Jo Vasconcellos' intervention concept for the Museum of Reductions in Minas Gerais, Brazil | Jô Vasconcellos

To face a museum in a former motel garage was the question! It was this or nothing! A museum that, beyond simple aesthetics, proposed to teach young students the building and structural systems of the seventeenth to the twentieth century, with all the technologies and resources available from each period, seemed to me very relevant and I wanted to act on it. After all, education and refinement come with a good basis.

An ordinary space, mediocre ceiling height of 2.20 m to 2.40 m assigned to garages, tiled bathrooms, pipes passing in all directions, with the carelessness that these spaces present because they are never seen or analyzed, they are ugly and considered the guts. This was the motto to appeal to the learning of such refined technology from those centuries, with so few available materials and so much capable labor. In the end, a happy marriage and without any prejudice! Let’s go forward! We learn from the resources we have!

Without fear and without modesty, the result is unusual, highly educative and enlightening! Long live those who are willing to share their knowledge! Knowledge, culture and feeling are nourishment for many, but it should be everyone’s! As Adélia Prado once said: ‘My mom thought education was the world’s finest thing. But it is not. The world’s finest thing is feeling’.

Details:

Project / Concept: Jô Vasconcellos

Graffiti: Drin Cortes

Photos: Daniel Ducci

Local: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil