Olympic Games Cultural Actions Cancelled
Two weeks before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's Ministry of Culture (MinC) and the Olympic Public Authority (APO) cancelled cultural attractions that would be hired for presentations scheduled to occur alongside the official sports events.
Producers say that the presentations that would be contracted via the National Foundation of Art (Funarte) and APO - an institution that includes federal and state agencies as well as the Rio de Janeiro local government aimed to produce the Olympics - were removed from the schedule at the beginning of July.
Alexis Anastasiou, the producer of Visualfarm, says that the negotiations with Funarte to produce a display of lights at the Guanabara bay that would occur on July 30 and 31 were interrupted on July 8.
The case of the lights display is not the only verified by Folha. Another producer, Margareth Reali, says that the performance of pianists Eumir Deodato and Cristóvão Bastos, part of the "piano no Arpoador" presentations, were cancelled on July 15.
Similar situations occurred with Italian visual artist Giancarlo Neri, who would produce a R$ 632,000-instalation (US$ 191,000), "Praça Paris", cancelled one week ago, and the African-Brazilian cultural projects of Fundação Palmares.
Director Elísio Lopes, responsible for the "Filhos do Brasil" performance of Fundação Palmares, says he was told of the cancellation on July 12.
MinC's press office says that the cultural attractions to be held during the Olympic Games hired through bidding processes are confirmed. On the cancelled shows, MinC says that they are "undergoing adjustments."
Folha contacted Funarte and APO, but they had not answered the questions by the time this issue was closed.
Translated by THOMAS MUELLO