Instituto Tomie Ohtake Examines AI-5's Lasting Impact on Brazilian Art

The exhibition "AI-5: Ainda não terminou de acabar" at Instituto Tomie Ohtake investigates the profound effects of Institutional Act No. 5 on Brazilian artistic production. Curated by Paulo Miyada, the archival and artistic show spans from the 1964 coup to the 1980s opening process, featuring works by approximately 40 artists. The display includes documents, testimonies, and artworks gathered during a year of intensive research, examining creative responses to authoritarianism. Highlights include Claudio Tozzi's "Che Guevara Vivo ou Morto," destroyed by right-wing militants in 1967 and later reconstructed, and prison drawings by Carlos Zílio rarely exhibited since 1996. Artists like Cildo Meireles, Artur Barrio, and Antonio Manuel adopted guerrilla strategies following 1968's strengthened censorship. The exhibition also features Paulo Bruscky, Anna Bella Geiger, and Anna Maria Maiolino, who contributed an unrealized project about the disappeared. Antonio Dias is represented by an unpublished notebook from 1968 and the work "Cabeças." The show concludes with reflections on reconstruction efforts by Mario Pedrosa and Aracy Amaral, plus contemporary works by Paulo Nazareth and Matheus Rocha Pitta addressing ongoing trauma. Miyada describes the project as an essay on the relationship between creative forces and authoritarian power, initially conceived as an institutional network response to conservative threats against artistic freedom.