Diffusion and construction of design in Brazil: the role of MASP

Author(s)

Milene Soares Cará

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
• Defense date: 2013-05-27

Examining board members

Luciano Migliaccio; Agnaldo Aricê Caldas Farias; João de Souza Leite; Francisco Inacio Scaramelli Homem de Melo; Magnólia Costa Santos

• Advisor: Luciano Migliaccio

Abstract

The thesis DIFFUSION AND CONSTRUCTION OF DESIGN IN BRAZIL: THE ROLE OF MASP was built on the foundations laid by the researcher in her Masters dissertation FROM INDUSTRIAL DESIGN TO DESIGN - A CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THE DISCIPLINE. As the previous research, of an anthological character, the present text contains a comprehensive survey of the exhibiting activities dedicated to the discussion of design held at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) between the years 1947 and 1989, under the management of Pietro Maria Bardi. Viewed as a whole, these activities provide an overview of the various issues proposed by the Museum and its contribution to the debate of the discipline during the consolidation period of design in Brazil. If, on the one hand, the two researches have similar goals - the gathering of major sources of debate about design in the country - on the other, they differ in the mode of organization. Instead of a chronological division, we have adopted here, the thematic division for the presentation of exhibits held by the Museum, and, as a result, seven essays are presented preceded by a brief contextual introduction. This choice was made because many of the themes recur throughout the activity of Pietro Maria Bardi as chief conservator of the museum, together with Lina Bo Bardi. So these essays, far from being confi ned to a presentation of exhibits, aim to outline the main themes proposed by the museum between the 1950s and 1980s, and contextualize them within the panorama of the historiography of Brazilian design. The attachment in this research plays the role of briefl y presenting all of the exhibitions, as well as their goals and the sources located in the Documentation Center of the Museum; becoming a tool for those interested in further research and critical analysis of the cultural production for design in Brazil. From this broad panorama, highlighting and analyzing the main recurring themes in the discourse of the exhibits constitutes an original methodology for consolidating the historiography of the discipline, by demonstrating the importance of the discourse as a relevant refl ection of the thought of an epoch. And it is precisely this discourse analysis, performed over the proposed essays, that will enrich the panorama of the area through the rescue of an original vision of the Museum towards design, unlike most of the refl ections present in the debate of the discipline during the second half of the twentieth century, whose motto was to build clear boundaries towards other fields of knowledge, and particularly towards art, as way of assertion. Accordingly, the Museum, since its foundation, by adopting a broader view of the fi eld of art - art as consequence of the social sphere - has included, without distinction, design also as artistic manifestation. And by this statement, design has been an important element of culture as a whole, a necessary condition for setting the daily environment and refl ecting the multifaceted complexity, desires and attitudes of a society. Considering this position, it is possible to state that MASP has anticipated, since its founding and over its activities, not only a contemporary view of design, but also averse to restrictive speeches, in which design is a response to the demands of modernity, which, in turn, are conditioned to the relative notions of space and time, determinants for the complexity of the discipline. This reading will provide, therefore, a valuable contribution, an overview of the important role the Museum has played towards the diffusion and construction of design in Brazil, and will offer, thus, a timely basis for the theory and practice of design today. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/02471-5 - From industrial design to design: a historiographic trajectory to the subject in Brazil (1950-2000)
• Grantee: Milene Soares Cara
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate