endless problems, which were hurled at by cartoonists from both sides of the sea, and ended up earning the epithet “Ship of Fools”. They say it never managed to sail, to the delight of the Portuguese: they insisted that the Brazilians should have asked them to build the caravel, since they were from know-how proven…
*Walnice Nogueira Galvão Professor Emeritus at FFLCH at USP. She is the author, among other books, of Reading and rereading (Sesc\Ouro over Blue). [amzn.to/3ZboOZj]
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