Italian Ambassador to Brazil, Francesco Azzarello, opened “The Italian Embassy in Brasilia. A photographic journey from Rio to the Brazilian Highlands” exhibition held in the Nervi Room at the Embassy. A book featuring the illustrations shown at the exhibition was released to mark the occasion.
The Ambassador said “we wanted to use little-known photographs to add to the previous book on the Embassy and engineer and architect, Pier Luigi Nervi launched in November 2021 with previously unpublished contributions. It was a very complex work, and we are very proud of it. Sponsored by the Embassy, the e-book is available for free in three different languages. It is a valuable document for both countries, as well as for international scholars and enthusiasts, dealing with political-diplomatic, social-cultural and journalistic aspects”.
The book is 232 pages long and spans the period from when the diplomatic seat was based in Rio in the 1920s to construction of the new Embassy, through the history of the founding of Brasilia and up to the present day with the recent renovation of the Embassy, the unveiling of the statue of Mr Nervi, its receipt – as the first embassy in the world – of the international “zero waste” certificate, the local environmental and social commitments endorsed in the “Green Embassy Week”, the exhibition of previously unpublished “Portinari Illustrator” etchings and the painting of the embassy by Carlos Bracher, considered by many to be the greatest living Brazilian artist, on the cover of the book.
The exhibition is open to the Brasilia public every day up to 18 September, and the 61 photographs taken from the book are shown on “crystal trestles” inspired by those designed by architect Lina Bo Bardin in the 1960s for the permanent exhibition at the MASP Museum in Sao Paolo.
Influential representatives of the government, political-institutional, diplomatic and cultural worlds took part on the inaugural event. Artist Carlos Bracher also attended.
