Art and Symbolic Inclusion in the Planned Center of Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the relationship between hegemonic dominant culture and manifestations of the subordinate classes and the excluded through urban art. The research was built according to an interdisciplinary perspective, articulating a brief history of the planned city of Belo Horizonte and studies in the areas of art, memory and territory. In particular, the text analyzes some artistic interventions presented at the CURA (Circuito Urbano de Arte, or Urban Circuit of Art) festival, which has been developed in the urban space of Belo Horizonte. As an inspiration, the text presents the work “Brazilian Flag,” by Leandro Vieira, who replaced the colors of the Brazilian national flag with the colors green, pink and white, as well as displaying the words “Indians (here understood as Native Brazilians), blacks and the poor,” in place of the positivist motto “order and progress,” which fomented a hygienist logic of social exclusion in urban planning. As a result, the artistic interventions studied reveal themselves as counter-hegemonic works, announcing new territories of life and memory, which propitiate the democratization of the city and the public space.