Chamber opens exhibition to mark one year since the 8/1 attacks

An exhibition about the invasion of January 8, 2023 in the Chamber of Deputies will be opened next Monday (8), to mark the first year of attacks on the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília.

The exhibition consists of photos from the day of the invasion and the exhibition of objects damaged by the coup plotters who, on that Sunday afternoon, marched along the Esplanada dos Ministérios calling for the annulment of the 2022 presidential election through a military coup.

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The exhibition features 30 photos taken by staff at the house and by photo reporter Joédson Alves, from Brazil Agency. The images show the internal destruction of the building and the invasion of the National Congress.

In addition, there is an exhibition of restored objects, such as the tiles on the panel Windby Athos Bulcão, and eight protocol gifts received from foreign countries, such as vases and sculptures, which were displayed in showcases in the Green Room on the day of the invasion.

At the exhibition catalogthe Chamber of Deputies explains the context of those demonstrations by stating that the “ultimate objective was the deposition of the President who had started his term in office the previous week, the closure of the National Congress and the seizure of power, with supposed military support”.

“What remains, in the wake of the events that occurred, is the reconstruction of physical damage, the restoration of desecrated artistic works and the symbolic restitution of the values ​​of democracy, of coexistence between different and opposites”, highlights the exhibition catalogue.

Objects as witnesses

The objects damaged and restored by the Chamber's Information Content Preservation Coordination (Cobec) will be presented as witnesses to Brazil's recent history. The idea is to show that, just like living beings, objects also carry signs of the passage of time and trauma.

“Originally symbols of the diplomatic meeting and fraternal relations between different nations, these objects were damaged and converted into hundreds of fragments. Today they serve as testimony to the events of January 8, 2023”, wrote Marcelo de Sá, director of the Chamber of Deputies Museum.

Of the 46 gifts on display that January 8, four suffered extremely serious damage, 10 suffered significant damage, and 2 were missing, one of which was later returned to the house's collection.

“Even in pieces, the pieces in this exhibition continue their course and, even if restored, will bear the marks of what they experienced. The scars will help tell your story”, said Marcelo de Sá.

To fulfill this role as witnesses to history, some marks of destruction were kept on the pieces.

“We chose, as a general criterion, to keep the marks generated (breaks, losses and stains) visible as a way of avoiding the erasure of this event from the trajectory of each object, as well as from the institution in which they are inserted.”