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More than party music, a cry of boldness and freedom. The FUNK exhibition at the Museum of Arte of Rio de Janeiro

Anyone who has never gone out at night and, at one point, started dancing to the rhythm of Brazilian funk, can cast the first stone. More than just a groove that dares listeners to let their hips move, funk is a living ecosystem that is screaming in resistance. On show until August 24, 2024, the main seasonal exhibition at Rio Museum of Art, FUNK: a cry of boldness and freedom has as its main purpose to tell visitors the story behind funk and the backgrounds that allowed the genre to emerge on the Rio de Janeiro scene and eventually conquer the world.

Just like a flower growing in concrete: cheeky and strong, funk had its beginnings in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where, back in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship that ravaged Brazil with its widespread state violence, the black associative movement flourished. It shaped the behaviour of black youth while spreading the importance of racial awareness in Brazil. One of the inspirations behind the Brazilian black associative movement was the US black resistance movement, which had been established since the middle of the twentieth century, with the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King (I’m only citing these three major names so as to avoid name dropping and diverting readers from the main subject of the article), which reached its cultural peak with the rise of Black Music. Naturally, Black Music wandered between many musical sub-genres, including American funk, a development of R&B rhythms and Soul Music, influenced by artists such as James Brown, George Clinton and Sly and the Family Stone, amongst many others.

During the late years of the military dictatorship and the beginning of Brazil’s re-democratisation, travelling abroad was not something commonly done by a large section of the population. But artists who were in the United States, such as Tim Maia, brought rhythmic and behavioural influences (with music as a weapon of black political resistance) to Brazil, which were adopted and subverted in Brazilian musical culture.

– pro tip: listen to Tim Maia’s 1971 record; you won’t regret it, I promise.

Music has always been a haven for people to carry on, despite the hardships of everyday life. But this premise is particularly true for the black and peripheral population. In Brazil, towards the end of the 1980s and 1990s, the city of Rio de Janeiro witnessed the growth of favela communities retaking their own narratives, as they had been forgotten by the city’s central government. This was when balls, large parties, started to become more present in favela life. These events, historically dominated by samba, featured musical rhythms derived from American Black Music, especially Miami Bass, combining the rhythms of electronic synthesisers with hip-hop lyrics. This is how Brazilian funk was born: a blend of influences, rooted in black resistance, which brings together protest rhythms with Brazilian culture. It should also be mentioned that the rhythm of the atabaques – drums used in Candomblé religious ceremonies – also shaped the distinctive beat of Brazilian funk.

– pro tip 2: The record Funk Brasil Relíquias (DJ Malboro Remixes/ Vol. 1) is a great option for listening to Brazilian funk from the genre’s more embryonic and experimental period.

The first part of the exhibition is about telling this remarkable story, from the black associative movement to the first balls in Rio’s communities, through music records, photographs, paintings, videos and sculptures, in a beautiful and colossal room.

The exhibition FUNK: a cry of boldness and freedom invites visitors into yet another room, where the contemporary aspects of funk are explored, namely feminist funk, funk ostentação and the evolution of the rhythm combined with contemporary techno music. However, about this second part, as they say in Brazil, “I’m going to make you want more“, because I hope visitors can experience this great exhibition, a must-see for anyone in Rio de Janeiro, without any interference. Hopefully, the next time funk is heard, you won’t just hear the beat of the drums, but you’ll be able to feel the pulse of this living ecosystem which is funk culture.

Maria Eduarda Wendhausen (Rio de Janeiro, 2000). She graduated in Art and Heritage Sciences from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon and is a student of the Masters in Criticism, Curatorship and Theories of Art from the same institution. She also studied at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the Writing for the Art World, From Idea to Submission course. She works as a writer and curator in Lisbon, Portugal. She collaborated with Manicómio in the Pavilhão31 exhibition space and with Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa. Her last performance as a curator, took place at ARCOLisboa2022 with the exhibition CRACK THE EGG of the Millennium bcp Youth Art Prize, in 2022. In 2023, she started collaborating with CentralC as content manager. She writes regularly for scientific and specialized magazines as a freelancer in the field of art criticism, as well as features and academic essays, with the aim of disseminating and promoting to the general public, the multiple facets of art studies and their unfolding in everyday life.

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