Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Design in Brazil: which revolution?
NOBRE, Ana Luiza / PhD / PUC-Rio / Brazil
Design in Brazil / Carlos Lacerda / Esdi
The paper is part of a broader research dedicated to bring out keyissues
related to the architectural and design practice in Brazil
during two seminal decades - the 1950’s and the 1960’s. This
turbulent and very dynamic period comprises the emergence
of Brazilian concrete art and poetry, Bossa Nova and Cinema
Novo, the establishment of industrial design as a discipline and
the building of Brasília, Brazil’s new capital, accompanied by a
political dispute between different perspectives for the country’s
development. By concentrating the analysis here upon the creation
of Esdi/ Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (College of
Industrial Design, Rio de Janeiro), in 1963, the aim is to address
some of the tensions, limits and different interpretations of the
construcivist trend in Brazil, in regard to a concept of design
deeply rooted in the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG), school of
design created in Ulm under the influence of the reformist agenda
of postwar Germany. In this light, rather than trace the creation
of Esdi, which has been richly chronicled elsewhere, this paper
intends to reexamine and even challenge the major attention this
episode has received in design historiography (being, in turn,
completely ignored by architectural studies) by considering both
the existing tensions between design practices and mass production
in Brazil, and the ambiguities of a school originated inside
an avant-garde institution such as MAM/Museum of Modern Art of
Rio de Janeiro, but finally supported and advocated by a government
such as the one of Carlos Lacerda, the first governor of state
of Guanabara, created after Brazilian capital was transfered to
Brasilia. Essentially opposed to the call for social reforms rooted
in german design, Lacerda embraced – as a “project of national
interest” - what is an undeniable seminal school of design in Latin
America, but also a paradigm for many contradictions and complexities
involved in the specific context in which dramatic and
unprecedent changes were soon to be experienced.
1. Democracy through design
The 1950’s and early 60’s are, in many ways, a key transitional
period in Brazil, a period shaken by the rise of growing confrontations
in various fields, indicating an unprecedented level of intellectual
and political debate, as well as a turning point in the field of
design. Of particular significance in this regard is the creation of
Esdi/ Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial (College of Industrial
Design), in Rio de Janeiro, in 1963. Despite previous attempts and
experiences within the field of design education in Brazil (which
can somehow be traced back to the 19th century), Esdi soon became
known as the pioneering institution for design education
not only in Brazil, but also in Latin America. Often associated with
the names of Karl Heinz Bergmiller and Alexandre Wollner, two
HfG-Ulm alumni that had a central role in the school since its in-
ception, Esdi was widely influentional on the curriculum adopted
by other design courses in Brazil, and on the very shape of the
disciplinary field of design in the country (Nobre 2008). Zuenir
Ventura, one of its former faculty members, speaks for many of
his contemporaries when he says:
“Esdi was to Brazilian design what Bossa Nova was to Music;
“Cinema Novo” to Cinema; “Arena” to Theater; Brasilia to
Architecture. It was a founding moment, when the world discovered
a new Brazil – of Glauber Rocha, Oscar Niemeyer, Tom Jobim, Pelé –
and Brazil found out it had something to teach the world. Esdi gave
us a parameter, created a new mentality and launched the basis of
design in Brazil.” (Ventura 1994)
This decisive role played by Esdi certainly justifies the emphasis
that has been given to the school within the field of design
studies in Brazil – in a tone that tends to be either one of pride
and celebration, as we have just seen, or a strong and oversimplified
reaction against it. This, somehow, happened also to the Ulm
School of Design (Spitz: 2002). But if we really want to appreciate
the uniqueness of Esdi, we might well move beyond these poles
now and take into further consideration historical facts that for
one reason or another have been largely underestimated, avoided
or ignored, even tough they can be highly revealing of the complexities
of such a peculiar cultural and political moment.
Esdi is often said to be an avant-gard institution and a seminal
school of design in Latin America. Undeniable as this might be,
we cannot disregard also the ambiguities of a school originated
inside a private institution such as the Museum of Modern Art of
Rio de Janeiro (MAM), a supreme emblem of modern culture in
Brazil in the postwar period, but finally supported by a local government
such as the one of Carlos Lacerda, essentially opposed
to the social nonconformism embodied in the group of personalities
gathered at Ulm.
A very controversial politician, Carlos Lacerda (1914-1977) was
involved in several crucial political events in Brazil, and played
an important role in the overthrow or resignation of three Brazilian
presidents: Getúlio Vargas (1954), Jânio Quadros (1961)
and finally João Goulart (1964) – the populist Marxist-leaning
President whose call for reforms led to the military putsch. Altough
Lacerda was a member of the Brazilian Communist Party
at the beginning of his political career, in the 1930’s, it was as an
undisputed leader of a right-wing party, the National Democratic
Union (UDN), that he was elected city councillor of Rio de Janeiro
(1947), federal deputy (1955) and finally governor of the recently
created Guanabara State (1960), following the transfer of the
nation’s capital do Brasilia.
Hoping to be elected in the forthcoming presidential elections,
Lacerda initially supported the military coup d’état, in April 1964.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7