Brasília - the modernist utopia A photographic essay by Adonai Rocha Brasília seems the ultimate modernist fantasy: pristine, elegant, refined, and a remarkable demonstration of lucidity. These shots seem to offer a sumptuousness to that vision. The light, color and panorama provide an exoticism. The modernist utopia of a socially ambitious beauty comes unhinged, when we see in the shadow of the great civic buildings, children living amongst the trees. That this cultivated treat of Brasília arises or was created ex-nihilo (or out of nothing) suggests to me a certain view that the natural process of growth, in all its human messiness, is somehow corrupt. The experience of the GigaPan in viewing these images provides remarkable intimacy. At the same time I seem a voyeur. And I feel strongly compelled to experience it firsthand. Maura Doern Danko, Painter, Faculty Humanities / General Education Department The Art Institute of Pittsburgh History Inaugurated in 1960, Brasilia - the capital city of Brazil is a masterpiece of modernist architecture. It is the only city in the world built in the 20th century to be awarded (in 1987) the status of Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Behind the construction of Brasília lay a monumental campaign to construct an entire new Capital City for Brazil. In 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira is elected President and ordered the construction of Brasília, fulfilling an article of the country's constitution dating back to 1891 stating that the capital should be moved from Rio de Janeiro to a place close to the center of the country. Kubitschek invites a young architect, Oscar Niemeyer, to command the project. In the same year, the work on site starts.
About the Author: Adonai Rocha is a Brazilian multimedia professional, artist and photographer. Adonai was born in 1958 in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Still a child, he moved to Brasilia in 1967 - when the Capital city of Brasilia was still under construction despite its official inauguration in 1960. Adonai grew up in Brasília and began taking pictures in the 70's as architecture photographer's assistant. He attended the University of Brasília Communication course in the 70's but due the turmoil and repressive apparatus during Brazil's military dictatorship period, he moved to London where he studied photography and film at the Polytechnic of Central London and the British Film Institute. After the opening of the political system and amnesty in the 1980s, Rocha worked as photojournalist for major national magazines and newspapers, and as a freelance advertising and commercial photographer. For many years he has worked in conservation and photographic restoration. In 2002 he was invited by the United Nations (UNDP) to work in Botswana as educational TV director and producer. From 2005 to 2006 Rocha worked as ICTs director for a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation program in Africa when he has been awarded the the Highway Africa - Innovative Use of New Media Award. In 2007 he started using GigaPans photography to promote Brasilia and help to raise awareness about UNESCO World Heritage, the protection and conservation of World Heritage Properties employing the GigaPan robotic platform for capturing Brasilia's very high-resolution panoramic images. This robotic camera mount was first used by NASA in Mars exploration. Brasilias panoramas were exhibited during Utopia and the Reality of Urbanism in the 20th Century, organisé par le Comité de l'Association Maison blanche et la Section d'histoire de l'art de l'Université de Lausanne, du 29 au 31 octobre 2010, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. The Modern Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro - MAM Rio - exhibited Adonai's photographs about Brasilia architecture in the "Horizonte Construído - Fotografia e Arquitetura nas coleções do MAM" exhibit, from December 2010 to January 2011. In April 2011 the University of Brasilia - UnB published Adonai's photographic essay "UnB 49 Anos - Imagens de uma universidade resistente" which shows the pro-democracy and pro-amnesty students resistance against the Brazilian military dictatorship, in 1977.