Politics of the Surface Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos

From July 25 to October 25, 2026, Casa de Cultura do Parque presents the exhibition “Política da superfície” [Politics of the Surface] by Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos, as part of the institution's II Exhibition Cycle. Installed in the Gabinete room, the show is curated by Claudio Cretti and investigates the influence of maestro Heitor Villa-Lobos on the implementation of music education in Brazilian schools.

Visual artist Ana Raylander Mártis dos Anjos (Minas Gerais, 1995) develops long-term, research-focused projects. She seeks to establish a dialogue between collective history and her own biography, frequently drawing from the fields of education and writing. After participating in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo and the 59th Carnegie International in Pennsylvania, USA, the artist presents a new development of her investigation into cantos orfeônicos (orpheonic chants)—a choral practice widely disseminated throughout Brazil during the 20th century—at Casa de Cultura do Parque.

Taking Heitor Villa-Lobos's role in implementing music education during the Vargas Era as its point of departure, the exhibition revisits a historical moment in which music was incorporated into the school system as a vehicle for promoting the nationalist ideology of the regime. Performed in schools, public squares, and stadiums, the orpheonic choirs brought together large groups of singers under unified direction, producing a collective sonic body that contributed to the symbolic construction of a national identity.

“During this period, the idea of Brazil emerged as a myth of unity, sustained by the promise of a collective voice that, while including certain groups, ultimately suppressed whatever deviated from it,” the artist reflects. In “Política da superfície,” she uses the Gabinete's baseboard as a similar operator, in dialogue with the institution's location on the edges of Villa-Lobos Park. Situated between the wall and the floor, this architectural element occupies a threshold: although associated with the finishing touches of a domestic space, it also acts as a discreet normalizing technology, capable of masking irregularities and producing continuity where there are fractures—a type of social varnish, as Raylander points out.

In this exhibition, the artist returns to her interest in orpheonic chants and amateur choirs—which began with the project Coral de Choros [Choratório] in 2018—to deepen her research into the contradictions that permeate Brazilian music education, the construction of the concept of the people and the Brazilian narratives crystallized in the nation's imaginary. “I try to look precisely at what remains close to the ground, what accumulates at the edges, the evidence that history pushes to the lowest layer of the social stratum. Perhaps it is precisely in this lower region, next to the baseboard, where promises of unity begin to show their cracks,” Raylander adds. In this context, silence assumes a central role for the artist, ceases to be the mere absence of sound, and operates as a political field.