Alike, but not the Same: The Reenactment of Lina Bo Bardi’s Display for the São Paulo Museum of Art (1968–2015)

Abstract

Opened to the public at the end of 2015, the exhibition Picture Gallery in Transformation at the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) has as its concept the resumption of the display model conceived in 1968 by the Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi (1914–1992).[1] Comprising glass easels held by concrete blocks irregularly installed in the museum’s second-floor gallery, her expography played with the transparency and the permeability of its devices, rejecting a unidirectional pathway that would guide the audience through the museum space. This installation followed the principles of the display the architect had conceived in 1947 for the previous MASP venue. These included the separation of the works from the walls, the refusal of chronology, and hierarchical associations between objects. “The collection is not displayed according to a chronological criterion; it is presented with the aim of producing a shock that awakens the [audience’s] curiosity and investigative skills,” said Bo Bardi at the time.