The "Queermuseu"(Queermuseum in English) art exhibition will be reopened this weekend, after the first attempt, one year ago, suffered censorship. Parque Lage's restored stables, with its facades painted pink, will host the artworks that sparked protests from many political and religious groups.
When the exhibition was set up the first time, at Santander Cultural in Porto Alegre (RS), conservatives accused the organizers of condoning pedophilia and zoophilia, when not considered outright blasphemy.
In the controversy's wake, Museu de Arte do Rio (Rio Art Museum) offered space to the artworks evicted from their previous house, but it soon found opposition from Rio de Janeiro's mayor Marcelo Crivella.
This is where Parque Lage comes in. The visual arts school installed in an old palace, owned by the state, challenged the city and started an online crowd funding campaign to receive the controversial 200+ artworks.
This was one of the largest of such campaigns in Brazil. The organizes raised over one million reais (US$ 250,000) to bring the exhibition back to life.
"This is money doesn't come neither from the government nor from a company trying to gain publicity," said Fábio Szwarcwald, Parque Lage's director. "It was the only way to legitimize this movement when we saw we really needed to fight against censorship."
Translated by NATASHA MADOV
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