Contributions to the deconstruction of colonial legacies in São Paulo museums: new practices in collections and temporary exhibitions at Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP) and Pinacoteca de São Paulo

Abstract

he theme of this article is the challenges faced by two São Paulo Museum institutions in reflecting on the deconstruction of the colonial legacy in the processes of building up their collections, organizing exhibitions and creating new institutional policies. The theoretical basis is based on the following contributions: Aníbal Quijano's thinking on modernity, colonization, and decolonization; Achille Mbembe's insurgency against the new racism linked to global capitalism, in favor of historical reparation - to which is added the intersectional feminist contribution of Lélia Gonzales and María Lugones - and the problematization of the role of memory in museum institutions, according to Ulpiano Toledo Bezerra de Meneses. The intersection of these reflections forms the basis of interpretation for the analysis of the actions taken at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and the Assis Chateaubriand Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP), with a view to an appreciation, albeit partial, of the transformations produced by the new practices in the organizational structure of the institutions.