Rio Art Museum cancels negotiations to hold 'Queermuseu' exhibition.

Rio 247 - After Mayor Marcelo Crivella (PRB) spoke out against the 'Queermuseu' exhibition, the Municipal Council of the Rio Art Museum (Conmar) confirmed, in a statement released this Tuesday (3), the cancellation of negotiations to bring the show to Rio. On September 10, the exhibition was cancelled in Porto Alegre, after protests and attacks on social media and inside the Santander Cultural museum itself.

Despite the interruption of talks to bring Queermuseu to Rio, Conmar (the Rio Art Museum Council) stated its support for the exhibition and any other "that contributes to the exercise of art as a foundation of our civilizing process." In its statement, the council lamented: "We regret the way this debate has been inflamed by intense controversies, which led the Rio de Janeiro city hall, given that this is a museum within its municipal network of cultural facilities, to request that Queermuseu - Cartographies of Difference in Brazilian Art - not be held at MAR." The council also recommended that MAR "promote, host, and expand the debate and reflections on the role of art, institutions, and society as a whole in building diversity and producing dialogues based on listening and respect for differences."

On social media, Marcelo Crivella wrote: “It’s not right to encourage a child to touch a naked man in the ‘name of art.’ We need to respect the family, let’s take care of our children.” In another post, the mayor declared that he doesn’t want the exhibition in Rio: “Here in Rio we don’t want this exhibition. It was in the newspaper that it was going to be at MAR. Only if it’s at the bottom of the sea, because not at the Rio Art Museum.”

The Queermuseu exhibition, featuring 270 works by 90 artists, was described by the institution that was to exhibit it in the south as "an unprecedented initiative that explores the diversity of gender expression and difference in art and culture across different periods." However, some images were considered offensive by those who contested the exhibition, who classified the content as "an incentive to pedophilia, zoophilia, and against good morals." After the cancellation of the exhibition in Porto Alegre, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio Grande do Sul recommended that Santander Cultural reopen the show. The museum, however, did not reverse its decision.