Memory workers: sculptors of the early twentieth century and the monument to the Imortal Glory to the Founders of São Paulo’s contest

Abstract

In this paper I intend to discuss the construction of the monument to the Imortal Glory to the Founders of São Paulo (a work of Amadeu Zani, 1925). Specifically, I discuss here the 1910 contest that defined the selected scale model. The focus of the analysis presented is the set of projects presented by Paulistas, Brazilians and Italian sculptors and the conflictual negotiations established between the executive commission of the contest and these artists, which may be seen through the dossier published by the executive commission during the first decade of the 20th century. The set of documents allows to recognise not only the "savoir faire" of the artists who worked in the production of public monuments, but also their interpretation of historical events, and how they convert such events to images. The hierarchy of these actors, either members of the commission, historians or artists is not an obstacle to a myriad of interferences to the winner project, which are determinant to the final conception of the monument. Thus, an instigating debate may be found within the analysed documents, involving the narrative of historical events through the use of images, the representation of historical figures, scenarios and allegoric representations, and therefore a debate that deserves to be problematized. I make the analysis of the proposals through the use of a social-historical perspective of art, aiming the dialogs, the exchange, and negotiations related to the subject, seeking to understand of the work and its production as a consequence of a process and a set of social practices.