Art and war seem like antagonistic words, but here they come together in this interesting set of 37 Afghan carpets from the personal collection of curator Victor Nosek. 

Held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), the exhibition "Afghanistan - carpets of peace and war" is based on MON's permanent collection of works. Unlike other cultural institutions, a museum's role, in addition to caring for and expanding its collection, is to create dialogues between its works and the exhibitions it holds. This is one of the Museum's proposals.

It is worth remembering that MON has the largest collection of Asian art in Latin America, following the donation of thousands of works years ago by diplomat and professor Fausto Godoy, which marked a new curatorial vocation. 

Space was then made in the collection for Asian, African and Latin American art, in line with the great museums of the world, making it distinct from the Eurocentric tendency that dominates Western culture. This initiative has positioned MON among the great international museums. 

In this vein, we are now bringing to our audience the ancient tradition of Afghan tapestry, which in recent decades has incorporated war themes into its traditional designs. Both themes are presented in this new exhibition, divided into two axes: peace and war.

More than appreciating the aesthetics, the show touches us by its proposal and leads us to perceive the world through the provocative gaze of denunciation. It offers visitors this unique experience of searching for meaning and reflecting on such a complex subject through the beauty of art.

Afghanistan is one of the most politically sensitive regions on the planet. Nestled between such diverse giants as Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran and China, its geographic location not only places it at the crossroads of great civilizations but also of some of the most important religions on the planet: Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, mainly.

Afghanistan is home to a very ancient civilization, which already existed as a Persian domain when Alexander III of Macedon, the Great, walked through the region and founded Balkh, one of his most advanced outposts in Asia, in 334 BCE. Part of the population still retains physical traces of their ancestral Greeks. This same population, with equally ancestral habits, is made up of a large cast of ethnic groups and tribes that resulted from the occupation by invaders of various origins – Persians, Greeks, Mongols, etc. – throughout their history, which have instilled, both genetically and in deep-rooted traditions, values ​​and concepts that each of them defends with fierce zeal.

Proud of their roots, these ethnic groups and tribes, which are divided between the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam – approximately 90% are Sunni and 10% Shiite, roughly speaking – do not accept the preponderance of any other over them, no matter how large it may be in number, even though the Sunni Taliban, of the Pashtun ethnic group, currently dominate the government and public life and oppress other ethnic and religious groups. Afghans are even less accepting of interference from other cultures, and they remember the period when two of the largest empires of the 19th century, the Russian and the British, fought for hegemony over Central Asia in the region, which history has recorded as the “Great Game”.

It was this same spirit of resistance that was ignited in December 1979 when the Soviet Union, heeding the call of the communist government then in power in Afghanistan, invaded the country to support it in the fight against the mujahideen insurgents, made up of groups that rebelled against the oppression of the Marxist creed, which they understood to be a degradation of the values ​​of Islam. This was because the Soviets sought to impose their secular concepts, locked the mosques and prevented public worship. The resistance took on dramatic proportions when the Soviets abandoned Afghanistan in 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving room for the intensification of confrontations between the hardened militants who had taken refuge in the mountains that make up the country's rugged geography. At the same time, Western troops from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), led by the United States, occupied the country after the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, which, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden, were carried out by Al Qaeda, one of the most seasoned groups of the mujahideen.

After several political episodes that followed since then, with the departure of Western troops in August 2021, the Taliban came to power in Kabul. Part of the population that resists their designs has been seeking shelter in other parts of the planet, including Brazil, which already has around five thousand refugees.

"Afghanistan - rugs of peace and war" is the new project by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON), which is on display in the Eye Tower (first floor and second floor). The exhibition was curated by collector Victor Nosek, with the collaboration of professor and diplomat Fausto Godoy.

The exhibition brings together 37 rugs from Afghanistan depicting scenes of peace and war and reflecting different moments in the country's socio-political and cultural landscape. The exhibition also features 19 pieces of Afghan jewelry that are part of the daily life of the people from the regions where the rugs were made.

Afghan tribal war rugs are part of the "art as a portrait of war" tradition. 

They are a dramatic update of this tradition. They represented the Russo-Afghan war and have been produced by various semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, whose way of life remained unchanged for centuries. 

Weaved in the highlands when the snow melted, where Afghans had gone in search of pastures for their flocks, and in their permanent homes during the winter. 

The "living" carpets are the fruit of this way of life. 

The high-quality wool was dyed with natural dyes collected during the annual migration. Weavers, in the silence of their tents, free from interference, used simple horizontal looms fixed to the ground. The traditional themes, developed from memory, without prior drawing, are characteristic of each artist. Preferably created for their own use, the surplus is sold and the proceeds used to buy carnelian jewelry, stones used to ward off the evil eye. 

At first in timid appearances within the traditional themes, tanks, helicopters, jets and grenades soon occupied the entire composition. Tribal and contemporary, the war rugs in this exhibition belong to the first ten years of that war, between 1970-1980, when pastoral nomadism was still possible. The advent of endemic famine and the annihilation of the herds made nomadism and the resulting production of quality "living" carpets impossible! 

May this exhibition contribute to reflection and humanity finally achieve the peace and progress it is destined for! 

Victor Nosek 
Collection and Curatorship 

dec. 1980
Handwoven rug made on horizontal looms using sheep and camel wool dyed with natural pigments. Mane and tail hair from horses are used for the side cords
129 x 92 cm

dec. 1960/70
Handwoven rug made on horizontal looms using sheep and camel wool dyed with natural pigments. Mane and tail hair from horses are used for the side cords
210 x 109 cm

déc. 1980
Handwoven rug made on horizontal looms using sheep and camel wool dyed with natural pigments. Mane and tail hair from horses are used for the side cords
143 x 98 cm

dec. 1980
Handwoven rug made on horizontal looms using sheep and camel wool dyed with natural pigments. Mane and tail hair from horses are used for the side cords
152 x 92 cm

dec. 1960/70
Handwoven rug made on horizontal looms using sheep and camel wool dyed with natural pigments. Mane and tail hair from horses are used for the side cords
194 x 102 cm

"Afghanistan - rugs of peace and war" is the new project at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON). The exhibition can be seen from October 24 at the Eye Tower (first floor and second floor). The exhibition was curated by collector Victor Nosek, with the collaboration of professor and diplomat Fausto Godoy.

The exhibition brings together 37 rugs from Afghanistan depicting scenes of peace and war and reflecting different moments in the country's socio-political and cultural landscape. The exhibition will also feature 19 pieces of Afghan jewelry that are part of the daily life of the people in the regions where the rugs were made.

"Today, a museum is not just a place for preservation, but a space for dialog and reflection. The Oscar Niemeyer Museum exemplifies this role with a collection that ranges from art to historical and anthropological items, expanding the physical barriers of what a museum space is," says Luciana Casagrande Pereira, Paraná's Secretary of State for Culture. 

"Our aim is also to broaden cultural references. In this way, MON highlights the richness of Asian and African cultures, which make up one of the largest specialized collections in the Americas, presented both in long-term exhibitions and in itinerant exhibitions throughout Paraná," says the secretary.

MON director Juliana Vosnika says that the exhibition is an opportunity for visitors to see the ancient tradition of Afghan tapestry up close. "It's worth remembering that MON has the largest collection of Asian art in Latin America, following the donation of thousands of works years ago by diplomat and professor Fausto Godoy, which marked a new curatorial vocation," he says. 

Space was then made in the collection for Asian, African and Latin American art, in line with the great museums of the world, making it distinct from the Eurocentric tendency that dominates Western culture. This initiative has positioned the Oscar Niemeyer Museum among the great international museums. 

"In this vein, we are now bringing to our audience the ancient tradition of Afghan tapestry, which in recent decades has incorporated war themes into its traditional designs," says Juliana. Both themes are presented in this new exhibition, divided into two axes: peace and war.

Fausto Godoy, who served as Brazil's ambassador to Afghanistan for around two years, talks about the political importance of the exhibition, and curator Victor Nosek explains that the rugs that reflect the theme of peace are the oldest, and represent pastoral scenes, nature in general or geometric shapes. 

Tribal and contemporary, the war rugs reflect the period between 1970-1980 and will be exhibited separately on the second floor of the Tower. "We need to look at them, perceive that aesthetic and reflect on how it is possible to create beauty in war," says Godoy.

He points out that Afghanistan is one of the most politically sensitive regions on the planet. "Nestled between giants as diverse as Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran and China, its geographical location not only places it at the crossroads of great civilizations, but also of some of the most important religions on the planet: Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, in particular," he says.

The collector and curator of the exhibition explains that Afghan tribal war rugs are part of the tradition: art as a portrait of war. "They are a dramatic update of this tradition," says Nosek. 

According to him, these pieces represent the early years of the Russo-Afghan war and were produced by different semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, whose way of life remained unchanged for centuries. "May this exhibition contribute to reflection and humanity finally achieve the peace and progress to which it is destined," says the curator.

Afghanistan - rugs of peace and war

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The sensitivity of French artist Eva Jospin is evident in the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's new project: the exhibition "Re-Selvagem". By approaching nature and time in poetic works of art, she evokes our emotional memory.

In a fast-paced world, the face-to-face space of museums is the perfect balance to our digital saturation. The physical encounter with art makes people recognize themselves and their history through the works. This is and should always be one of the roles of the museum: to awaken deep feelings from our unconscious. 

In the case of MON’s Eye privileged exhibition space, this encounter is enhanced. Far beyond a conventional white exhibition room with four walls, this is a unique place. 

Just as people have the power to adapt, the Eye changes in creative and unusual ways with each new exhibition. And this one, signed by Eva Jospin, is probably one of the most surprising that has ever been here.

Her work puts the viewer inside it, gives it new meaning and awakens curiosity. In a provocative and intelligent contrast, it speaks of the impermanence of matter and the permanence of art. By creating giant installations out of apparently fragile raw materials such as silk and cardboard, the artist makes us think. 

What seems disposable becomes a lasting work of art. 

In this way, Eva Jospin addresses our relationship with nature and, consequently, with our essence. The visitor's gaze will be challenged all the time to notice something more. And the visitor will certainly notice.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

The exhibition "Re-Selvagem", by French artist Eva Jospin, presents a kind of reinvented jungle in the Eye and Araucaria Space of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON). Curated by Marcello Dantas, the new international exhibition brings together nine large-scale works, including installations and drawings, as well as two videos. The raw materials for the installations are silk embroidery, cardboard, wood, bronze, fabric and other materials. The artist transforms these everyday raw materials and creates a living landscape.

Eva Jospin is renowned for her meticulous, handcrafted creations that evoke imagined worlds—silent architectures and lush natural landscapes—brought to life through the patient, almost obsessive act of restoring a sense of origin to original material.

Using something as ordinary as corrugated cardboard—a mass-produced, industrial material made from forest cellulose—Jospin creates entire jungles. In ReSelvagem, this alchemy becomes even more intense: layers of cardboard are intricately cut and stacked to form trunks, roots, and branches, composing a dense, labyrinthine forest. Each sculpture feels like an excavation into the memory of the medium—where the mundane is transformed into the sublime and everyday scraps become living landscapes.

For Jospin, the forest is more than a representation of nature. It’s a symbolic space, a place where mystery, transformation, and the unexpected reside. Like in ancient tales, her forests are territories where we lose ourselves to find ourselves again. In ReSelvagem, visitors move through winding paths of paper and shadow, stepping into sculpted realms of foliage and form—a quiet, intimate ritual of immersion. These shapes awaken forgotten memories, stir the collective unconscious, and summon a deep, contemplative silence.

The contemplative dimension of her work is also explored in Chambre de Soie (Silk Room)—one of the artist’s major works, consisting of an artwork embroidered with over 400 shades of silk, cotton, and jute threads, produced by artisans from the Chanakya Atelier and the Chanakya School of Craft in Mumbai, India. Inspired by the tapestries adorning the halls of Rome’s Palazzo Colonna and Virginia Woolf’s essay A Room of One’s Own, the installation spans over 350 square meters of landscapes based on Jospin’s own drawings. First unveiled during Dior’s haute couture show, Chambre de Soie reimagines the grand panoramas of the 19th century, drawing viewers into a quiet meditation on the rhythm of handcrafted gestures. The threads and figures compose an intricate garden, almost as detailed as the manicured landscapes of Versailles; however, they are made of time and memory.

This experience, situated between natural forest and crafted embroidery, the artificial and the natural, the physical material and intangible symbol is the result of a unique visual language Jospin has refined over the years. Her work has been featured in some of the world’s most prominent institutions: including the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée du Louvre, Villa Medici, Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, and the Orangerie at Versailles. Her art doesn’t command attention through scale, rather it draws intensity from the silence of contemplation.

ReSelvagem is a call to return—the material to the forest, the craft to the hand, and the gaze to the imagination. Jospin reminds us that even what’s been tamed, cut, and transformed can, through art, recover its power and vitality—and lead us back to the vast mystery we carry within.

Re-Selvagem will be occupying the Eye of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, as well as the second floor of Casa Bradesco at Cidade Matarazzo in São Paulo. The exhibition arrives in Brazil as part of the France-Brazil Cultural Season and serves as a prelude to Eva Jospin’s forthcoming monumental installation at the Grand Palais in Paris, scheduled for late 2025.

Wood, cardboard, brass, fabric and various materials, 177 x 335 x 290 cm

MON holds new international exhibition at the Eye

"Re-Selvagem", by French artist Eva Jospin, is the next international exhibition at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON). The exhibition will open on june 5th, at MON’s Eye and Espaço Araucária. Marcello Dantas is the curator.

The exhibition will feature nine large-scale works, including installations and drawings, as well as two videos. The raw material for the installations is silk embroidery and cardboard, but the artist also uses wood, bronze, fabric and other materials.

"Eva Jospin's arrival at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum reinforces our mission to connect Paraná's public with the most relevant contemporary art in the world," says the Secretary of State for Culture, Luciana Casagrande Pereira. "This exhibition also reaffirms the cultural diplomacy guidelines that Paraná has established with France, in a particularly significant year, marked by the celebrations of the Year of Brazil in France and France in Brazil."

MON director Juliana Vosnika says that the sensitivity of French artist Eva Jospin is evident in this exhibition. "By approaching nature and time in poetic works of art, she evokes our emotional memory," she says.

Juliana comments that the physical encounter with art makes people recognize themselves and their history through the works. "In a fast-paced world, the face-to-face space of museums is the perfect balance for our digital saturation," he says. "This is and should always be one of the roles of the museum: to awaken deep feelings from our unconscious." 

Curator Marcello Dantas says that Eva Jospin is known for her meticulous work of creating, with her own hands, illusions of an imaginary world - silent architectures and abundant natural spaces, which are born from the patient and obsessive gesture of restoring a sense of origin to matter.

"For Jospin, the forest is more than a representation of nature. It's a symbolic place where mystery, the unexpected and transformation take place," says Dantas. "As in ancient tales, its forests are territories where we lose ourselves in order to find ourselves again." In "Re-Selvagem", the visitor crosses trails of paper and shadow, enters universes of sculpted foliage, experiencing a kind of intimate rite. The shapes evoke forgotten memories, awaken images from the collective unconscious, provoke silence.

Eva Jospin was born in Paris (1975), where she graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. For the last fifteen years, she has been creating meticulous forests and architectural landscapes, which he explores through various media. Drawn in ink or embroidered, sculpted in cardboard or bronze, her works evoke Italian baroque gardens, 18th century rocaille decorations and artificial caves. She was resident at the Villa Medici in Rome in 2017 and elected to the Sculpture section of the Academy of Fine Arts in 2024.

Her international exhibitions include: Inside at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014); Sous-Bois at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara (2018); Eva Jospin - Wald(t)räume at the Museum Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern (2019); Among the trees at Hayward Gallery in London (2020); Paper Tales at Het Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch (2021); Galleria at Musée de la Chasse et Nature in Paris (2021); Panorama at Fondation Thalie in Brussels (2023); and Palazzo at Palais des Papes in Avignon (2023).

In 2024, she presented two new solo exhibitions: Jungle, at Museo Fortuny in Venice, during the 60th Venice Biennale, and Eva Jospin-Versailles at the Orangerie of Château de Versailles. She has developed several large-scale installations as part of special commissions, including Panorama (2016) in the center of the Louvre's Cour Carrée and Cénotaphe (2020) in Montmajour Abbey. She also created a series of embroidered panels for the Dior Haute Couture 2021-2022 show (Chambre de Soie, 2021).

Marcello Dantas is a renowned Brazilian curator, artistic director and producer, recognized for his interdisciplinary approach integrating art, technology and immersive sensory experiences. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, Dantas has a diverse academic background: he studied International Relations and Diplomacy in Brasilia, Art History and Film Theory in Florence, and graduated in Film and Television from New York University, where he also did postgraduate studies in Interactive Telecommunications.   

Throughout his career, Marcello Dantas has been responsible for the design and artistic direction of various museums and pavilions, both in Brazil and abroad. He is also known for curating high-impact exhibitions that attract large audiences and specialized critics. Among them "Ai Weiwei: Raiz", by Chinese artist Ai WeiWei, and "Invisível e Indizível", by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, both at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum.

Re-selvagem - Eva Jospin

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With each new exhibition, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum invites its public to be surprised. This time, Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora challenges our gaze and perception with his paintings, installations and sculptures made from unusual, discarded items. 

Nothing in his intense and extensive work is obvious. This includes everything from the peculiar materials he uses to the execution processes and inspiration. Everything is the result of an insight into human nature, its feelings and sensations. 

In his creative process, he transforms found objects into raw material for unique works of art, evoking the concept of ready-made. There is always a message, addressing sustainability, the passage of time and the cycle of life, translated into works full of beauty and movement.

Upon entering the exhibition room, the public is confronted not only with works of art, but with a proposal to create new meanings. By discussing universal environmental issues, he makes us realize the many possibilities that art can take on. 

The result, although the result of a process of research and study, with great technical complexity, leaves no room for predictability and sounds intuitive. We are challenged to perceive something beyond the works. And that's what this exhibition invites us to do.

Juliana Vellozo Almeida Vosnika
CEO of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum

MON holds exhibition by Mexican Gabriel de la Mora

The exhibition “Veemente”, by the Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora, is the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's (MON) newest project. The show, on display in Room 1 from May 8th, is curated by Marcello Dantas. There are 70 works, including installations, canvases with mixed techniques and sculptures, most produced between 2000 and 2025. 

The set shows not only the artist's aesthetic and its evolution, but also the diversity and peculiarity of the materials used, which go beyond traditional supports and pigments. In his creative process, he transforms found objects into raw material for unique works of art, evoking the concept of ready-made.

Gabriel de la Mora's practice involves an investigation into materials, exploring the physical and conceptual limits of a process of collection and reconstruction. At first glance, his works may seem abstract, sculptural or even minimalist. However, a closer look reveals that nothing is as it seems. De la Mora creates new and extraordinary surfaces that deconstruct the boundaries between different artistic languages.

His works are made up of unexpected elements: strands of hair, fragments of mirrors, eggshells, shoe soles, butterfly wings and other traces of everyday life. His technique denotes an almost obsessive process that transforms the raw material into new shapes, patterns and textures. The continuous repetition of the artisanal gesture - sometimes restorative, sometimes destructive - reveals a method that challenges the viewer's visual and sensory experience.

Gabriel de la Mora was born in Mexico in 1968 and surprised the art world by treating any material as an object of interest and creative power. His work aims to assign new symbolic and aesthetic values to the banal. As a collector of fragments of everyday life, he shows an unlimited fascination with the remnants of existence, putting together a puzzle that never existed.

This obsession with repetition and reconstruction is what defines the vehemence of his practice. In an exhaustive process, he seeks a visual expression that can only emerge from the infinite persistence of the gesture. 

The exhibition's expography reflects the artist's material obsessiveness by proposing an expanded sensory experience. At the Oscar Niemeyer Museum in Curitiba, a 400 m² room is filled with his works, while a large central table allows visitors to explore the materials of his creations.

The role of art is to transform the value of things - symbolic, material or imaginary. "Veemente" is an equation of visual and tactile perceptions. By allowing the public to interact with the materials and experiment with the limits of repetition and obsession, the exhibition invites each visitor to experience, in an intimate and sensory way, the logic of an artist who turns waste into visual poetry.

820 Fragments of Hypolimnas pandarus butterfly wings on museum cardboard
30 x 30 x 2 cm
Simões de Assis Gallery

Wooden sticks
28.6 x 22.3 x 15 cm
Private collection

Electronic panels on museum paper
41 x 35 x 4 cm
Private collection

Dust collected in the artist's studio
10 x 10 x 10 cm
Private collection

Acrylic on peacock feathers on museum cardboard
30 x 30 x 4 cm
Private collection

The exhibition “Veemente”, by the Mexican artist Gabriel de la Mora, is the Oscar Niemeyer Museum's (MON) newest project. The exhibition will open on May 8 in Room 1, curated by Marcello Dantas.

There are 70 works, including installations, canvases with mixed techniques and sculptures, most produced between 2000 and 2025. The set shows not only the artist's aesthetic and its evolution, but also the diversity and peculiarity of the materials used, which go beyond traditional supports and pigments. 

"Gabriel de la Mora's art provokes a fundamental reflection on our time and invites us to reframe the ordinary, to look more closely at what we have discarded or forgotten," says the Secretary of State for Culture, Luciana Casagrande Pereira. "It's an exhibition that dialogues with contemporary themes and reinforces MON's commitment to bringing the public powerful experiences connected to global art discussions."

MON's director Juliana Vosnika says that the artist challenges our gaze and perception with his paintings, installations and sculptures made from unusual, discarded items. "Nothing in his intense and extensive work is obvious. Everything is the result of an insight into human nature, its feelings and sensations," she says. 

In the process of creation, the artist transforms found objects into raw material for unique works of art, evoking the concept of ready-made. "There is always a message, addressing sustainability, the passage of time and the cycle of life, translated into works full of beauty and movement," says Juliana.

Curator Marcello Dantas explains that Gabriel de la Mora's practice involves an investigation into materials, exploring the physical and conceptual limits of a process of collection and reconstruction. "At first glance, his works may seem abstract, sculptural or even minimalist. However, a closer look reveals that nothing is as it seems," says Dantas. 

"His works are made up of unexpected elements: strands of hair, fragments of mirrors, eggshells, shoe soles, butterfly wings and other traces of everyday life," says the curator. "His technique denotes an almost obsessive process that transforms the raw material into new shapes, patterns and textures. The continuous repetition of the artisanal gesture - sometimes restorative, sometimes destructive - reveals a method that challenges the viewer's visual and sensory experience," he says.

Marcello Dantas is an award-winning curator who has worked extensively in Brazil and abroad. He works on the border between art and technology, producing exhibitions and multiple projects that provide immersive experiences through the senses and perception. In recent years, he has worked on the design of several museums, such as the Museum of the Portuguese Language, Japan House (SP), Museum of Nature (PI), Museum of the City of Manaus, Museum of the People from Sergipe (Aracaju, SE), Museum of the Caribbean and the Carnival Museum (Barranquilla, Colombia). He has held solo exhibitions of some of the world's most important names in contemporary art, such as Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Laurie Anderson, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Rebecca Horn and Tunga. He was also the artistic director of the Brazil Pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010, the Brazil Pavilion at Rio+20 and the Pelé Station in Berlin for the 2006 World Cup.

Born in 1968 in Mexico City, where he lives and works, Gabriel de La Mora has a degree in Architecture from the University Anáhuac del Norte and has a master's degree in painting from the Pratt Institute in New York. He focuses his artistic practice on the use and reuse of discarded or obsolete objects, which seem to have completed their useful life. More interested in the deconstruction and fragmentation of an object or material over time, he bets on reconstruction from practices based on the passage of time and processes, echoing the ready-made concept.

Veemente - Gabriel de la Mora

MON holds an exhibition of African art with pieces recently incorporated into its collection

The exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent", held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, presented by Copel and made possible by the government of the State of Paraná, can be seen by the public from August 31 in Room 4. It is a selection of the significant donation made by the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY) to the MON.

There are approximately 1,700 works from one of the most significant collections of African art objects from the 20th century, which now belong to the Oscar Niemeyer Museum collection and, consequently, to the State of Paraná.

Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent

“Turn a tree into firewood and it will burn; but it will never give you flowers and fruit again.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali poet

The ancient metaphor of fertility related to the vital force and potency of trees, with their deep roots, their stem as a foundation, their ramifications as unfoldings of themselves, their legacy as symbolic flowers and fruits, was never more adequate as to be applied to the permanent links with our Mother Africa. If we then think of the metaphors of the gigantic baobab tree, from the more severe historical references associated with slavery by the so-called “tree of oblivion” to the milder ones, such as the famous tree in the book The Little Prince, the lessons arising therefrom would be analogous: “You become eternally responsible for what you captivate”, as Saint-Exupéry said.

If artistic expressions arise from the senses, the legacy of civilizations arises from the hands; and how beautiful are the manifestations of peoples, how beautiful are the arts of Africa! The love and yearning for the beautiful, the love and fear of nature and the gods and the fearless appreciation of civilization were so dear to African nations that they indistinctly distributed and reputed all aspects of existence, contradictory or not, some form of artistic expression.

The arts demarcate the forms of a time. The long-term exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” thus presents one of the essential points of the transition in the development of older African arts, since their withdrawal from the continent and the subsequent decontextualization of their intrinsic meanings, seen in the modern and contemporary world from an emphasis on their artistic forms. Previously restricted to European museums as objects of so-called traditional millenary cultures, today the works bequeathed from Africa have been able to conform to today's artistic work, offering the so-called “traditional contemporary African art” to the whole world, as it is known by specialists. These works are instruments of recent and authentic modernization of African popular arts or even modern reproductions of ancient pieces destined mainly for emerging markets in the tropics.

Strengthening institutional ties, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) received this important donation of African works from the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection (CIJY). Over more than fifty years, the couple has acquired works that span five continents. This donation includes around 1700 objects from Africa: masks, statuettes, busts, miniatures, everyday objects, musical instruments and a large number of other pieces. In a positive way, they are now part of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum collection, which we congratulate for having taken this opportune step, enriching its collection and, at the same time, the entire African legacy in Paraná and Brazil. We invite everyone to take an active part in this immersion in African art, observing its forms in what they themselves may surprise and allow an equivalent enjoyment to others in the artistic universe, without watertight determinations, taking this dialogue a step further. 

From the great tree of Africa, multiple fruits and new legacies were generated. It was no coincidence that, like most sub-Saharan peoples, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, the Mayans, the Incas, the Aztecs and basically all the great civilizations developed a culture of wearing masks and made representations in sculpture . With the exhibition of objects from such different cultural heritages, we find here an important point in common: within the museum, these arts are elevated to the same artistic platform, equaling African art to the level of world art. Here is a way to honor the visual ancestry of the past and to open up the new plantings, routes and perspectives of this art in the future.

Renato Araújo da Silva
Curator and Specialist in African Art

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”, held by the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, presented by Copel, can be seen by the public from August 26th, in Room 4. It is an excerpt from the great donation made by the Ivani and Jorge Collection Yunes (CIJY) to MON.

"The arrival of the African art collection is part of a consolidation process of MON's frame of reference. It establishes as a differential of the institution to primarily collect Brazilian and Paraná art and expand its non-Eurocentric look to Latin American, Asian and African art," explains Juliana Vosnika, director-president of MON. "We are constantly seeking to increase the collection because that is the soul of a museum, its essence," she says.

Juliana recalls that, in 2018, MON was the museum chosen for its technical conditions, management capacity, and credibility to receive a donation of almost 3,000 works of Asian art. Donated by diplomat and professor Fausto Godoy and coming from several countries of that continent, part of the works can be seen by MON visitors in the exhibition "Asia: the Earth, the Men, the Gods" in Room 5.

The largest art museum in Latin America inbuilt area, with 35,000 square meters, MON has tripled its collection in recent years. Since it opened in 2002 and until 2015, MON had about 3,000 works of art. Today, it has more than 9,300 works in its collection.

According to the curator of the exhibition "Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent," Renato Araújo da Silva, the works donated to MON were acquired over more than 50 years by the couple Ivani and Jorge Yunes, owners of one of the largest art collections in Brazil.

"With the exhibition of objects from such distinct cultural heritages, we find here an important common point: within the Museum, these arts are elevated to the same artistic platform, equaling African art to the level of world art," he says. "Here is a way to honor the visual ancestry of the past and to open the new plantings, routes, and perspectives of this art in the future," comments Renato.

The exhibition includes masks, sculptures, bronze busts and heads, metal miniatures, everyday objects, and musical instruments.

The works come from countries like the Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique, among others.

Renato Araújo da Silva is a historian in Philosophy from the University of São Paulo and coauthor, among other published works, of the book "Africa in Arts." Curator and researcher, he has worked at the Afro Museum and held other exhibitions in museums, such as the Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo.

"Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent”
Room 4

folder-africa-en.pdf

ÁFRICA - EXPRESSÕES ARTÍSTICAS DE UM CONTINENTE

The exhibition “Africa, Artistic Expressions of a Continent” is a part of the donation of approximately 1,700 pieces of contemporary African art, from the partnership between MON and the Ivani and Jorge Yunes Collection. Watch a message from the exhibition's curator, Renato Araújo, and visit Room 4 at MON. Exhibition presented by COPEL@copel_energia. #ArteAfricana#MuseuOscarNiemeyer

África, Artistic Expressions of a Continent at MON!

África, Expressões Artísticas de um Continente no MON!

África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente. O nascer de um novo legado para a arte, para você.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  Em cartaz na Sala 4 do Museu Oscar Niemeyer.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  Exposição apresentada pela COPEL @copel_energia. #MuseuOscarNiemeyer#ÁfricaNoMON

#emcartaz | África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente

#emcartaz | África, Expressões Artísticas de Um Continente

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

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

For the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, art and artists from Paraná play an important role and are always present in exhibitions and in the institution's permanent collection.

Here, visitors will be able to see a cross-section of Curitiba artist Teca Sandrini's work, from the 1960s to the present day. Her exhibition "Eterno Feminino", held by MON, brings together more than 100 paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures. 

With great sensitivity, she portrays women in different ways, in different contexts and times, as well as their feelings, sensations and emotions.

Artists often give clues, through their work, about the way they see life. Teca has always been an attentive observer of the world around her, which is clear, implicitly and explicitly, in her work. 

The result is a vast production, which has already been presented in cities throughout Brazil and the world and is part of various collections. 

Museums are living spaces of knowledge whose mission is to promote a constant dialog between artists and the public. By bringing this artist's exhibition to the locals and to all visitors, MON provides belonging and appreciation of local culture.

- Teca Sandrini was born on April 9th in Curitiba. Daughter of Stella Braga and José Ernesto Erichsen Pereira.

- She joined the school Colégio Nossa Senhora de Sion.

- She joined Colégio São José, where she finished high school.

- She began attending the free painting course run by Guido Viaro, who kept his studio in the attic of the Paraná School of Music and Fine Arts (EMBAP) in Curitiba. 

- She joined the painting course at EMBAP.

- She won an award at the 9th Salon of Plastic Arts for New People, organized by the Paraná Department of Education and Culture, in Curitiba. 

- He began working as a librarian's assistant at the Paraná Public Library.

- She won awards at the 10th Salon of Plastic Arts for New Talents, organized by the Paraná Department of Education and Culture; and at Salão Arte Primavera, held at the Concórdia Club in Curitiba.

- She won an award at the 1st EMBAP Academic Directory Show. 

- She participated in the group exhibition Decorative Art, at EMBAP.

- She graduated in Didactics of Drawingfrom the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Paraná.

- Her daughter, Giovanna Sandrini Berberi, was born.

- She began her teaching career teaching drawing at the Maria Aguiar Teixeira State School in Curitiba.

- She attended the studio of sculptor Juan Carlos Labourdette in Buenos Aires. 

-She took ceramics classes with Gladys C. de Migliorini, also in Buenos Aires.

- Her son, Juliano Pereira Sandrini, was born.

- She took part in the group exhibition Resin and Metal, at the Curitiba Creativity Center. 

- She is part of the first group of artisans to set up shop at the Largo da Ordem market in Curitiba.

- She began teaching ceramics and sculpture at the Curitiba Creativity Center, where she remained until 1978.

- She participated in the course Art and Creativity, taught by Tom Hudson, at the Curitiba Creativity Center. 

- She taught the Resin Workshop, at the Exhibition Hall of the Paraná Development Bank (BADEP), in Curitiba.

- She took part in the courses Initiation to the Plastic Arts, with the critic Roberto Pontual, at the Guido Viaro Museum; and Bronze Sculpture with the sculptor Francisco Stockinger, at the Curitiba Creativity Center. 

- She organized and took part in the exhibition Tapeçarias , with drawings by artists from the Curitiba Creativity Centre and weavings by inmates from the Piraquara Women's Penitentiary, at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation headquarters. 

- In Curitiba, he took part in the group exhibitions Artes Técnicas , at BADEP; and Orientadores do Centro de Criatividade, at the Cultural Foundation headquarters.

- She took part in a ceramics course with ceramist Marek Cecula at the Curitiba Creativity Center. 

She held her first solo exhibition at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation, presenting sculptures in polyester resin.

- She took part in the group exhibitions Esculturas em Bronze , at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation headquarters; and Collective of the Curitiba Creativity Center, at the Joinville Art Museum (SC).

- She began voluntary work as an art teacher at the Paraná Women's Penitentiary, where she worked until 1983. 

- She organized the 3rd Tapestry Exhibition, by inmates of the Piraquara Women's Penitentiary, at the Curitiba Cultural Foundation. 

- She took part in the group exhibition Orientadores do Centro de Criatividade de Curitiba, at Casa da Cultura in Joinville (SC); and, in Curitiba, in the group exhibitions Arte e Pensamento Ecológico, at the Centro de Criatividade, and 2nd Exhibition of Art and Artistic Techniques , at BADEP. 

- She took part in the collective exhibitions Novas Tendências , at the Joinville Art Museum (SC); and Panorama da Arte no Paraná - IV Artistas Contemporâneos, at BADEP, in Curitiba.

- She began working as a cultural affairs technician at the Paraná Department of Culture and Sport, where she worked, among other things, on the production of exhibitions, competitions and fairs.

- She won an award at the 7th Jacarezinho Plastic Arts Exhibition, organized by the Paraná Department of Culture and Sport, in Jacarezinho (PR).

- She won awards at the 4th Iguaçu Art Salon, run by the Paraná Department of Culture and Sport, in Foz do Iguaçu (PR); and at the 1st Assis Plastic Arts Salon, run by SESC and the Assis City Hall (SP).

- She started as a teaching assistant in the Industrial Design course at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUC-PR).

- Participated in the group exhibition Artists from Ohio's Brazilian Sister States Paraná, at the Hiestand Gallery, Miami University, Oxford; and at the N.O.V.A. Gallery, in Cleveland, Ohio (USA).

- She won an award at the 34th Plastic Arts Salon of Pernambuco, organized by the Recife Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports. 

- She won an award at the <401>1st Mini-Painting Exhibition</401>, held by the Syrian-Lebanese Club of Paraná, in Curitiba. 

- She took part, as a special guest, in the 3rd Assis Plastic Arts Exhibition, in Assis (SP).

- She organized the exhibitions Arte é Liberdade and Manufatura de Tapeçaria da Penitenciária Feminina de Piraquara (Tapestry Manufacturing at the Piraquara Women's Penitentiary)at Sala Bandeirante de Cultura in Curitiba, with works by inmates.

- Together with Ennio Marques Ferreira, she organized the exhibition Miniquadros das Internas da Penitenciária Feminina de Piraquara (Mini-painting of the inmates of the Piraquara Women's Penitentiary), at Clube Sírio Libanês do Paraná, in Curitiba.

- She took part in the group exhibitions Coletiva de Desenho, at Galeria Rodrigo Mello Franco de Andrade (FUNARTE/INAP), in Rio de Janeiro; Free Art Box Partners of the Americas, in Ohio (USA); and, in the Miguel Bakun Room of the Paraná Public Library, the group exhibitions Registro da Escultura Paranaense de Hoje and Caixa Arte Livre.

- She held the exhibition Dois Artistas Paranaenses , at Banco Itaú Gallery, in São Paulo and Campo Grande. 

- She took part in the group exhibitions Eight Artists from Paraná, at the Museum of Modern Art of Bahia, in Salvador; and Paranaenser Kuenstler Stellen in der Schweiz Aus, at the Aarau Museum of Art (Switzerland). 

- She won awards at the 2nd Mini-painting Exhibition, of Clube Sírio Libanês do Paraná; and at the 40th Salão Paranaense, of Paraná Department of Culture and Sport, in Curitiba. 

- She began specializing in Philosophical Anthropology at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). 

- She in the university extension course Existentialism and Marxism, also at UFPR. 

- The exhibition Estela Sandriniwas held at Caixa de Criação Art Gallery in Curitiba. 

- She took part in the group exhibitions Artists of Paraná, at the Armando Álvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), in São Paulo; and Current Values of Paraná, at FUNARTE's Macunaíma Gallery, in Rio de Janeiro. 

- She won an award at the 6th Brazilian Drawing Exhibition, organized by the Paraná Department of Culture and Sport, in Curitiba. 

- She took part in the group exhibitions Velha Mania, at Parque Lage School of Visual Arts, in Rio de Janeiro; and Traço e Volume, at Museu de Arte Brasileira (FAAP), in São Paulo, and at the Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina, in Florianópolis. 

- She won an award at the National Fine Arts Salonat the Goiânia Art Museum. 

- The exhibition Estela Sandriniwas held at the Poupança Banestado Art Gallery in Londrina (PR). 

- She took part in the group exhibition Tradition/Contradiction, curated by Maria José Justino, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Paraná (MAC-PR), as an artist and researcher.

- She was part of the group exhibitions Art and Peace, at the Teatro Guaíra exhibition hall, in Curitiba; Paraná Color and Form, at the National Museum of Fine Arts, in Rio de Janeiro; Paths of Brazilian Drawing, at the Museum of Arts of Rio Grande do Sul, in Porto Alegre; and Arte 13 de Curitiba, at FAAP, in São Paulo.

- She was awarded prizes at the 43rd Paranaense Salon, run by Paraná Department of Culture and Sport; and at the 7th Printmaking Exhibition, run by the Curitiba City Print Museum. 

- She has held the exhibitions Estela Sandrini and Guita Soifer, at the Santa Catarina Museum of Art, in Florianópolis; and Small and Large Images by Estela Sandrini, at Imagem 3 Escritório de Arte, in Curitiba. 

- He took part in the group exhibitions Homage to Printmaking - Exhibitions of Printmaking Biennial Award Winners, at Galeria Arte Correa, in Curitiba; Art on Paper, at the Goiânia Art Museum; and Curitiba Young Engravers Exhibition , at FAAP (São Paulo), Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal (Brasília) and Museu de Arte de Santa Catarina (Florianópolis).

- She was part of the technical guidance team led by Maria José Justino for the creation and formation of the collection of the Paraná Art Museum (MAP). 

“Eterno Feminino” is a selection of the work of Curitiba-based artist Teca Sandrini, from the 1960s to the present day, curated by Maria José Justino, on display in Sala 7. The paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures present three phases of her career: “Polacas”, “Fragmentos” and “Manchas”. The first addresses signs of domestic life by showing women doing their daily chores. In the “Fragmentos” phase, flirting with surrealism and abstraction, the focus is on drawers and chairs. In the most recent phase, “Manchas”, the artist plays with shapes.

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