Number 12 - Instituto Moreira Salles

The last few weeks have been busy, so busy that #Project Going On Fifty has been terribly neglected! But today it was such a beautiful Sunday morning, I just knew I had to go somewhere new... and preferably somewhere green and calm and beautiful.

When I saw that a new exhibit had just opened at Instituto Moreira Salles called:" Rio, papel e lápis - Cassio Loredano" - I decided it was time to go to Gavea.

Instituto Moreira Salles - www.ims.com.br -used to be the private home of the ambassador and banker Walther Moreira Salles. It was turned into an institute dedicated mainly to photography, but also to music, literature and iconography in 1992. Right down my lane, but quite far from my neighborhood, so even if I have considered going there often I have always ended up going somewhere closer to home. It turned out it was easy enough to get there by taxi, but it is a little bit out of the way if you go by public transport. (There is a metro-bus connection, but you have to walk about 15 min uphill after the bus stop.)

As I arrived and entered the gate I felt I had come to the right place, it was definitely somewhere green, calm and beautiful!

It is a very impressive house, designed in 1948 by architect Olavo Redig de Campos and with landscape design by Roberto Burle Max. One of these unbelievably futuristic houses that could only have been built in Brazil. It has fantastic light, beautiful gardens and is a great setting for the exhibitions, but I kept wondering what it would be like to live in such a house...

The main part of the house is built around a patio, with a fountain.

The exhibition that I had come for was in one of the galleries, so I walked by the lake and pool area, where the restaurant is now situated.

The lake has a beautiful tiles designed by Burle Max, and fish swimming around to the delight of the children visiting.

The galleries set in the backyard surprised me by the entrances, automatic doors open when you approach, a bit like magic.

The exhibition of the nanquin drawings made of buildings in Rio de Janeiro by Cassio Loredano was lovely, with lots of my favourite places - and others that I will have to make a point of seeing. There was a list of five places not to miss in an article about him in El Pais - check it out: http://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2015/08/07/cultura/1438957782_099661.html
As always I am delighted when I find other people as fascinated by Rio as I am!

But there was more for a Rio fan at IMS. The exhibition "Rio Primeiras Poses" with photographs of Rio de Janeiro from the earliest days of photography with photos by Marc Ferrez, Augusto Malta and many more was fantastic. Pictures of a Rio de Janeiro long gone, pictures showing how the city has grown and transformed and pictures showing things that remain strangely unchanged.

And again the question: where is the door? How do you get in? The door is there, you just have to find it!

After seeing these exhibitions I went on to see the third exhibition of the house - photographs by Claudia Andujar - also a very worthwhile experience, quite a lesson in Brazilian history.

And then I found it was time to find a place and just enjoy the green and the beauty of it all.

And my favorite place, perfect for today's mantra: green, calm and beautiful...