Patrimônio cultural edificado e expografia: perspectivas, críticas e possibilidades em três museus da Praça da Liberdade, Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Museological institutions emerge in the 19th century, imbued with a pedagogical vocation guided by the growing European nationalism, and reach the 21st century reconceptualized, in order to meet the needs of the consumer society. The intensification of the musealization process of everything tangible and intangible, the different modes of exhibition and communication, which aim to offer greater proximity and dialogue with the public, and the subordination of historical architecture to expography, result from these transformations. The expographic, architectural and urban dimensions of museums with the public, with the city and with the building that houses it are intertwined in order to offer meaning and meaning. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to understand how architecture and its spatiality influence the experience of visitors to museums. More specifically, if the architectural intervention and the installation of exhibition scenarios in historic buildings can change the apprehension of their own historicity, of their art and of what they symbolize for society. The object of research is Praça da Liberdade, in Belo Horizonte, a monumental set of eclectic palatial buildings located in an urban space with a strong memorial appeal of political and social events, which were released from their original administrative functions to make way for a superstructure tourist-media; which ended up attributing imponderable values to the city's historic architecture. In the buildings of the former State Departments of Finance, Education, Social Defense, museums without collections and cultural centers were installed there, despite the symbology and space program of these pre-existences, fraying the historiographical values that these tangible goods effectively engender and express. We start from the hypothesis that the transformations brought about by architectural adaptation and exhibition facilities, with the inclusion of a wide variety of means and technological resources, ended up relegating historical architecture to the role of a mere functional support, despite its intrinsic eloquence. For each of these buildings, a documentary research was carried out in their respective registration dossies. An analysis of the restoration and architectural adaptation projects was also undertaken in order to identify the changes in pre-existence. The implications of these transformations in the authenticity of the experience of those who visit these spaces were approached from the phenomenological perspective of Gaston Bachelard, and having as precept the idea that the museum is the place of material imagination. In addition, the expographic projects were critically analyzed according to the typology of the theater's black box, the white cube and hyper-realistic scenarios, as well as the discourse imbricated with them. And having the prerogative that they were spaces of intersubjective experiences. However, an official historical narrative is predominant, with no opening for the collective construction of meaning, which excels in technology and establishes room spaces with low lighting, air conditioned and closed. Hiding behind walls, ceilings and false floors, the characteristic artistic elements of the building and part of its historical pre-existence, which nowadays cannot be noticed by visitors anymore.