Retrospective Paulo Mendes da Rocha

摘要

The architecture of Paulo Mendes da Kocha speaks of the construction of America, a territory from the postcolonial time, a 'New World' found in Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Eibeiro's O Povo Brasileiro from 1995. His architectural discourse is founded on the construction of a landscape that challenges the centrality of Europe, where 'subalternity' is overtaken by a strong sense of self-determination. In fact, Mendes da Eocha is constantly using his work to make the European West recognise its responsibility for the contemporary disaster that haunts the American continent: as he argues, 'only something great can degenerate'. Mendes da Eocha points to an idea of modernity that - despite being abandoned in the West around the 1960s onwards -was seen by Brazilian architects as an essential tool to fight the dictatorship that commenced in Brazil in that decade. Their work demands a historic explanation rooted in the battle fought by men like Mendes da Eocha after the 1964 Brazilian military coup. More than ever, these legacies must be acknowledged: since the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil - a former member of the military and a revisionist of the harmful effects of the dictatorship - this history assumes a renewed potency and importance.