Exhibition marks the 120th anniversary of the Julio de Castilhos Museum

The first museological institution created after the Proclamation of the Republic, the Julio de Castilhos Museum (Rua Duque de Caxias, 1205) celebrates its 120 years of existence with an iconic exhibition, which will remain on display until the end of the year. Linked to the State Secretariat for Culture (Sedac), the cultural space will inaugurate the exhibition At 120 – our story this Monday, allowing the reunion with collections that have already been exhibited and other unpublished ones, recently acquired, as is the case of part of the donation received from the family of Borges de Medeiros. Visitation takes place from Tuesdays to Saturdays and also on holidays, always from 10am to 5pm. On the opening day, in addition to the opening ceremony for guests at 6 pm, the building will be open to the public from 7 pm to 9 pm.

Pieces of affective memory, such as the boots of Francisco Ângelo Guerreiro (a man 2.17 meters tall and who wore size 58, diagnosed with acromegalic gigantism), are part of the list of symbologies in the exhibition that can be seen in various areas of the museum, and through a timeline of space management over time.

Created in 1903, the institution is the oldest museum in Rio Grande do Sul and will now open its main access through the house that belonged to Julio de Castilhos and family, with the delivery of the fully restored entrance hall between September and December 2022. ” With this, people passing by on the street will be able to see the museum from the inside – which until then was not possible”, highlights the museologist and director of cultural equipment, Doris Couto. She considers that “returning access to the museum through Casa Julio” is the “high point” of the anniversary celebration. “It will be the first opportunity for many people to get to know the entrance to the historic house as it originally was, since, over its 120 years, this space has been completely mischaracterized by the layers of paint and texture it received and which covered up the beauty of its painting. “

The improvements were made possible through resources from the Avançar na Cultura program, which also made it possible to renovate the building and restore works from the collection, which, according to Doris, “were very damaged”. “It is the case of the equestrian sculpture of Duque de Caxias, by Antônio Caringi: the horse was without its legs and with its tail falling off, now it is completely restored and reintegrated”, exemplifies the director.

According to the museologist, in total, Julio de Castilhos received R$ 14.5 million, which will still cover the restoration (with a tender in process) of the two houses that make up the institution, plus the construction of a four-storey building. floors, which should keep part of the collection that is not exposed. “It’s a way of safeguarding all this material, within a risk management perspective, preventing it from being lost in the event of a fire in the main building, for example.”

“These investments are part of our public policy for the conservation and enhancement of cultural, material and immaterial heritage, which belongs to all gaúchos and gaúchas”, says the Secretary of State for Culture, Beatriz Araujo. The collection of the Julio de Castilhos Museum brings together, among other pieces, General Osório’s saber of honor, a rarity from the First Reign, made in 1871, after the Paraguayan War, at the request of Colonel Manuel Deodoro. Idealized by Julio de Castilhos and instituted in the year of his death, the cultural equipment had its first headquarters (still as a State Museum) installed in two pavilions of the Great State Exhibition of 1901, in Campos da Redenção.

“The first pieces inherited (donated by city halls of the State that sent works representative of each city) from the Great Exhibition of 1901 (to which more than 10 thousand items were added that formed its collections) are inscribed in the Book of Fine Arts of the Instituto do Patrimônio Historical and Artistic National (Iphan), since 1937”, contextualizes Doris. According to her, indigenous pieces linked to mineralogy are also part of the institution’s first collection.

“Among the most relevant ones, we can mention the saddle used on Deodoro da Fonseca’s horse, when the troops were reviewed during the Constituent Assembly; the canvas from the Prison of Tiradentes painted by Antônio Parreiras and offered to Borges de Medeiros in 1914; the Farroupilha Collection ; political correspondence; pieces of torture of the enslaved, which despite going back to a traumatic past, are there to not let us forget this period; works on the Paraguayan War, the Revolutions of 1923 and 1993, the I and II world wars; clothes and curious pieces, with technologies that people don’t recognize. Pieces from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that marked an era in the State and in Brazil”, lists Doris.