In Brazil, ‘Queer Museum’ is censored, debated, then celebrated

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ernesto Londoño
Lining up in Rio de Janeiro to see the “Queer Museum” exhibition.
RIO DE JANEIRO — Had it gone as planned, an exhibition that opened last year in Brazil — which included a drawing of smiling children with the words “transvestite” and “gay child” stenciled across them — would likely have been a mere blip in the country’s lively art scene. Even after the show was closed, the storm of criticism kept the project in the news, inciting a heated, monthslong national debate about freedom of expression and what qualifies as art. After nearly a year of arguments, the exhibition — which also included a painting of the Virgin Mary cradling a monkey, and sacramental wafers with words like “vagina” and “penis” written on them in neat cursive — reopened this month in Parque Lage, a public park in Rio de Janeiro that is also home to a renowned art school. [More]
Curator Gaudêncio Fidélis assembled the 264 artworks in the exhibition.
Cruzando Jesus Cristo com Deusa Schiva (1996) Fernando Baril Foto: Divulgação