Oswald de Andrade provoked —"tupi or not tupi?." In light of the centenary of the Week of Modern Art, celebrated this month, the answer to the question raised in his "Manifesto Antropófago" could be "it depends." Not that from those three days in February in 1922, organized in a thriving São Paulo as an early commemoration of the centenary of the Independence of Brazil, Brazilian literature and visual arts have not changed forever. However, the modernist genesis of launching a project for the construction of national identity went to page two. Or even the wardrobe door.
It is true that changes in style accompany cultural ruptures. Art Deco, for example, launched the minimalist functional by Coco Chanel. Surrealism was the driving force behind the dreamlike exuberance spread by Elsa Schiaparelli. And the rise of the working class was responsible for Levi Strauss's tailored denim casual. Brazilian modernism, however, reaffirmed the elites' taste for international style and a heritage of colonial fashion that to this day has repercussions on Brazil's idealization of "being chic." That's what theorists and curators who have focused on the topic in recent months say.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon