The Hollow Men e Apocalypse Now : a condição humana

Análise de alguns aspectos temáticos de The Hollow Men e Apocalypse Now, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à dimensão filosófica de ambas as obras.

Men change, and museums change

This text was written for the 3rd Meeting of the Seminar on Social Museology, which took place at the Museu do Homem do Nordeste [Museum of the North-eastern Man], in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, in May 2010. It is important to explain that the Seminar on Social Museology is a monthly cycle of theoretical debates organized with the aim of gathering the necessary contributions to put together a new museological model which can indeed be compatible with the practice and its end activity – to institutionally represent the culture of the north-eastern region – and also with the practice of the role of social agent henceforth given Museums by New Museology in Brazil. To these objectives one can add that of legitimizing the museum before its peers and the museological community understood here as partners of its end activity, which is that of representing the North-eastern Man, a task that can only be feasible if socialized.

Museu da Abolição, “The Museum That We Want”

Museu da Abolição [Abolition Museum] was inaugurated in 1983 in the city of Recife, one of the largest cities of north-eastern Brazil, located in the state of Pernambuco. This state has a special place in the history of the country: it dates back to the colonization efforts, to the first interactions between Europeans and native peoples and the exploration of sugar cane production. Today, the region embodies not only Brazilian cultural wealth and diversity, but also the great social challenges of contemporary Brazil. The name of the museum is a reference to the Abolition of black slavery in Brazil at the end of the 19th century. A museum addressing abolition means more than addressing a historic fact. It means dealing with ideas on slavery, freedom, resistance, injustice. There are no museums isolated from society, whatever their social function. For a museum such as this one, which was created with the responsibility for a theme that echoes so strongly in the lives of men and women, the challenge of finding its place in the world has always been present.