Attacks on democracy leave marks on Brasília and its people

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Representatives of the Institute deliver a document with a general overview of the destruction
Minister of Culture Margareth Menezes receives a document with a general overview of the destruction caused at the headquarters of the three powers, in Brasília

Representatives of the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan) delivered to the Ministry of Culture (Minc), this Thursday (12), the descriptive-photographic report of the depredations resulting from the January 8 coup in the buildings of the Palácio do Planalto , National Congress and Federal Supreme Court.

The document presents an overview of the damage caused to the headquarters of the three powers and their surroundings, in Brasília. “The document will serve as a basis to guide the next actions of the institutions involved, in addition to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco)”, says the Iphan note.

Also according to the note, Iphan technicians presented the information contained in the document highlighting the responsibilities that fall to Iphan, with regard to the recovery of assets.

According to Maurício Goulart, substitute technical coordinator at Iphan-DF (Federal District), the report indicates three types of action to restore the assets. “Emergency actions are those aimed at restoring the functioning of buildings, such as damage to floors, walls and windows, and are already underway. Overall, the report shows that most building damage is reversible,” he said.

Medium-term actions depend on damage mapping and restoration projects. Long-term measures, in turn, are the execution of works resulting from these projects. 

Access the Iphan document.

The descriptive-photographic report of the depredations
The descriptive-photographic report indicates three types of action to restore the assets

Architect and urban planner Gisele Moll Mascarenhas believes that Brasília and the country bring together professionals capable of recovering much of the vandalized heritage. “We have great restorers, in the technical staff at Iphan, in the technical staff of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the Federal District, in the technical staff of UNESCO, who were willing to help. I believe that, thanks to these professionals, we will be able to recover most of the attacked collection”, says Mascarenhas, who has a degree and master's degree from the University of Brasília (UnB), with a specialization in Cultural Heritage Conservation Management and Integrated Urban Planning.

Architect Sylvia Ficher echoes Gisele's opinion. “From the point of view of restoration itself, with regard to the buildings themselves, the difficulties are great, but not insurmountable. Aside from the high cost, it's logical. All of them have architectural technical sectors dedicated to their maintenance, with highly qualified professional staff. The most serious problem is found in its furniture and artistic collections, which include extremely relevant works, the vast majority of which are irreplaceable. Then, technicians in the field of museum restoration must come into action”, diagnoses Ficher, who is a specialist in Architectural and Urban Heritage from FAU/USP (Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of São Paulo), a master in Historic Preservation from the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning (Columbia University, New York) and a PhD in Social History from USP.

Ficher believes that, perhaps, in this aspect, it is necessary to resort to the support of foreign and/or international institutions, such as UNESCO, the International Council of Museums (Icom) or the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington (USA).

Affective damage

In addition to the tragedy of the attack on the most cherished symbols of democracy, the attack on the buildings in Praça dos Três Poderes and the Square itself and its monuments struck deep into the hearts of those who grew up in the city and who have their tender memories there: the children pioneers.

Valéria Machado Colela, a 65-year-old specialist in Management and Programming of Cultural Equipment, arrived in Brasília when she was just a year and a half old. She remembers her pioneer father, the walk to the Square, the climb up and down the palace ramps. “I felt a shock as a citizen and as a human being. It was like a stab in the heart. I spent 48 hours in shock, attacking my emotional memory and my love for the city.”

Valéria believes that the federal government needs to take care of the mental health of those aggressors and that, at the very least, it needs to develop a more direct and simple form of communication, through the same means of communication used by the scammers, to reach and inform that public. But he also wants these people to be punished. “That it hurts a lot and that it also hurts in our pockets, even though there is no money to pay for our pain,” she said.

From left to right: Architect Sylvia Fischer, Iphan advisor Gisele Moll and specialist in Equipment Management and Programming Valéria Machado Colela
The architects Sylvia Ficher (on the left) and Gisele Moll Mascarenhas (in the center) and the specialist in Management and Programming of Cultural Equipment Valéria Machado Colela: violence beyond the architectural issue

Gisele Moll, who is also an Iphan advisor, still has memories of her childhood in Praça. “I am a memoirist, an inveterate sentimentalist. So, I'll tell you that, on Sundays, my father took me to Praça dos Três Poderes, for a walk. I've sat on the statue of Justice – like every child at the time –, I used to chase pigeons a lot and I've always really admired those buildings. Maybe that’s why I became an architect,” she says.

Even those who did not live their childhood in Brasília felt in their souls the aggressions perpetrated by the radicals, as witnessed by Sylvia Ficher, who went to Brasília in 1982, already as a professor at UnB (University of Brasília). “I can’t separate the person’s feelings from those of the professional in the face of such violence. Violence that goes far beyond architectural and heritage issues, as it hurts the very heart of the country. Fere Brasília, a city – not by chance – nicknamed the Capital of Hope, a masterful work of the Brazilian people, internationally recognized as a heritage of humanity.”

Read more: 

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Ministry accounts for property damage caused by acts of vandalism in Praça dos Três Poderes, in Brasília

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