From offer to refusal: on the imaginary disappearances of the Monument to the Bandeiras

Abstract

This paper examines aspects of the discourses that followed Victor Brecheret’s project proposal for the Monument to the Bandeiras, in 1920, and its inauguration, in 1953, highlighting two points: on the one hand, the perception of the monument as an offer from São Paulo inhabitants to the nation; on the other, the scene of its destruction, imagined by Oswald de Andrade one year after the project was presented. Based on this discussion, the text investigates how its imagined destruction or disappearance has been projected onto the monument since the 1970s, the work now completed, from works by contemporary artists and a direct intervention on the sculpture in 2013.

Keywords:
Brazilian modernism; Victor Brecheret; Monument to the Bandeiras; Brazilian contemporary art