The unprecedented exhibition 'Oltreoceano. 150 years of Italo-Brazilian art' is a tribute to the 150th anniversary of Italian immigration to Brazil. Organised by the Italian Embassy in Brasilia, in collaboration with the Brazil-Italy Joint Parliamentary Front, the exhibition at the Salão Negro of the National Congress will be open to visitors from 26 June to 14 July 2024 .
Thanks to the exceptional collaboration of the Art Museum of Brasília (Mad) and private collectors, the exhibition presents works by iconic artists such as Alfredo Volpi, Eliseu Visconti, Fulvio Pennacchi, Mario Zanini, Aldo Bonadei, Victor Brecheret, Anita Malfatti, Alfredo Ceschiatti, Glênio Bianchetti, Sergio Romagnolo, and Lina Bo Bardi, among others.
The Ambassador of Italy in Brazil, Alessandro Cortese, in declaring himself proud to be able to present these masterpieces to the public, affirms that 'the great heritage of Italian art, from the ancient to the contemporary world, is inheritance and tradition, a reason for pride and a precious identity trait for those who, between Italy and Brazil, have found in art the form of expression of their nature of modern Ulysses, of beings 'in transit', in a continuous journey and dialogue between two countries, two hemispheres and infinite possible ways of being in the world'.
The exhibition 'Oltreoceano' is testimony to the vigorous and continuous cultural exchange between Brazil and Italy. For the President of the Brazil-Italy Parliamentary Front, Luiz Fernando Faria, 'celebrating 150 years since the arrival of the first Italian immigrants is to recognise how much they and their descendants have contributed to our artistic and cultural development. It is an opportunity for all of us to appreciate and reflect on the influences that helped shape the Brazil we know and love today."
The influence on the history of Brazilian art is the thread running through the exhibition designed by curator Marcelo Gonczarowska Jorge, former director of the Museum of Art in Brasilia (MAB). From 19th-century pioneers to modernists and contemporaries, the exhibition reveals how Italian artists and their descendants have helped shape Brazil's identity and culture.
According to the curator, 'there is, in fact, no Brazilian art without the contribution of Italians. From Impressionism to contemporary art, Italians and their descendants have brought a significant inflection to Brazilian culture, provoking changes and improving local production.
The exhibition, organised according to a circular route, in which the works are displayed on crystal trestles created by the Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi for the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), offers the public the opportunity to admire rare works, such as the four panels by Candido Portinari, belonging to the Italian Embassy, which, for the first time, cross the doors of the diplomatic headquarters to be exhibited to the public.
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