Curated by: Heloisa Starling and Danilo Marques
60 years ago, a civil-military coup set in motion a dictatorship that, for 21 years (1964-1985), made Brazil live through one of the darkest periods of its history. The overthrow of President João Goulart was yet another chapter in Brazil's coup-prone culture — a history that has repeatedly had Rio de Janeiro as its main stage. And, in the case of the 1964 coup, although the federal capital was Brasília, Rio did not fail to play a leading role: it was here that President João Goulart decided to hold a rally to demonstrate his popular support, and it was at the Maracanã that the troops of General Olympio Mourão Filho set up base after arriving from Juiz de Fora, to name just two examples. The 60 "memories" that make up the exhibition span the period between January 1 and April 15, 1964. In the political sphere, there are events such as João Goulart's speech at the Automóvel Clube, governor Carlos Lacerda besieged at the Palácio Guanabara, and the Sailors' Revolt. In the cultural sphere, 1964 was the year "Deus e o diabo na terra do sol" was released — a landmark of Cinema Novo directed by Glauber Rocha — and the peak of "Samba esquema Novo," an album by Jorge Ben Jor that broke the record industry's record by selling 100,000 copies. It was also in 1964 that the "kissing epidemic" took place, a response from the population to the announcement made by Rio's secretary of security that anyone kissing on the mouth in public would be arrested. Amid political disputes on one side and cultural successes on the other, the poorest population faced its own problems — which were not new. In January, the residents of the Pasmado favela, in Botafogo, had to rush out of their homes because of an arson attack. In March, it was the turn of the Getúlio Vargas favela, in Leblon, whose residents were forced to move to neighborhoods far from downtown in the western zone, such as Bangu and Vila Kennedy. Coup attempts are not new either. The events covered in these exhibitions — in-person and virtual — are part of a past that at times insists on imposing itself on the present. Looking back at the 1964 coup prompts important reflections so that we can think, collectively, about paths toward strengthening our democracy, so harshly attacked at various moments in Brazil's history.