By NAPOLEÃO FERREIRA*

The Palace of Culture is a symbol of our desire to dream of a common destiny; should never be sold

The urban-industrial world divided and still divides territories into nations, instituted through the adaptation of social groupings to changes in modern habits and culture.

In Brazil, this historical process was consolidated, even if incomplete, in the first four decades of the XNUMXth century, when art renovators and the Estado Novo dictatorship intensified the construction of nationality.

It was exactly this period in which modern monumental architecture established itself as the most advanced industrial artifact, with spaces destined for new lifestyles and symbolizing the new national being in the urban landscape.

The architectural image of Brazil was established in a pioneering way by the construction of the headquarters building of the Ministry of Education and Health (MES), from 1937 to 1946, in the then federal capital, the City of Rio de Janeiro.

The importance of this building places it among the great achievements of international modern architecture. A work that highlighted Brazil with the epithet of the country of the future, according to Stefan Zweig's essay.

The idea of ​​cultural heritage is necessary for every nation. The presence of a collection of cultural goods is fundamental for the community that identifies itself as national to assert itself. The collection is made up of antique and modern things, established in the nation's territory like Ariadne's thread, interconnecting a past of legendary glories to the present and a promising expectation of the future, the certainty of a community destiny.

For this reason, buildings such as the headquarters of the MES and its descendants, such as those at Praça dos Três Poderes, in Brasília, must endure with their tectonic attributes, as symbols of what we were, are and will be: a national community.

From those first four decades of the last century, we inherited the legislation that guarantees the preservation of the Brazilian cultural heritage. In this set of norms, one of the most beautiful jabuticabas was born – because it only flourished here: the concept of tipping.

The legislator, poet, who wrote Decree-law number 25, still in force today, coined this term using the noun originally synonymous with fall, in an opposite meaning. Listing, henceforth, would also mean guaranteeing the physical integrity of the thing belonging to the collection of national monuments.

This curious way of dictating which things could be preserved as cultural goods, came from the old Portuguese tradition, when Brazil was a colony, of keeping records of colonial goods in the Manueline Torre do Tombo, in Lisbon, where the drawings of the buildings that belonged to the Portuguese crown.

Therefore, with the use of the tipping resource, the assets of the Brazilian cultural heritage are preserved, necessary as a feat of artistic and historical relevance to maintain the fervor and the belief that the Brazilian nationality will last, despite social inequality and all ignominy. that follows from it. Thus, as the poet said: "despite you, tomorrow will be another day..."

What to say about a government that offers for sale an inalienable jewel of our cultural heritage?

In addition to the indignation over the threat to sell the MES headquarters, also known as the Palace of Culture, it is at stake to resist the attempt, conscious or ignorant, to expose a symbol of nationality for sale.

The proclaimed action, if carried out, will be a serious precedent for the alienation – for the time being illegal – of protected assets of the national historical and artistic public heritage.

Ironically, today the building in question houses the federal authority responsible for preserving our cultural heritage, the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional – IPHAN, now under threat of liquidation.

Where does so much hatred of the national community feeling come from, ridiculously covered by the military slogan “Brazil above all!”?

It is worth paying attention to the relationship between the nation and its cultural heritage. Similar to a voodoo doll that transfers the inconvenience caused to itself, by pins, to the subject represented by it. Any act of contempt for the listed monument will be an aggravation to the dream of establishing a promising common future represented by it.

The Palace of Culture is a symbol of our desire to dream of a common destiny. It should never be sold, as a botched act of this magnitude shakes the foundations of the idea of ​​the Brazilian Nation.

This government of temple peddlers needs to be stopped! The homeland will never be liquidated.

* Napoleon Ferreira, architect, holds a PhD in sociology from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC).