Didem Doğan

Ibirapuera Park & Cinemateca Brasileira

Good news: there is a huge space to breath in the middle of this giant metropole called São Paulo, it is the Ibirapuera Park. Often compared to Central Park of New York City in its size it is a metropolitan park opened at the beginning of twentieth century to celebrate the four hundred years of the foundation of Sao Paulo. 


Trees of hundred years, banks made of different shapes, an auditorium, a modern art museum, roller skaters, music, graffiti walls, lake, you may spend the entire day here away from the chaos of the city. Surrounded by various neighbourhoods such as Moema, Vila Mariana, we enter the park from the gate by the MAC metro station. As we enter we see a building with the shape of a white dome, it is the Auditorium made by Oscar Niemeyer. Brazil’s most famous architect has signed buildings around the country, from his home town Rio to the capital city of Brasilia, always in harmony with the geography of Brasil. 

Just across the auditorium is the Modern Art Museum. It is also the Head of the São Paulo Biennial which is one of the most important events of the international art scene (The 33rd Biennial is to be held in September 2018). As we pass the auditorium and the museum we come to the skating area, music is coming out of the speakers, skateboards are freely moving, walls are colourful with paintings and everything around us looks fun. We come across another museum which is the Afro-Brazilian Museum, it is dedicated to African heritage, slaves coming from Africa have contributed to Brazilian culture by religion culture, music which lie in the roots of the candomblé, capoeira, samba.

Going outside the park we now go the Vila Mariana neighbourhood which is located couple of kilometres from the park. The Cinematica Brasileira (Brazilian Cinemateca) is an elegant one floor building made of brown bricks that look like a rail station. It is a building that you will not come across the city. The space is wide and open, there is an exposition hall where we see the exhibitions of the Turkish-Armenian photographer Are Guler. The movie hall is hosting the Turkish movies this week. The Cinematica has indeed the biggest archive in Latin America made of more than two hundred thousand movies. The website of the institution is always updated with new festivals, with various themes from psycho analysis to Latin American cinema. 

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