RIO DE JANEIRO Your Culture & Art Guide
MAIN SITES NOT TO MISS| RIO’S NEIGHBOURHOODS | 21 MUSEUMS & GALLERIES WORTH YOUR TIME | INCL. ART EXHIBITION AGENDA 2014
Table of Contents Benefits of this Guide How to Use this Guide A Marvellous City Surrounded by Nature Rio’s Cultural Geography Centro – Rio’s Historical Old Town 1. Teatro Municipal 2. Museum of Fine Arts (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes) 3. Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil 4. Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR) 5. Centro Municipal de Arte Helio Oiticica 6. A Gentil Carioca Lapa – Where the Brazilian Tunes Are Heard Arcos de Lapa Selaron’s Stairs (Escadaria Selaron) Santa Teresa – Rio’s Arty Hilltop Neighbourhood 7. Museu Chacara do Ceu Niteroi– The Sister City Across the Bay 8. Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum (MAC) Cosme Velho– Green Hills to Corcovado Corcovado and Cristo Redentor 9. Museu Internacional de Arte Naif do Brasil Urca– At the Foot of the Sugar Loaf Mountain Pao de Acucar Botafogo and Flamengo– Residential but Chic 10. Oi Futuro 11. Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro 12. Lurixs Contemporary Art 13. Casa Daros Beach-life and more – The Carefree Southern Boroughs 14. Artur Fidalgo Contemporary Art Gallery 15. Fundacao Eva Klabin 16. Galeria Laura Marsiaj 17. Galeria Tempo 18. Luciana Caravello Arte Contemporanea 19. Anita Schwartz Gallery 20. Instituto Moreira Salles 21. Casa do Pontal Museum The Northern Industrial Boroughs Maracana Favela Tour Currently On Art Guide
Welcome to The Art Weekenders’ Culture & Art Guide to Rio de Janeiro. The idea behind our guide is to inspire you, to give you ideas what to do and highlight what is worth visiting if you have an interest for art and architecture. Simply put: we are here to make your stay in the city fun and memorable. In our guides we also make sure to highlight what is currently on and where it happens – a way of being able to see what is worth checking out right now.
BENEFITS OF THIS GUIDE We believe that when visiting a city you should always aim for making the most out of your time with the least possible effort. It’s not always easy, it takes up a lot of energy looking around, figuring out what there is to do. And that’s our reason for being here: to help you make the best out of your holidays. We’re not here to tell you exactly what to do, it’s up to you to use our advice for cherry-picking and compose your own agenda. There’s no way to see everything at once anyway, but we’d like to show you what options you have if you’d like to see any of the cultural sides of the city.
Each guide that we are producing is based on our research and experiences, combined with information gathered while going through books and websites.
What we aim for is to highlight what’s worthwhile and steer you away from what’s really second-rated. It’s all subjective at the end, but we present the suggestions in such a way that they can come to your benefit. If an attraction, museum or gallery is included in this guide it already means that it’s worth visiting – otherwise we wouldn’t include it. Websites and information in Brazil are still not up to Western-standards – with all respect to the great exceptions. In general, it’s hard to find Englishlanguage information and often information is outdated. With this guide, we aim at eliminating that problem as well – by also listing current events.
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE The purpose of this guide is to put art-oriented attractions in focus, thus we are not covering everything there is to see in Rio. We do give you an overview of the city’s different neighbourhoods, and of course, cover the must-see sites besides the museums and galleries included. There will be 21 museums and galleries featured here with a description what you can expect, including practical information – covering address, fees, opening hours – for each venue. We also include the estimated time needed for visiting. To jump from the index, please click on the little circle in front of each line.
The Rating System:
You’ll also find a rating system for each attraction. This is of course objective, but at the end used for guiding you. 5 stars mean obviously world-class: not to be missed and also valuable for the visitor not overly interested in art. 4 stars venues still are of high quality, but not necessarily of a world-unique level. 3 stars means a very high standard, but more for the connoisseur art-lover than the casual visitor. 2 stars is more of a niche focus. One star we won’t even include.
Enjoy your stay in Rio de Janeiro! - Pal & Lydian, The Art Weekenders
RIO'S CULTURAL 'GEOGRAPHY' Rio is in any case more than the three 'dominant' must-sees and the beaches. While it's a big city it's also surprisingly easy to cover it within a relatively short time, at least if you are satisfied to concentrate on the real must-sees. The reason for it is that while it's vast, the areas interesting - and recommended - for foreign visitors are fairly compact, mainly centered around the central district, Centro, and the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Let's have a quick look around the ones interesting for you, the visitor:
Centro Rio’s historical centre is to this day the heart of the city, although mainly daytime, when the commercial life makes it buzzing. By night, the atmosphere is rough, thus be on your guard, or even avoid it.
Lapa The heart of Rio’s entertainment and nightlife, this is where the music bars, samba halls and general drinking and dancing mostly takes place. Even daytime this is an eclectic area, with the Arcos de Lapa as its main attraction.
Santa Teresa
This is the most picturesque quarter of Rio, just on the hillside and a short distance away from Centro and Lapa. It’s artistic, quirky, and quiet – but also a spot that seems to attract thugs in search for tourists, so stay in groups.
Flamengo
Flamengo, named after the Dutch (at the time called Flemish by the Portuguese) who tried to invade the city from this beach, is today a calm residential neighbourhood, dominated by the beach and the 300 acres of the Eduardo Gomes Park.
Urca
Cosme Velho
A neighbourhood in the middle of the city and in the middle of a jungle. Yes, it’s actually true, monkeys, birds accompany you here and this is your launching spot for your trip up to Corcovado.
Botafogo
Botafogo is a mostly upper middle class and small business community with a fantastic bay within the Guanabara Bay. There are some interesting museums in the area and great views of the Sugarloaf Mountain.
Copacabana
Urca is the part of Rio that was first populated, and somehow time almost stood still here since. This is a quiet neighbourhood at the foot of the Sugarloaf Mountain with nice bars and restaurants – oh and that view!
Barely in need of introduction, this is where legends were born thanks to the neighbourhoods beach. Even otherwise this is a chic area at the eastern-most part of the affluent ‘Zona Sul’ (Southern Zone).
Ipanema /Leblon/ Gavea
Just a short distance from the affluent Rio, the city’s most famous, biggest and most pacified favela Rocinha is found. Favela tours in Rio are almost exclusively coming to this one. Life’s better than a generation ago, but still with social problems.
These three neighbourhoods, of which Ipanema is the most famous one, are all areas where the good life is enjoyed by local cariocas (Rio’s locals), but also where most visitors end up having their base.
Zona Norte
Wouldn’t it be for the Maracana Stadium and the airport, most visitors would never come here. This part is Rio’s urban jungle, where attractions are few, rather where people live and work.
Rocinha
Niteroi Across the bay Rio’s sister-town Niteroi is going through a proper upswing, and also ended up in the attention of visitors since the opening of the by Oscar Niemeyerdesigned Modern Art Museum.
CENTRO - RIO'S HISTORICAL OLD TOWN Rio de Janeiro is much more than just beaches and nice views from fantastic mountain tops, it's also a culturally rich city that combines its old colonial heritage with a steadily developing modern side. Many of the important cultural sites are clustered in the Centro, the city's Portuguese heritage old town, an area which is rapidly transforming into a mixture of old and modern, a hang-out of the rich and poor. The most important focal point of the centro is Teatro Municipal, without doubt the symbol for the days when Brazil developed as an independent republic. Centro is also the home of the most important cultural institutions of the city, clustered within an easily walkable area. Many improvised open air exhibitions take place here, especially right outside the metro stop CinĂŠlandia. It's easy to randomly come across a great photo exhibition or an improvised street performance. Centro is lively and busy by day, but in general it's advisable to avoid it by night, when the danger can be around any street corner, with the exception of the CinĂŠlandia area .
TEATRO MUNICIPAL In fashion with the cultural winds of the time, in the beginning the theatre was only performing foreign acts, especially opera. These days it's mainly used for ballet and classical music performances. Teatro Municipal went through a total overhaul in 2008, for the fourth time in its history, timed for the centennial anniversary of its existence. While it’s a beautiful building from the outside, the inside might even outperform it. Being modelled on the Paris Opera, the design and decoration are the works of the biggest Brazilian craftsmen and artists of the time, like Eliseu Visconti and Rodolfo Amoedo. A good advice is to plan your visit for early mornings, since the guided tours have limited space; the first visit of the day is at 10 am, best is if you are there a bit in advance.
1 Category
Architecture, Theatre Time Needed 1-2 Hours
Address Praca Marechal Floriano Centro (map: A) Opening Hours Monday-Friday 10am-5pm | Saturday 10am-2pm | Sunday Closed Admission Fees Full: R$ 10 | Reduced: R$ 5 | Children under 6 free
2
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS The Museum of Fine Arts (Museu Nacional de Belas Artes MNBA) is a place with a rich collection of Brazilian art, spanning over a century, including many contemporary masterpieces. MNBA was established formally in 1937, after existing in various other forms and at other locations earlier. Today it is undoubtedly the most important institution for Brazilian art. It contains some 20,000 works, a wide selection ranging from paintings to sculptures, drawings and prints. The collection includes an extensive selection of African art too, which presumably is one of the best African collections worldwide. The MNBA building is strongly inspired by the Louvre and is listed since 1973 as a national heritage monument. The MNBA is very easy to reach, situated just outside the Cinelândia metro station. The staff is friendly and visitors are allowed to take pictures. Both the learning as well as the entertainment potential is high.
Category Fine Arts Museum
Time Needed 2-3 Hours
Address Centro - Av. Rio Branco, 199,Cinelândia Metro Stop (map: B)
Opening Hours Tue-Fri 10:00am –6:00pm| Weekends and public holidays 12:00pm-5:00pm
Admission Fees Free. A ticket will be issued for the statistics. Photo:© Zonda Bez
COSME VELHO GREEN FORESTS TO CORCOVADO Few neighbourhoods see as many visitors in Rio as Cosme Velho, without having many actual attractions within its territory. But being the launching pod for visits up to the Corcovado and the Cristo Redentor statue brings with it a certain attention. Another reason why this relatively small district is worth a visit is its location. Few neighbourhoods in the world can say that they are situated pretty much in the heart of an Atlantic rain forest, but that’s how it is here. Monkeys, an active bird life and slightly more shy animals live in happy coexistence with the inhabitants of Cosme Velho. One of the most famous writer’s from the city used to live in this area, but unfortunately his place of birth has been demolished soon after his death.
A square in Cosme Velho that still attracts attention is Largo do Boticario, which you can access through a narrow alley and a small bridge over the Carioca river and a cluster of neo-classical style buildings. Photo:© Wikimedia
CORCOVADO Without doubt, making the trip up to the top of Corcovado will for always be one of the highlights in any traveller’s life. The views of Rio de Janeiro from the peak of this mountain are simply breath-taking, especially if you’re fortunate enough to have clear skies. Corcovado Mountain, located in the Tijuca National Park, is a 710 metre (2,300 feet) tall granite peak right in the middle of Rio. The statue of “Christ the Redeemer” (Cristo Redentor), one of the new Seven Wonders of the world, is at the top of this mountain. The symbol of Brazil is easiest reached via a 3.8 kilometre long narrow-gauged train, running every 20 minutes. The ride up is spectacular with great views through dense rainforest, a very unusual experience in the heart of a mega-city. An alternative is to take the road trafficked by mini-vans and some taxis, although taxis can’t take passengers all the way to the top, a change to licensed vans is needed. A note of caution: think twice when taking a taxi, there are many scams and even danger involved.
Category A good advice is to avoid going on Sundays if you can, it gets crazily busy. On cloudy days – especially in June/July - the top is usually covered in clouds and visibility is bad, thus plan your trip up early when you get to Rio. Lines for the train up to the top are often long and slow, but you can get your ticket from the RioTur office in Copacabana on Rua da Candelária, 9 (right off Avenida Atlântica). You can also buy it online and pick it up from there. Buying at Cosme Velho often involves 1-3 hours of waiting.
Outdoor attraction
Time Needed 2-3 Hours
Address Rua Cosme Velho, 513
Opening Hours How to get there? Daily 8am-7pm
To get to Cosme Velho there are buses from Ipanema (570, 583 or 584), from Copacabana (584) or from Centro’s Praça XV (180, 422, 498). Train: The base station for the train up to the top is in Cosme Velho, located at Rua Cosme Velho 513. Prices are R$ 50 return for adults, at full fare. Minivan: A quicker and easier option, but less spectacular ride up is by minivan. Admission R$ 49 during high season, weekends and holidays and R$ 39.00 during low season; children under 5 and Brazilians 60+ free. Mini van tour options are from Copacabana or from Largo do Machado. Walking: Admission R$ 31.36 (high season, weekends and holidays) or R$ 21.36 (low season). It’s doable, but you’ll need time (note that this option is not without danger).
Admission Fees Full: R$ 50 | Reduced: R$ 25; children under 5 free.
ART WEEKENDERS This Art Weekenders eGuide is part of a new series of travel guides covering city destinations profiled from a cultural point of view. Our aim with the guide is to inspire art and culturally interested travellers, while helping them to choose the right activities and events by providing deeper insight into the attractions. All destinations covered have been personally researched and as far as possible own photos or photos available under creative commons licenses have been used. The Art Weekenders eGuides are continuously updated and unlike other guides around, the available information is fresh and up-to-date. The Currently On Art Guide section is listing what exhibitions are currently taking place in a city and is updated frequently. Art Weekenders has been around since October 2013 and can be found on www.ArtWeekenders.com. Art Weekenders is also present on several social media channels: Facebook Twitter Instagram.com Join us! The Art Weekenders brand and all rights related thereto are jointly owned and managed by Lydian Brunsting and Pal Ujvarosi. Although all reasonable care have been taken in preparing this book, no warranty is made about the accuracy or completeness of its content and to the maximum extent permitted, disclaim all liability arising from its use. Contact Art Weekenders at wkndr@artweekenders.com for further clarification Š Art Weekenders 2014. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, except brief extract(s) for the purpose of review. No part of this publication may be sold or hired without the permission of the publisher.
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