Pampulha and Brasilia, or the long roots of formalism in Brazil

Abstract

Whence comes the “free form”, which appeared in Pampulha (Minas Gerais) and became the trademark of the Brazilian “talent” for modern architecture? Raízes do Brasil (Sérgio Buarque de Holanda, 1936), which had just been published, anticipated an answer to the blooming of such talent that appears, but also underlies as the hidden face of the landowners, under the monumental forms of Brasília. Why return to the myth of origin of the so-called “New Town”, that is, the city planned to produce a modernization without
conflicts, of which the mythologized government JK (1956-1961) appears as a paradigm? Why should we evoke the myth of Brasilia, ex-voto of cordiality, when the “New Town” appears engulfed by the opposite reality, that of a country of mega-urban agglomerations – bowels of open air hell, before which the act of planning JK´s new capital seems today an ephemeral moment of exception? It is worth returning to the issue of Brasilia´s origin, if only to confront the myth of reconciliation so as to see in it not the exception, but the presence of a structure of colonial roots whose imposing power still prevails.