Brazilian Utopia—Darcy Ribeiro 100 Years

In the year marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Darcy Ribeiro (1922–1997), one of the main Brazilian intellectuals and civil servants active in the 20th century, Sesc São Paulo is revisiting his legacy and holding the exhibition Utopia brasileira—Darcy Ribeiro 100 anos (Brazilian Utopia—Darcy Ribeiro 100 Years), curated by Isa Grinspum Ferraz.

In a lecture he gave at Sorbonne University, in Paris, upon receiving an honorary doctor’s degree from that institution in 1979, Ribeiro stated: “I failed at everything I attempted in life. I tried to teach Brazilian children to read and write, I wasn’t able. I tried to save the Indians, I wasn’t able. I tried to make a serious university and failed. I tried to make Brazil develop autonomously and failed. But those failures are my victories. I would hate to be in the place of who defeated me.”

This statement denotes the humility, as well as the reach of the actions of this man who was one of Brazil’s greatest thinkers and who continues, yet today, to wield great influence on the intellectual production concerning the social formation of Brazil and Latin America—and its profound racial and demographic inequalities.

An ethnologist, writer, and educator, Ribeiro also served in government, in roles that included federal senator for Rio de Janeiro (1991–1997) and minister of education of Brazil (1962–1963). He was furthermore the founder of University of Brasília (1962), an important public Brazilian university, and the creator of the Xingu National Park (today Xingu Indigenous Park), the largest demarcated indigenous territory in Brazil, which includes 14 ethnicities, besides having been responsible for the founding of other landmarks of cultural heritage, such as the Museu do Índio, the Memorial da América Latina, the Monumento ao Zumbi dos Palmares and the Sambódromo do Rio de Janeiro. Shown at Sesc 24 de Maio, this exhibition revisits Ribeiro’s intellectual and political legacy, based on a prospective approach, highlighting his activism in public education and in the protection of the indigenous peoples.

A highlight in the exhibition is a large audiovisual installation that immerses the visitor in the kuarup for Darcy Ribeiro—a posthumous funereal ceremony held in the Xingu Indigenous Territory in 2012 and recorded by filmmaker Eryk Rocha. A kuarup is a ritual in homage to an illustrious deceased person, organized by various indigenous peoples in the Upper Xingu region, in a celebration with an important socializing and pacifying function, which culminates in festivities, dances and a fighting tournament between warriors. According to anthropologist Antonio Guerreiro, the kuarup is a fundamental element of the identity of the peoples of the Upper Xingu region, and in the context of the exhibition this setting represents the respect that the indigenous peoples of Xingu have for Ribeiro.

Also on the perimeter of the exhibition space, the power of his reflection and his work will be presented from four facets that translate his legacy: the anthropologist, the educator, the politician and the essayist and thinker of Brazil. These nuclei will consist of videos, indigenous feathers collected by Darcy, photographs, objects, documents, literary works, unpublished original letters and a timeline.

Held in parallel to the exhibition there will be a program of courses, debates and lectures throughout the show’s run, which dialogue with Ribeiro’s life and work. These actions will be carried out by the political education group Coletivo 3palitos, which seeks the participation of youths and adults in institutional politics. The project’s educational aspect is also evinced in resources of accessibility, including a tactile floor and map, an audio guide with audio description, a video guide in Brazilian sign language with captions for the hearing impaired, as well as other tactile resources—such as reproductions of artworks—developed with the collaboration of people with disabilities.

The project is part of the set of actions carried out in a network at Sesc São Paulo, “Diversos 22: projetos, memórias, conexões” [Diverse 22: projects, memories, connections] which is related to the Centenary of the Modern Art Week of 1922 and the Bicentennial of Brazil’s Independence (1822), along with their possibilities for aesthetic, critical and historical reflection.