La Triennale di Milano presents Brasilia. A Utopia come true. 1960-2010, an exhibit which focuses on the Brazilian capital 50 years after its birth, an exhibit which describes its fascinating history, a history that lies at the crossroads between political, cultural and social events of an ever-growing Brazil.

The exhibit develops along a timeline of Brazil, from the Colonial days to today, combining technical material and historical documents, anecdotes, personal stories, objects and testimonials of everyday life in the city built in the Planalto desert.

Documents, drawings and multimedia material (photographs and audio-video) collected especially for the exhibit build up the main thesis and meaning of the exhibit: Brasilia is a long sought-after utopia made true, it is a capital city build with a single act of creation, a city that today still looks like a young city, full of contradictions and at the same time with energy. The exhibit paves the road to a reflection not only on the season of architecture and city planning but also marked by a strong influence of the Modern Movement but also more generally by the relationship between the spaces of the city and the life that animates them. The materials presented in the exhibit make it possible to bring new topics to a debate currently in progress that, after a long stage of removal by the European and North American architectural and city planning traditions, now rediscovers Brasilia and discusses its reasons, the forms of the project, the unique urban structure, the city dwellers’ opportunity to take back the city.

The exhibit is divided in four sections, each focusing, from a different point of view, on different issues about the concepts and development of Brasilia as a capital, the celebrations, the critiques and the contradictions that have accompanied its development until the city has reached its present-day meaning.

The first section, called The project of a new city investigates the reasons that have led to building a new capital, the economic and political behind the idea of building a city from scratch with a “deed of establishment” and the choice of its location by means of a chronological review of all the events that led to the making of Brasilia.

The second section, called The making of Brasilia, capital of Brazil deals with the actual building of Brasilia via pictures of the time, personal memoirs and sketches by Oscar Niemeyer, dealing also with the architecture and the spaces. This section makes it possible to appreciate the exceptional nature of the events that have accompanied the forty weeks of work: the incredibly short building time, the special measures and special tasks, the incentives granted to the countless workers to make them move towards the centre of the country and their relocation around the growing city. An enormous effort, excellently summarised by Lucio Costa in the Brazilian section of the XIII Triennale di Milano in 1964, with the sentence "... the same people that spends time resting on the hammocks, when time is running out becomes able to build a capital in the desert”.

The third section of the exhibit opens with the city’s inauguration time and focuses on the post-construction stage, and it is called Brasilia in the heart of the debate tells the tale of the propaganda and the political consensus to the national city building operation. The enthusiasm to celebrate shown by major figures in the international modern architecture and the fluorishing, in the early ‘60s, of a debate focusing on critique and dissent on the settlement modalities and its architectural expressions: in Europe, and especially in Italy, with the editorials by Bruno Zevi on “architecture, chronicles and history” as well as in Brazil itself.

The fourth section, Brasilia today closes the exhibit and at the same time opens up the visitors' reflections on the Brasilia of today, 50 years after its building, with a critical reading on the urban structure from the social point of view and its symbolic meaning half a century later.

The exhibits uses materials from several Brazilian institutions and Foundations (including, but not limited to Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal, Fondazione Niemeyer, Casa de Lucio Costa, Memorial JK, Fondazione Burle Marx) and contributions by major photographers: historical pictures by Marcel Gautherot and current pictures by Donata Pizzi and Iwan Baan, who has recently been awarded the renowned Julius Shulman prize. In addition to documentary materials about the city, the exhibit features an interesting selection of musical tracks, from Sinfonia dell’Alvorada by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes to Brasilia by John Coltrane – and old and new videos, including the recent movie picture by director Adirley Queirós,“Rap, o Canto da Ceilândia” on living conditions of the dwellers of Ceilandia, one of Brasilia’s satellite towns, told by young rappers.

La Triennale di Milano presenta Brasilia. Un’utopia realizzata. 1960-2010, una mostra sulla capitale brasiliana a 50 anni dalla sua realizzazione, che ne descrive la storia affascinante all’incrocio tra vicende politiche, culturali e sociali di un Brasile in tumultuosa espansione. La mostra si articola lungo un percorso cronologico, dall’epoca coloniale a oggi, affiancando a materiali tecnici e documenti storici, aneddoti, storie personali, oggetti e testimonianze della vita quotidiana nella città costruita nel deserto del Planalto.

I documenti, i disegni, i materiali fotografici e audio-video raccolti per la mostra costruiscono la tesi e il significato dell’esposizione: Brasilia è la realizzazione di una utopia a lungo inseguita, è una città-capitale realizzata in un solo coraggioso atto di fondazione, che oggi si presenta come una città giovane, piena di contraddizioni e al tempo stesso di energia. La mostra apre il campo a una riflessione non solo su una stagione dell’architettura e dell’urbanistica, fortemente segnata dal Movimento Moderno, ma anche, più in generale sul rapporto tra gli spazi della città e la vita che li anima. I materiali presentati consentono di portare argomenti ad un dibattito attualmente in corso che, dopo una lunga fase di rimozione da parte della cultura urbanistica ed architettonica Europea e Nordamericana, riscopre Brasilia e ne discute le ragioni, le forme del progetto, la originale struttura urbana, le architetture, gli spazi aperti e le possibilità di appropriazione da parte dei suoi abitanti.

La mostra si articola in quattro sezioni che affrontano sotto diversi aspetti il tema della concezione e realizzazione di Brasilia capitale, le celebrazioni, le critiche e le contraddizioni che ne hanno accompagnano lo sviluppo, fino al suo significato contemporaneo.

La mostra si avvale di materiali provenienti da numerosi enti e Fondazioni brasiliani (tra gli altri: Arquivo Público do Distrito Federal, Fondazione Niemeyer, Casa de Lucio Costa, , Memorial JK, Fondazione Burle Marx) e di contributi di importanti fotografi: le foto storiche di Marcel Gautherot e quelle attuali di Donata Pizzi e di Iwan Baan recentemente insignito del premio Julius Shulman.

Accanto a materiali documentari sulla città, la mostra prevede inoltre una interessante selezione musicale – dalla Sinfonia dell’Alvorada di Tom Jobim e Vinicius de Moraes alla Brasilia di John Coltrane - e di video d’epoca e attuali, tra cui il recente film del regista Adirley Queirós,“Rap, o Canto da Ceilândia” sulle condizioni di vita degli abitanti di Ceilandia, una delle città satellite intorno a Brasilia, attraverso il racconto di giovani rapper.