Italy and Brasília, “the New City, Synthesis of the Arts”: Italian Art Critics at the Extraordinary International Congress of Art Critics in 1959

Marina Barzon Silva

Peter Scheier. Administrative Tower of the National Congress, Esplanade of Ministries, Brasília, Federal District, 1960. Gelatin silver print Photography. IMS Collection. Availible at: https://ims.com.br/2019/02/03/arquivo-peter-scheier-brasilia/ — Peter Scheier. *Administrative Tower of the National Congress*, Esplanade of Ministries, Brasília, Federal District, 1960. Gelatin silver print Photography. IMS Collection. Availible at: https://ims.com.br/2019/02/03/arquivo-peter-scheier-brasilia/

Peter Scheier. *Administrative Tower of the National Congress*, Esplanade of Ministries, Brasília, Federal District, 1960. Gelatin silver print Photography. IMS Collection. Availible at: https://ims.com.br/2019/02/03/arquivo-peter-scheier-brasilia/

The Extraordinary International Congress of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) took place between September 17 and 25, 1959. It was the first ever AICA congress held on the American continent. It took place in São Paulo (which also hosted the V São Paulo Biennale from September through December of that year), Rio de Janeiro, the soon to be former capital of the country, and Brasília, the city at the center of the conference’s theme: “The New City, Synthesis of the Arts”. Partially financed and organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil (Itamaraty), the congress was understood by the Brazilian authorities as an opportunity to project and promote the new capital and thus to legitimize the monumental task that Brazil’s president, Jucelino Kubitschek, had undertaken with the construction of the new city. Among the participants were Giulio Carlo Argan, Bruno Zevi, Gillo Dorfles, Giulio Pizzetti, Michelangelo Muraro, and Angelo Sartoris. The Italian branch of AICA was represented by Palma Bucarelli, Piero Dorazio, and Gio Ponti, whose contributions were reported in the Brazilian press by important figures in Brazilian art criticism such as Mário Pedrosa. This project analyzes the Italian contribution to the theme of Brasília both during and after the event and seeks to understand the exchanges on the level of “soft power” between the Brazilian government and AICA (a UNESCO organization) as well as its international impact. This research also sheds new light on how Italian thinkers understood and spoke of Brasília in Italian publications of the following years.