THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ernesto Londoño
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| 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. [
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| Curator Gaudêncio Fidélis assembled the 264 artworks in the exhibition. |
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| Cruzando Jesus Cristo com Deusa Schiva (1996) Fernando Baril Foto: Divulgação |
