Turn a tree into firewood and it will burn; but it will never again bear flowers and fruit.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941)

Strengthening institutional ties, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum received an important donation of African works from the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection, comprising approximately 2,000 objects – including masks, statuettes, musical instruments, and a wide variety of other works, of which these are just a selection.

As part of the celebrations of the France-Brazil cultural season, the Museum is currently presenting interventions linked to France and its overseas region, Martinique. In dialogue with the collection, each intervention has its own forms, gestures, and narratives.

On one side, the video art installation “Presences: Bodies, Objects and Memories,” curated by the Franco-Beninese specialist Nadine Hounkpatin, brings together videos by the Namibian artist Tuli Mekondjo and the Franco-Cameroonian artist Josèfa Ntjam. The works fuse African philosophy, technology, and spirituality, reimagining Black heritage as a living agent of memory and resistance. With support from the Ivaniand Jorge Yunes Collection, artist Rayana Rayo and curator José Eduardo, from Acervo da Laje (Bahia), undertook an artistic residency in Martinique, also in partnership with the Tomie Ohtake Institute (São Paulo) and the Glissant Art Fund. The experience stemmed from the concepts of wandering, creolization, and relation, formulated by the philosopher Édouard Glissant. The Afro-Brazilian works of César Bahia (Salvador), which reverberate the formal and symbolic heritage of African cultures, and the paintings of Rayana Rayo (Recife), which investigate containers as metaphors for the body and shelter, create zones of intersection between territorialities and temporalities. These “Wanderings between Brazil, France, Africa, and the Caribbean” articulate memory, origin, and displacement, proposing a broader listening to the African legacy and its unfolding in the Brazilian context.

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

The intervention “Presences: Bodies, Objects and Memories”, curated by Nadine Hounkpatin and Renato Araújo, brings into dialogue ancestral African artifacts donated by the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum with video works by Josèfa Ntjam and Tuli Mekondjo. The project explores the relationships between metamorphosis, memory and identity, reactivating visible and invisible traces of African heritage. The contemporary works breathe new vitality into the ancient objects, which then act as mediators of narratives and possible futures.

More than an aesthetic encounter, Hounkpatin reflects on the status of African art in museums, questioning ownership, transmission, and the notion of shared heritage. By giving voice to contemporary artists, a bridge is built between past and present, collective memory and living creation.

“Mélas de Saturne,” by Josèfa Ntjam (France/Cameroon), is a speculative video that explores the stories of the Black diaspora through a post-human lens. A digital avatar merges with an algorithm that anticipates the integration between organic and technological life, suggesting new forms of memory and identity. Drawing inspiration from the spiritual iconography of West Africa, especially Mami Wata, Ntjam combines mythological, archaeological, and biological imagery – masks, corals, hybrid and serpentine marine forms – creating a fluid cosmology. “Mélas,” from the Greek “melas” (“black” or “dark”), evokes a transformative energy that challenges linear time and fixed identities. Fragmentation becomes a force of resistance and renewal, reimagining African heritage not as a relic, but as a living agent.  

“Afrotekismo: The Living Museum of Afrotekismo,” by Tuli Mekondjo(Namibia), is a performance that connects African heritage, bodily memory, and speculative futures. In resonance with the ancestral artifacts of the Yunes Collection, Mekondjo positions the body as a living museum, where memory, ritual, and technology intertwine. By moving through public space, she activates objects and gestures as bearers of history and imagination, challenging Western museological models that disconnect artifacts from cultural life. The work imagines a future in which African knowledge systems remain dynamic, mobile, and self-defined – a living archive of resistance and renewal.

Wandering, in the thought of the Martinican philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant, is a way of being in the world. More than displacement, it is an exercise in attention to difference and opacity, which transforms the experience of exile into shared consciousness: each person carries with them fragments of other places and knowledge, and it is in this transit that new languages ​​and senses of belonging are formed. By questioning fixed roots, Glissant proposes a dynamic vision of memory, origin, and ancestry.

Based on the concept of wandering, the exhibition “Earth, Fire, Water and Winds – Towards a Museum of Wandering with Édouard Glissant” was organized, currently on display at the Tomie Ohtake Institute, presenting Glissant's private art collection in dialogue with contemporary artists. In the context of the exhibition, Rayana Rayo and Zé di Cabeça undertook an artistic residency at the Maison du Diamant in Martinique – the house where Édouard Glissant lived and wrote part of his work – in collaboration with the Édouard Glissant Art Fund and the Institut du Tout-Monde. From this experience, the artists proposed interventions in the African Art Collection.

The works presented arise from the interplay between objects and landscapes. In Rayana, the investigation of containers unfolds: the vase appears as a body-shelter and as a device of language. In Zé di Cabeça, observation and writing procedures connect territory, song, and shared memory; faced with pieces without a defined individual authorship, the artist proposes a dialogue between the collection and the sculptures of César Bahia. His masks and figures of orixás reactivate links between ancestry, craft, and the living presence of Afro-Brazilian deities.

Together, the interventions propose a field of passages between Brazil, Africa, and the Caribbean, in which the collection is both interlocutor and subject of listening. The works make wandering a form of correspondence between times, voices, and gestures, expanding the territory of the collection towards a living geography of relationships.

Wandering: Between Brazil, France, Africa, and the Caribbean

José Eduardo Ferreira Santos
Salvador, Brazil, 1974 – lives and works in Salvador, Brazil.

José Eduardo Ferreira Santos is an educator, holds a master's degree in Psychology, a doctorate in Public Health, and a post-doctorate in Contemporary Culture. Born and raised in the Salvador Railway Suburb, he founded, alongside his wife Vilma Santos, the Acervo da Laje: an independent cultural space that functions as a home, museum, and school, dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of the artistic and cultural expressions of Salvador's peripheries. During his artistic residency in Martinique, José Eduardo wrote 27 letters to Édouard Glissant, addressed to the Maison du Diamant, the house where the philosopher lived and worked.  In them, he draws parallels between Salvador and the Caribbean, between the Railway Suburb and the archipelago, between the rivers of the Bay of All Saints and the waters of the island, weaving fables about territory, wandering, and belonging. As an intervention in the collection, José Eduardo establishes a correspondence with César Bahia, a sculptor from the Laje Collection and heir of Otávio Bahia, an artist who produced African deities in wood in the Railway Suburb. César follows the family tradition, carving jackfruit trunks and painting them by hand in intense colors, preserving the memory of the craft and the ancestral strength of his figures. In the encounter between the letters and the sculptures, between Salvador and Martinique, the intervention makes the collection an active interlocutor. The works listen, respond, and invent continuities between Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil.

Rayana Rayo
Pernambuco, Brazil, 1989, lives in Pernambuco, Brazil

Rayana Rayo's work is permeated by her experience of the climate and tides, the mangroves, coastal vegetation, and islands of the landscape of Recife, her hometown. Her paintings, with their thick brushstrokes and colors refined in their tonal relationships, evoke humid atmospheres and rounded topographies, inhabited by hybrid elements – between vegetal, animal, and dreamlike beings. These scenes do not communicate linear narratives, preferring to create fictional relationships between bodies, fragments, and affective ambiences. Similarly, she does not deal with the landscape through perspective or description, but rather by making all the elements of the composition emerge from the same material as the painting, taking advantage of its synesthetic properties (its capacity to evoke heat and odor, silence and desire, wind and solitude).  For this exhibition, Rayopresents a series of commissioned paintings that are articulated with a selection of containers – objects used to contain, store, and retain water, present in the Africa Collection. This juxtaposition proposes a dialogue between liquid surfaces and contained volumes, between the pictorial gesture and the materiality of the forms that, like his paintings, deal with flows, retentions, and permeabilities.

In the middle of my trip I found some yellow flamboyant trees.

The yellow flamboyant tree was my first wonder at beauty in childhood, on my way to and from primary school in the 1980s.

The path from Rua Nova Esperança to the Machado de Assis School, on Rua dos Ferroviários, the end of the line in São João do Cabrito, was a spectacle for the eyes because of the gardens and beautiful trees that adorned the path.

Flamboyant trees and other trees bloomed abundantly, making the whole place look like a garden, and that enchanted me greatly, but no one can explain the enchantment: it simply happens. Even describing it is difficult, because it is in the realm of personal magic, of the delicacy of what our soul keeps as a treasure.

And even more so knowing that those trees, plants, and gardens were cultivated by hands and hearts that loved trees, plants, and gardens, by women from all over the neighborhood.

We don't realize the importance of the landscape, of the trees, the plants, and the gardens in a child's imagination and imagination: it's the beginning of everything, where questions are asked, happiness is experienced, intelligence and sensitivities are sharpened, in short. Life is reborn in the encounter with the outside world, external to us.

The landscape educates. The tree, with its imposing presence and beauty, educates and enchants.  

Plants, needless to say, carry the mystery of constantly dialoguing with life and also of educating us about care and affection.

Trees, plants, and gardens educate for sociability. To live in society, it is necessary to cultivate and care for plants, trees, and gardens.

Culture, curation, care, elaboration, civilization—all this and an infinite amount more fits within a garden.

In addition to the remarkable presence of the yellow and red flamboyant trees, I cannot fail to mention, Glissant, the abundance of crotons, which, being so old, are beginning to lose their color.

Encountering this botanical diversity teaches us that nature is brutally relational. Subtly relational. Between the cracks, it is relational. Nature dances in the gaps of light and fills them with life reaching upwards.

Nature fills the gaps of oblivion with life.

Nature is full because it drinks from sources that our eyes cannot see.

And we, to live, from which source do we drink?

Scandalously relational, but always silent and precise; dynamic and rhizomatic; aware of the paths that the root must take to have health and a full life.

And the metaphor of life is relationship.

As I say goodbye here and thank Sylvie and you for everything, it occurred to me that we need to take better care of the word “ancestry,” because it is becoming an empty word, an adjective, used as a gerund – a linguistic vice, an emptied expression.

I know everyone wants to have ancestry, but care is needed: not everything one has should be said.                                

Parsimony, please. Mystery has its taboos, its nuances, and does not ask for ostentation. 

The final presentation is not always the synthesis of life. It is necessary to guard oneself. The logic of emptiness presupposes grand speeches and self-definitions.

Grandma knew this and taught me everything in silence, secretly, and with affection.

To evoke ancestry haphazardly, banally, is dangerous, because it is to throw this concept, this presence, into a void of meaning that does not even allow it, ancestry, to manifest itself.

I don't know if you don't know, but ancestry is not emptiness, echo, imagination: ancestry is presence. And strong. And companion. And friend. And caretaker of our steps here in Martinique.

Those who evoke ancestry so much forget to evoke presence. And ancestry is presence, and presence cares.

Let's rethink the way we present ourselves to the world.

I call ancestry those ancestries that have names and gave me comfort, affection, food, and love…

Ancestry is presence and not a transitional vernacular fad.

Ancestry is presence, so if you don't understand, respect it.

Here, at the Glissant residence, it was present the entire time, without needing to say that word.

Both presence and ancestry should educate by what they are and how they manifest themselves. If this is lost through empty use, it is a symptom of this generation that tries to grasp everything in one concept and fails. When that is not possible, silence also screams and evokes. It is necessary to reteach the liturgy of evoking the sacred, so that it does not become banal.

Renato Araújo, Nadine Hounkpatin, Ana Roman e Paulo Mivada

A new activation of the exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, featuring works from the collection of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), is now open to the public. “Contemporary Intersections - Year of France in Brazil”, curated by Renato Araújo, on display in Room 4, is an important dialogue between traditional African art and its transversality, which is gaining more and more ground in contemporary art.

The exhibition is renewed in the Brazil-France year, which celebrates two centuries of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This new edition is a partnership between MON, the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY), and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, both in São Paulo, and proposes a cultural and artistic exchange.

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” is renewed in the Brazil-France year, which celebrates two centuries of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In a partnership between the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY), and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, both in São Paulo, this new edition of the exhibition proposes a cultural and artistic exchange.

We are presenting two distinct projects to the public simultaneously, with general curatorship by Renato Araújo. The first consists of an installation of two videos by the artists Josèfa Ntjam and Tuli Mekondjo. The curator is Nadine Hounkpatin, born in Benin and based in France for many years.

The second project, curated by Paulo Miyada and Ana Roman, addresses the theme "Wanderings: Between Brazil, France, Africa and the Caribbean," based on residencies offered by the Édouard Glissant Institute in Martinique to artists from around the world. The participation of Brazilian artists Rayana Rayo and José Eduardo Ferreira Santos resulted in the creation of works exhibited here. 

With this activation, the MON, as a living instrument for the appreciation and democratization of culture, brings to its visitors an important dialogue between traditional African art and its transversality, which is gaining increasing space in the contemporary world.

In its third edition, the exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent" consolidates a long and meticulous process that culminated in the arrival of one of the most important and significant collections of African art at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

We understand that a museum exists because of its collection, but it is through the interaction between the public and its works that culture and knowledge are disseminated. 

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika 
CEO of Oscar Niemeyer Museum

A new activation of the exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, featuring works from the collection of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), is now open to the public. “Contemporary Intersections - Year of France in Brazil”, curated by Renato Araújo, on display in Room 4, is an important dialogue between traditional African art and its transversality, which is gaining more and more ground in contemporary art.
The exhibition is renewed in the Brazil-France year, which celebrates two centuries of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This new edition is a partnership between MON, the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY), and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, both in São Paulo, and proposes a cultural and artistic exchange.

African exhibition at MON gains new dialogue with the contemporary

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), featuring works from its collection, is undergoing a new activation: “Contemporary Intersections – Year of France in Brazil”, which will open on December 4th in Room 4. The curator is Renato Araújo.

For Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Secretary of State for Culture, this exhibition is an example of how cultural cooperation can generate new forms of dialogue and creation. "When works, narratives, and sensibilities circulate between continents, we broaden our capacity to recognize diversity as a shared value," she says.

“With this activation, the MON, as a living instrument for the appreciation and democratization of culture, brings to its visitors an important dialogue between traditional African art and its transversality, which is gaining more and more space in the contemporary world,” says the CEO of MON, Juliana Vosnika.

The exhibition is renewed in the Brazil-France year, which celebrates two centuries of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This new edition is a partnership between the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, the Ivaniand Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY), and the Tomie Ohtake Institute, both in São Paulo, and proposes a cultural and artistic exchange.

“We are presenting two distinct projects to the public simultaneously,” Juliana informs. The first consists of an installation of two videos by the artists Josèfa Ntjam and Tuli Mekondjo. The curator is Nadine Hounkpatin, born in Benin and based in France for many years.

The second project, curated by Paulo Miyada and Ana Roman, addresses the theme "Wanderings: Between Brazil, France, Africa and the Caribbean," based on residencies offered by the Édouard Glissant Institute in Martinique to artists from around the world. "The participation of Brazilian artists Rayana Rayo and José Eduardo Ferreira Santos resulted in the creation of works exhibited in this show," he explains. 

In its third edition, the exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent" consolidates a long and meticulous process that culminated in the arrival of one of the most important and significant collections of African art at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

“As part of the celebrations for the France-Brazil cultural season, the Museum is currently presenting interventions related to France and its overseas region, Martinique,” ​​informs the curator. “In dialogue with the collection, each intervention has its own forms, gestures, and narratives,” says Araújo.

He explains that one of the proposals features the video art installation “Presences: Bodies, Objects and Memories,” curated by the Franco-Beninese specialist Nadine Hounkpatin, which brings together videos by the artists Tuli Mekondjo, from Namibia, and Josèfa Ntjam, franco-cameroonian. “The works fuse African philosophy, technology, and spirituality, reimagining black heritage as a living agent of memory and resistance,” he says.

Another offering presents visitors with the work of artist Rayana Rayo and curator José Eduardo, from Acervo da Laje (Bahia), who completed an artistic residency in Martinique in partnership with the Tomie OhtakeInstitute (São Paulo) and the Glissant Art Fund.

 “The experience stemmed from the concepts of wandering, creolization and relationship, formulated by the philosopher Édouard Glissant,” says the curator. The Afro-Brazilian works of César Bahia (Salvador), which reverberate the formal and symbolic heritage of African cultures, and the paintings of Rayana Rayo (Recife), which investigate containers as metaphors for the body and shelter, create zones of intersection between territorialities and temporalities.

“These ‘Wanderings between Brazil, France, Africa and the Caribbean’ articulate memory, origin and displacement, proposing a broader listening to the African legacy and its unfolding in the Brazilian context,” he concludes.

África, Artistic Expressions of a Continent
Contemporary Intersections - Year of France in Brazil

Contemporary Intersections - Year of France in Brazil

África, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

MON is alongside major museums in Brazil and around the world on the Google Arts & Culture platform. Visit our exhibitions in virtual format. 

Find out more about this exhibition on the Google Arts & Culture platform.

The exhibition "Asia: The Land, The Men, The Gods" is renewed with the aim of reaching increasingly larger audiences and further democratizing access to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's collection.

This new edition includes a tribute to the 130 years of Brazil/Japan relations and displays previously unseen works, recently donated to the MON by Maria Ligaya, widow of the late diplomat Edmundo Fujita.

The largest art museum in Latin America, the MON has seen its collection quintuple in size in recent years. In this trajectory, the importance of the Asian art collection, donated to the MON by diplomat Fausto Godoy, is immense. The arrival of approximately three thousand works of art, years ago, coincided with the moment of redefinition of the MON's collection reference framework, which began to emphasize Asian, African, and Latin American art, making it more plural.

Disputed by other institutions in Brazil and collectors abroad, the Asian collection that belongs to the MON - and the people of Paraná - allows for countless readings and approaches, like the one we present with this show.

The world has changed, and museums, as an instrument of reading and interpretation, have also changed. The MON's proposal is to facilitate dialogues between cultures and territories through art. Not by chance, the Museum presents here, side by side, diverse cultures that, at the same time, converse and demonstrate their singularity, allowing us an interesting view of the world.

The visitor certainly perceives the transdisciplinarity between works, collections, and exhibitions. The strength of the ensemble presented by the Museum instigates and proves that knowledge, multiple and transversal, crosses cultures, territories, and epochs.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Diplomatic relations between Brazil and Japan began with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, which the two empires, at the time, signed on November 5, 1895. According to its text, the objective was "to establish diplomatic relations and define the terms of friendship, commerce, and navigation between the two countries".

Since then, the friendship between the two peoples has gained momentum, with the exception of a brief hiatus in 1942, during World War II, when the two governments adopted antagonistic positions on the battlefield and broke off relations. With their reestablishment in 1952, they gained renewed impetus.

Contacts between the two peoples, however, are older. The first ones were forged through the Portuguese navigators who arrived in Japan in 1543 and founded the port city of Nagasaki. From then on, and until 1638, trade between the two countries was carried out through the stops of ships in Brazilian ports, which history recorded as the "Nanban trade". Many Japanese products were commercialized here during this period.

However, these contacts were interrupted between the 17th and 19th centuries, due to the isolation policy called sakoku (鎖国 - "closed country"), decreed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which then governed the empire and sought to maintain its stability in the face of the threat it felt from external influences, especially the conversion of the population by Catholic missionaries. Christianity was then banned and fought.

From 1603, the country entered a period of isolation, limiting its trade to the Chinese, Dutch, and Koreans, and even then in ports specifically destined for this purpose. Nevertheless, trade continued, for a short period, through the Portuguese colony of Macau.

However, from 1868, after the so-called "Meiji Restoration", when the emperor regained power from the Shogunate, the country began a process of accelerated industrialization, which would drive the resumption of its relations with various nations and lead it to become the fourth largest economic power on the planet in this century.

It was in this scenario that Brazil and Japan formally established their relations, signing the Treaty of Friendship in 1895. In 1897, diplomatic missions were opened in the capitals of each nation. And, in June 1908, the ship Kasato Maru arrived at the port of Santos, bringing 790 Japanese immigrants.

This was the first of many others that arrived in our country bringing more immigrants. Between 1908 and 1941, more than 190,000 of them arrived here seeking opportunities; it should be remembered that at that time Japan was facing serious economic and overpopulation problems, and Brazil lacked labor for its crops.

Initially, these immigrants were destined for coffee plantations in the state of São Paulo, especially to overcome the crisis left by the exodus of former slaves from their former masters' lands and the abandonment of Italian immigrants who had been recruited for this task. Later, they dispersed to various regions and sectors of the economy. Today, they occupy prominent positions in our society.

In July 1959, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi became the first Japanese head of government to visit Brazil. His visit was preceded by that of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa in 1958.

In reciprocity, in September 1976, President Ernesto Geisel made a state visit to Japan. Later, the then Crown Prince Akihito visited here, on two occasions - 1967 and 1978. Since then, there have been 12 visits by the highest authorities of Japan to Brazil - reciprocated by eight Brazilian heads of state to that country. This is evident proof of mutual interest.

One of the foundations of our relations is in the economic-commercial area. One of its great moments was the creation of the Japan-Brazil Cooperation Program for the Agricultural Development of the Cerrados (Prodecer), established in 1979, as a result of President Geisel's visit to Japan. Its objective was to transform the Cerrado region into a productive area through technical and financial cooperation between the two countries.

Prodecer implemented colonization and agricultural development initiatives in several states, such as Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, and Goiás, contributing to the increase in grain production and job creation. Its great heir is the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), of which we Brazilians are so proud.

Commercial relations between Brazil and Japan are robust and growing, with a trade exchange of US$ 11 billion in 2024. Brazil exports agricultural and mineral products, such as meat, pulp, and iron ore, while importing transformation goods and technology, such as vehicles and their parts, and electronic equipment.

Japanese investments in Brazil are significant, covering sectors such as automotive and agribusiness, now with a perspective of strengthening through partnerships in decarbonization and bioenergy.

But is in the relations between people that the apanage of our friendship resides: the Nikkei community, on our soil, and the Brazilian community resident in Japan add the human element to the equation, solidifying our partnership.

In a pendular process between the two countries, these communities face challenges and seek solutions for culturally distant universes, despite shared histories.

Brazil is home to the largest community of Japanese descendants outside Japan - about two million. In the opposite direction, according to official data from the Japanese authorities, documented Brazilians number 286,557 people, constituting the third largest community of foreigners in that country, behind only Koreans and Chinese. However, the report indicates that the total number of Brazilians, including those without documentation, may exceed 500,000, an estimate considered conservative.

These situations often do not occur, obviously, without personal and collective challenges, since the physical similarities between Japanese and their descendants on our soil do not correspond, in most cases, to a univocal perception of very distinct civilizations: this is the radiography of the adventure of sharing the planet!

However, the solidity of our friendship and the result of the integration of individuals and families in both universes is the best example of the harmonious consolidation of these bonds, which should be followed by all countries and cultures for the good of humanity!

Fausto Godoy
Ambassador
Donor and Curator of the Asian Collection of the Museu Oscar Niemeyer

The 130th anniversary of Brazil-Japan relations

Kabuki is one of the four traditional forms of Japanese theatre, the others being noh, kyogen, and bunraku (puppet theatre). It developed during the more than 250 years of peace during the Edo period (1600–1868).

Kabuki combines music, drama, and dance, often using period costumes. Its types of performances include historical plays (jidaimono) and contemporary plays (sewamono). One of its main characteristics is that all the actors are men, including those who play the female roles (onagatas). Kabuki developed with the support of the Japanese middle classes, in contrast to the traditions of Nohtheatre, a form of entertainment primarily for the upper classes. 

Very popular among the urban population, over time kabuki developed into a defined art form of importance, focused on preserving tradition, with some plays even using the same costumes for several centuries. The main location of kabuki theater in Japan – Kabukiza – is in Tokyo.

In 1974, Folha de S.Paulo highlighted Edmundo Sussumu Fujita as the "young Nissei who broke the barrier of Itamaraty" after being approved at the prestigious Rio Branco Institute of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A Japanese-Brazilian born in São Paulo, son of Yoshiro Fujita, from Assai (Paraná), and Chiyoko Yamamuro, from Registro (São Paulo), he chose a diplomatic career, breaking with family traditions and expectations.

Throughout 40 years of service, Edmundo and his wife, Maria Ligaya, lived 25 years in geopolitical centers such as London, Tokyo, Moscow, New York, Jakarta, and Seoul. Asia, however, was always his great passion: the cradle of ancient civilizations, now transformed into a modern and thriving region without renouncing its millenary traditions.

In these experiences, they built bridges between cultures and, spontaneously, became accidental collectors. The collection brings together sculptures, porcelain, paintings, lacquerware, furniture, clothing, and other objects acquired at fairs, flea markets, and antique shops in Asia, especially Japan, Korea, and Indonesia. Each piece holds personal and collective memories, translating diplomacy as a practice of cultural exchange.

Inspired by the example of Ambassador Fausto Godoy - who donated his valuable collection to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) -, Edmundo and Maria Ligaya now share this set of objects as instruments of learning, memory, and approximation between Brazil and Asia.

Ambassador Edmundo Sussumu Fujita and Maria Ligaya Collection

The new edition of the exhibition “Asia: The Land, the People, the Gods,” featuring works from the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's collection, includes a tribute to the 130th anniversary of Brazil-Japan relations. Curated by Fausto Godoy, the exhibition displays previously unseen works in Room 5. Among them are pieces recently donated to the MON by Ambassador Maria Ligaya Fujita, widow of the late Ambassador Edmundo Fujita, the first Japanese-Brazilian diplomat at Itamaraty. The collection includes sculptures, porcelain, paintings, lacquers, furniture, clothing, and other objects.

It all began on a cold January morning in 1984, when I arrived in New Delhi to take up a post at our Embassy. It was the third in my career, after Brussels and Buenos Aires. The impact was immense, so immense in fact that, faced with it, I decided to "throw myself" into the country instead of taking refuge in the ease of criticizing a reality that eluded me.

India “deconstructed” and reconstructed me, to the point that I decided my career and life would henceforth revolve around the East. But not the East about which the West creates preconceived and prejudiced stereotypes. An almost impossible mission, given the density of these civilizations and my unpreparedness to coexist in absolute relativity, and without judgment, with an “exotic” otherness. But it was an irresistible challenge for an adventure that turned out to be very profound. I was lucky, and I had a mentor, Professor José Leal Ferreira, a Brazilian diplomat compulsorily retired during the AI-5 era, who was then a professor of Portuguese Language and Brazilian Civilization at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, a man of profound knowledge and enormous generosity, to whom I pay homage here.

From India, I followed my itinerary through Asia and ended up serving for almost 16 years in eleven posts on the continent: I went to China, Japan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Taiwan (which is not a country for the Brazilian government), Mumbai (India, again), Jordan/Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Myanmar. Outside of   that, I only served, by invitation, at our Embassy in Washington: it was an irrefutable "hiatus" in my career.

This choice certainly seemed unusual to most of my colleagues. But I took it on as a "mission." Which one? To bring Asia to Brazil. An extremely ambitious project, and certainly beyond my strength and abilities, but fundamental, in my view, insofar as the continent asserts itself as the main engine of geoeconomics and, almost consequently, of geopolitics in this century.

Like a Scheherazade, almost "sphinx-like," Asia has layers of ancient civilizations and cultures that make it nearly undecipherable. The gap is always deeper: one topic leads to another, which opens up to so many others, and so on. But it fascinates, especially in contemporary times, where it reigns globalized and globalizing...

The “contamination” of cultures, or rather, the insemination of “foreign” cultural references into the daily life of today's urban individual, whether in the West or the East, forces us to revise values ​​and perceptions, if not assimilating them—sushi in steakhouses, yoga in gyms, on this side of the world, or Louis Vuitton bags in Japan or China, and McDonald's throughout Asia, for example—at least seeking to know them and, for the most generous and intellectually motivated, to understand them. And mass migrations rewrite the human cartography on a planetary scale. We are no longer islands, or rather, the islands are now 

integrated into the global continent. Welcome all to the reconstituted Pangaea.

It was this certainty that propelled my project. And the collection is this: the pursuit of understanding these civilizations, stimulating the dissemination of knowledge through these works. That was the sole reason, I assure you. It includes more than 2,500 books, CDs, and DVDs about Asia. A necessary project, I am convinced. We Brazilians are in great need of this "bath of universalism" that broadens our horizons beyond the recognized West. Let us retrace the route of the navigators!

In this endeavor, art was the path I found to try to understand very complex "multirealities." However, ART, in its holistic sense, without distinction between the so-called noble arts—"fine arts"—and the "lesser" arts (applied arts), since in the Asian continent there is no hierarchy between them. The Asian perceives the world and inserts himself into it as a whole. Nor are there temporal boundaries: the contemporary coexists with the ancestral, demonstrating that the arts have no "expiration date." If only Confucius were Chinese...

I dedicate a lifetime's effort to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum and, through it, to all those who are willing to pursue this path. We Brazilians have a great quality, in my view: our generous and cordial character, which allows us—at least for now, and I hope it continues—to look with less Manichean resistance at the other side of the mirror, the other side of the world.

Fausto Godoy
Curator and donor of the collection

MON presents new edition of Asian exhibition

The exhibition "Asia: The Land, The Men, The Gods - 130 years of Brazil/Japan relations", at Room 5, with works from the permanent collection of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, is renewed once again with the aim of reaching even larger audiences. Curated by Fausto Godoy, the show will display previously unseen works. The opening will be on November 28th, at 6:30 pm.

This new edition includes a tribute to the 130 years of Brazil/Japan relations and displays previously unseen works, recently donated to the MON by Ambassador Maria Ligaya Fujita, widow of the late Ambassador Edmundo Fujita, the first Japanese-Brazilian diplomat at the Itamaraty.

The collection brings together sculptures, porcelain, paintings, lacquerware, furniture, clothing, and other objects acquired at fairs, flea markets, and antique shops in Asia, especially Japan, Korea, and Indonesia. Each piece holds personal and collective memories, translating diplomacy as a practice of cultural exchange.

"With each new edition, this exhibition broadens the way the public connects with Asia and its multiple traditions. It's a rare opportunity to perceive how different cultures meet, transform, and dialogue from this valuable collection of the MON," says Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Secretary of State for Culture of Paraná.

"The largest art museum in Latin America, the MON has seen its collection quintuple in size in recent years. In this trajectory, the importance of the Asian art collection, donated to the MON by diplomat Fausto Godoy, is immense," says the president-director of the MON, Juliana Vosnika.

The arrival of approximately three thousand works of art, years ago, coincided with the moment of redefinition of the MON's collection reference framework, which began to emphasize Asian, African, and Latin American art, making it more plural.

"Disputed by other institutions in Brazil and collectors abroad, the Asian collection that belongs to the MON - and the people of Paraná - allows for countless readings and approaches, like the one we present with this show," explains Juliana.

According to the curator, "this exhibition is a tribute to the friendship between Brazil and Japan". He reports that commercial relations between Brazil and Japan are robust and growing, with a trade exchange of US$ 11 billion in 2024. "But it is in the relations between people that the apanage of our friendship resides: the Nikkei community, on our soil, and the Brazilian community resident in Japan add the human element to the equation, solidifying our partnership," says Fausto Godoy.

"In a pendular process between the two countries, these communities face challenges and seek solutions for culturally distant universes, despite shared histories," he adds.

The donor, Maria Ligaya, says that she and her late husband, Ambassador Edmundo Fujita, lived for 25 years in geopolitical centers such as London, Tokyo, Moscow, New York, Jakarta, and Seoul. Asia, however, was always a great passion: the cradle of ancient civilizations.

"In these experiences, we built bridges between cultures and, spontaneously, became accidental collectors," she says. "Inspired by the example of Ambassador Fausto Godoy - who donated his valuable collection to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, I now share this set of objects as instruments of learning, memory, and approximation between Brazil and Asia," affirms Maria Ligaya.

Asia: The Land, the People, the Gods
The 130th anniversary of Brazil-Japan relations

Since the magnificent Asian collection, with over three thousand pieces, was donated to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, several exhibitions have been held featuring these works, allowing the public to learn more about this heritage of immense historical and artistic value that belongs to Paraná.

By presenting the exhibition "The Playful World of Manga and Anime," the MON confirms that this is yet another of the countless facets of this amazing collection, which reveals the Asian continent in its geographical expanse, ethnic and religious plurality, and artistic exuberance throughout thousands of years of history.

In this exhibition, we bring to our visitors an expression of contemporary Japanese art that has reached and conquered a large part of the world: the popular manga and anime.

Here, they are presented in over 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures, sharing space with traditional Ningyo dolls. In Japan, these are objects full of ancient meanings, gifts intended to wish longevity, health, and fertility to children.

By presenting this exhibition, which showcases such an important symbolic and aesthetic dimension of Japanese culture, the MON invites reflection on the cultural expressions of different regions and countries, and what unites us as individuals and as a society.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

Japanese animations originated in cinema, but gained their own definitive space on world television starting in the 1960s. Since then, they continue to enchant generations. Anime refers to an animation that can be drawn both by hand and by computer. The first commercial Japanese animations date back to 1917, influenced by Western techniques. However, it was only in the 1960s, with the work of the renowned manga artist (mangaka) Osamu Tezuka, often called the "God of Manga", that anime began to take shape as a distinct cultural phenomenon. At that time, they were drawn on a sheet of acetate. The artist would sketch on a sheet of paper, with relevant indications, and the assistant would transfer it to celluloid.

This style of art emerged in the 1960s and became popular in the following decades, attracting a large domestic audience. Anime began to be shown in movie theaters, and were later broadcast on television, then released directly to home devices and online. In addition to original works, they are often adaptations of manga and even video games. Classified in various genres – comedy, horror, drama, science fiction, etc. – they target broad and diverse audiences.

In the 1980s, anime became a major popular success in Japan, with the release of productions such as "Gundam", "Macross", "Dragon Ball", and genres like real robot, space opera, and cyberpunk. The film "Akira" (1988) became an international success, and "Spirited Away" shared the top prize at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2003.

Like manga, anime is a form of art and expression of its authors' creativity, both in terms of form and content, as the same creator often handles the plot and drawing. Titles like "Attack on Titan", "One Piece", "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood", "Death Note", "Dragon Ball", and "Akira" are constantly cited as the best and most popular, both by fans and critics.

The anime industry is currently divided into over 430 production studios, including major names like Studio Ghibli, Gainax, and Toei Animation. Anime has been an even greater international success since the introduction of dubbing in television broadcasts. This increase in popularity has led to non-Japanese productions that employ the same anime art style.

Manga (漫画) are comics or graphic novels, similar to our old comic books, while anime originally had a celluloid format. Most manga follow the styles developed by Japanese artists who created ukiyo-e (浮世絵), a term meaning "image of the floating world", a genre of art that became very popular among the merchant class of Tokyo in the Edo period (17th-19th centuries). They were woodblock prints that depicted themes from urban daily life, such as kabuki theater actors, courtesans, sumo wrestlers, landscapes, folk tales, etc.

The term "manga" is used to refer to Japanese comics. Several of them gave rise to anime (アニメ), created by cartoonists and originally drawn on acetate, as shown in this exhibition, and now created by computers, in the format of films and videos.

The roots of manga are older. They originated in the Nara period (8th century CE), when the first painting scrolls, called emakimono (絵巻物), appeared in Japan. These scrolls contained paintings accompanied by texts that told a story as they were unrolled on a surface. Initially, this style followed Chinese patterns that inspired the art produced in Japan at that time. It was from the mid-12th century that the first typically Japanese emakimono appeared.

In the Edo period (1603–1868), these scrolls were replaced by books. Initially, the prints were intended to illustrate texts, but soon "books to see" emerged, as opposed to "books to read". From the mid-19th century, Japanese artists were influenced by European graphic humor. In 1861, British cartoonist Charles Wirgman settled in Yokohama, near Tokyo, and had a great influence on local artists. Wirgman created a satirical newspaper, The Japan Punch, and taught Western techniques of drawing and painting to many Japanese artists.

Influenced by The Japan Punch, Kanagaki Robun and Kawanabe Kyosai created the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, which did not achieve popular success and was closed after three issues. However, the techniques brought by Europeans boosted a slow but steady production of native artists, especially Rakuten Kitazawa, whose manga "Tagosaku to Mokube no Tokyo Kenbutsu" (田吾作と杢兵衛の東京見物) (1902) is considered the first manga in the modern sense.

Several series comparable to those from overseas emerged in the 1930s until the mid-1940s, when the press was subjected to government censorship during World War II, as were all cultural and artistic activities. After this troubled period, under American occupation, manga artists began to be influenced by Western comics, especially American ones, which were translated and widely disseminated in the daily press.

In 1946, the first manga by a woman, Machiko Hasegawa's strip "Sazae-san", was published. It was also when Osamu Tezuka, an artist influenced by Walt Disney, gave life to modern manga. The facial features he developed, similar to those of Disney drawings, with exaggerated eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and nose, made manga popular. Tezuka also introduced graphic effects in comics, such as speed lines and onomatopoeias that integrate with the art.

Nowadays, a mangaka typically works with some assistants in a small studio and is associated with a publisher. In Japan, manga is usually published in large specific magazines, often containing several stories, each presented in a single chapter to be continued in the next issue. If a published manga series is popular enough, it may be adapted into an anime.

The unprecedented exhibition, "The Playful World of Manga and Anime," curated by Fausto Godoy, is the latest offering from the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, in Room 10. The show brings together more than 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures, with works belonging to the MON collection. It's an immersion into the universe of this expression of contemporary Japanese art that has reached and conquered a large part of the world. The exhibition also proposes a dialogue with ancient traditions, such as the Ningyo dolls, which were previously exhibited at the venue.

The Japanese tradition of focusing on the universe of children is ancestral. The annual celebrations of Girls' Day – 03/03 – and Boys' Day – 05/05 – date back millennia. The oldest known artifacts date from the Jomon period (10,000/300 BCE). The ritual dolls – Ningyo – that embody the values and aspirations that parents have for their children follow this tradition.

The evolution of the more modern concept of Ningyo began during the Edo period (1603–1868), when there was a growing emphasis on craftsmanship and artistic expression, which stimulated the rescue and development of various forms of traditional art, including doll-making. Some of these Ningyos were the object of the exhibition that preceded this one at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

The current exhibition, entitled "The Playful World of Manga and Anime", takes up the theme of the universe of children and projects it towards the juvenile and beyond.

Manga (漫画) are comics or graphic novels that often depict urban daily life. In Japan, people of all ages read manga, in a wide range of genres: action, adventure, horror, commerce, detective stories, the country's history, science fiction, sexual fantasies, sports, etc. Many of these manga gave rise to anime (アニメ), a characteristic art form that emerged in the 1960s with the works of manga artist Osamu Tezuka, and became popular in the following decades. They are often the celluloid, and now video, version of manga, since many anime are based on them.

Many of these anime have become known in Brazil and have turned into true icons for our younger generations... and not so young ones. Many of these original drawings and celluloids were collected by me at Tokyo's flea markets, on weekends, when I was serving at our embassy. There are thousands of them, discarded by their producers and despised by those who searched for old pieces there. Acquiring them became a "mission" for me, as they record the Japanese soul and culture in its most authentic aspects: the coexistence of contemporaneity and ancestral values, and, in parallel, the mixing with other cultures.

Such is the symbiosis between inspiration from American cartoons and animated drawings, combined with the civilizational values of contemporary Japan, divided between tradition and modernity.

Donor and curator of the Asian Collection of the Museu Oscar Niemeyer

Oji Hiroi e Toyoo Ashida
Water-based ink on paper
25,5 x 36 cm
Museu Oscar Niemeyer collection/Asian Collection
Donation – Fausto Martha Godoy

Imagination Science World Gulliver Boy, undated

Ruma Onbutsu / Lotus, Rena Mikami
Water-based ink on paper
25,5 x 36 cm
Museu Oscar Niemeyer collection/Asian Collection
Donation – Fausto Martha Godoy

Shigeharu Umezaki, Etsunobu Ebisu, Kōichi Ogawa, Satoru Okada, Keita Kawaminami
Water-based ink on paper
25,5 x 36 cm
Museu Oscar Niemeyer collection/Asian Collection
Donation – Fausto Martha Godoy

MON presents unprecedented exhibition of manga and anime with works from its collection

The Oscar Niemeyer Museum is presenting an unprecedented exhibition: “The Playful World of Manga and Anime,” curated by Fausto Godoy, donor of the Asian collection to MON. The exhibition brings together more than 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptures in Room 10. The opening will be on November 28th at 6:30 PM.

It's a dive into the universe of this expression of contemporary Japanese art that has reached and conquered a large part of the world. Anime and manga have had intertwined trajectories since the beginning of the 20th century, when Japanese animation emerged inspired by Western styles and the artistic expressions of Japan.

The exhibition also proposes a dialogue with ancient traditions, such as the Ningyo dolls, which were previously on display at the venue. In Japan, these are objects full of age-old meanings, gifts intended to wish longevity, health, and fertility to children.

According to the Secretary of State for Culture, Luciana Casagrande Pereira, "the exhibition reveals a vibrant facet of contemporary Japanese art and shows the public how the MON's Asian collection continues to offer new interpretations, new stories, and new ways of engaging with other cultures."

“Since the magnificent Asian collection, with more than three thousand pieces, was donated to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, several exhibitions have already been held with these works, allowing the public to learn more about this heritage of immense historical and artistic value that belongs to Paraná,” says the CEO of MON, Juliana Vosnika.

“By presenting the exhibition ‘The Playful World of Manga and Anime’, MON confirms that this is yet another of the countless facets of this amazing collection, which reveals the Asian continent in its geographical expanse, ethnic and religious plurality, and artistic exuberance throughout thousands of years of history,” he comments.

The curator explains that the exhibition “The Playful World of Manga and Anime” revisits the theme of the children's universe and projects it to young people and beyond. “Manga, comic books, or graphic novels often depict urban daily life,” he says. “In Japan, people of all ages read manga, across a wide range of genres,” comments Fausto Godoy.

Many of these manga gave rise to anime, a distinctive art form that emerged in the 1960s with the works of mangaka (manga creator) Osamu Tezuka and became popular in the following decades. In many cases, they are the celluloid, and now video, version of manga, since a large portion of anime originate from them. Many of these anime have become well-known in Brazil and have become iconic.

Godoy explains that many of these original drawings and celluloid prints were collected by him at antique fairs in Tokyo, after being discarded by their producers. “Acquiring them became a ‘mission’ for me, as they record the soul and culture of Japan at its most authentic: the coexistence of contemporary life and ancestral values, and, simultaneously, the blending with other cultures,” says the curator.

The Playful World of Manga and Anime

By holding a new edition of "MON without Walls – Outdoor Art," the Oscar Niemeyer Museum is increasingly using its outdoor area as a large space for social interaction focused on art – a gift to the public.

In line with the city's movement to offer more attractions in the central region, we transformed the area surrounding the Museum into a large cultural space. In this way, we reach more and more people, whether residents or visitors, making the region breathe art.

Democratic and inclusive, the project – inaugurated in 2024 – broke the physical limits of the Museum's walls and embraced the population. The initiative has become a permanent invitation for the external public to be inspired and feel encouraged to enter the MON.

In this new edition, four magnificent works are presented to the public. They are: the sculpture "Aurum", by the artist Rizza Bomfim; the "Bancas Galerias", by the artists Mavi Morais, Maria Lynch, Atransälien and Yohana Oizumi; the sculpture by Avaf (Assume Vivid Astro Focus), and the "Interactive Robot" by the architects Dilva and Orlando Busarello, which evokes the fond memories of a Curitiba from decades ago, when the work had a long presence in the city center, in Osório Square.

They now join the collection of works from the first edition, which occupies the outdoor area of ​​the MON and features works by artists such as Gustavo Utrabo, Artur Lescher, Rômmulo Conceição, Alexandre Vogler, Narcélio Grud, and Joana Vasconcelos.

We understand that art in public spaces provides a variety of interactive activities that a museum exhibition doesn't always allow. By creating an urban area dedicated to culture, the "MON without Walls" allows for many other forms of artistic creative expression.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

“The Sower” invites reflection on life and the passage of time through an elevated walkway connecting the MON to the garden. Constructed using a modular repetition of the paving pattern designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the work seeks to blur the boundaries between the built environment and the natural world by blending seeds native to Paraná with concrete.

The path leads visitors to the artwork “Around a Tree”, a creation that manifests as a gesture of care. Featuring a metal structure that encircles the trunk, it brings the visitor closer to the tree’s canopy as a sign of respect. The structure is supported by four slender pillars resting on the ground, a reference to a statement by the philosopher Ailton Krenak: that the goal is to tread gently upon the earth.

Sower and Around a Tree (Semeador e Ao Redor de uma Árvore), 2023

“Maca de Guarda” invites the visitor to lie down upon its surface, inclined at a 40 degree angle, with the body facing the sky. The work engages in a dialogue with the playful practice of making snow angels, by spreading one’s arms and legs, a reference that complements the piece’s title.

The term Maleme, drawn from the Afro-Brazilian lexicon, signifies a plea, a request for mercy, or a call for aid directed toward the orixás, specifically the orixá Xangô. The posture of the body, with the solar plexus and legs open and directed upward, suggests an ecumenical and divine orientation.

● Maximum capacity: 1 person at a time.

Fiberglass sculpture with PU paint and stainless steel arches

The work is conceived as a sculpture and climbing structure, similar to the recreational equipment found in children's play areas and public parks. Featuring a circular composition in which the radius, diameter, and center expand from a globe into interlocking rings, forming a kind of cosmos of planetary orbits, it invites visitors to experience art through new modes of engagement between the public and the sculpture.

● Children under 8 years of age must be supervised by an adult.

● Use by persons over 14 years of age is not permitted.

● On hot days, the structure absorbs heat. Use with caution.

The sculpture “Té Danzante (PA),” crafted from wrought iron in the shape of a teapot, establishes connections between the natural and the industrial. The iron latticework that gives form to the teapot features patterns characteristic of the fences and balustrades found in various urban and rural landscapes. The work takes the form of a tree sculpture that engages in a dialogue with the principle of complementarity and symbiosis between the natural and the industrial. 

A new edition of “MON without Walls – Outdoor Art” has just been unveiled to the public. This time, the outdoor area of ​​the Oscar Niemeyer Museum will house four more grand works: the sculpture Aurum, by artist Rizza Bomfim; the Gallery Stalls, by artists Mavi Morais, Maria Lynch, Atransälien and Yohana Oizumi; the sculpture Avaf (Assume Vivid Astro Focus), and the Interactive Robot by architects Dilva and Orlando Busarello. The curator is Marc Pottier.

On view exhibition

África, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

Asia: The Land, the People, the Gods

The Playful World of Manga and Anime

MON without Walls – Outdoor Art

Tracks and Traces

Not All Travellers Walk Roads - Of Humanity as Practice

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