The exhibition “Brazil Builds” is credited with launching the international celebration of Brazil’s modern architecture and the culture of brasilidade. Staged at the Museum of Modern Art in 1943, this groundbreaking show was a collaborative affair that brought together diverse actors and institutions in the United States and Brazil at a critical moment during the Second World War. With “Brazil Builds,” MoMA became a platform where architectural aesthetics met politics and culture. The exhibition built new alliances – between modern architecture and tradition, the United States and the authoritarian government of President Getulio Vargas – in an eloquent celebration of brasilidade and acted as a Trojan Horse of Brazil’s official ideology of Racial Democracy in the United States. I focus on the staging of this exhibition and explore how this multifaceted architecture seduced U.S. audiences with the spirit of brasilidade.    

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https://cornell.zoom.us/j/93347315670?pwd=WCtFSUQzcFBsWm12cHc0dmkwNTZHZz09

Meeting ID: 933 4731 5670
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