Museu Paulista: from the Theater of Memory to Laboratory Museum - Brazil’s Independence

ABSTRACT

Afonso Taunay’s museological project for the Museu Paulista, belonging to the University of São Paulo since 1963, consecrated this historical museum’s exobit design to Brazil’s Independence in 1922, elaborating a civic contract between the museum and this national celebration. When Ulpiano Bezerra de Meneses became director of the Museum in 1989, the institution underwent a change in direction with the creation of guidelines that would reorient its character, based on the critical reassessment of its collection (material and visual), and of the monument-building itself which houses the museum. This article points out some changes in the understanding of the institution, based on the qualification of its phases prior to Bezerra de Meneses. Besides, Ulpiano de Meneses’ guiding assumptions-in his effort to convert the Museum from a “theatre of memory” into a “laboratory of history”-unfold in the restauration and reinauguration of the museum in 2022, and in the reformulations of ways to approach the masterpiece “Independência ou Morte!” by Pedro Américo.

KEYWORDS:
Museu Paulista; Brazil’s Independence. Visual culture. Memory policies.