The year 2020 will be marked in world history by the Covid-19 pandemic, declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) back in March. In many places around the planet, streets fell silent, businesses were closed, and one of the worst economic scenarios ever seen was taking shape.
To encourage reflection on the impacts of the disease on the world and the prospects for lifestyle changes, the Museum of Tomorrow opens the exhibition Coronaceno - Reflections in Times of Pandemic, on display from March 4th to August 29th.
Divided into six sections—Essentials, From Virus to Pandemic, Transformed Societies, Memorial to the Departed, Science is the Key, and Culture is the Path—the exhibition is curated by Leonardo Menezes, the Museum's Content and Exhibitions Manager, Luiz Alberto Oliveira, and Eduardo Carvalho. It is produced by IDG/Museu do Amanhã, in partnership with Globo and GloboNews.
Upon entering the exhibition's first room, visitors are invited to reflect on the proposed theme: how human influence and globalization were fundamental to the spread of the virus across continents. Content contextualizes the exhibition and explains why the Museum brought the topic up for debate.
ESSENTIALS
This room is dedicated to the professionals who have continued their work since the beginning. Doctors, nurses, scientists, pharmacists, street cleaners, sanitation workers, delivery drivers, and public transportation drivers are honored with hanging portraits and texts highlighting their importance. These are workers who left behind the safety of their homes and their families to protect us and mitigate the number of victims. Images of the cities of Paris, Wuhan, the birthplace of the coronavirus, and Rio de Janeiro, with empty public spaces, also highlight the extent to which the entire world has been impacted by the pandemic.
FROM VIRUS TO PANDEMIC
In this room, hands and droplets splashed with fluorescent paint are scattered across the walls, revealing themselves to visitors under black lights. The idea is to reinforce that the main route of contamination is through touch and contact. The room also features an explanatory video and a central installation, artistically representing the coronavirus on a large scale, outside its microscopic universe.
TRANSFORMED SOCIETIES
Built in the shape of a polygon, purposefully designed to evoke a sense of unease, Transformed Societies, the next section of the exhibition, aims to understand how global civilization has been affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. On one wall, there's a model with an aerial view of São Paulo and masked faces projected onto some buildings, evoking the social distancing situation. On other walls, videos depicting different social scenarios are projected, highlighting how social inequality has amplified the effects of the pandemic.
MEMORIAL TO THOSE WHO DEPARTED
Raising awareness and increasing respect for victims is the idea behind the Memorial to the Departed module, which features a series of hourglasses hanging from the ceiling representing each person's lifespan and reinforcing the frailty of human beings. The walls, in turn, bear the names of those who lost their lives in the fight against the disease, as well as gentilic names, indigenous ethnicities, and plural proper names. In the background, the narration of Machado de Assis' poem "Os Dois Horizontes" by Cissa Guimarães, with a soundtrack of "Amazing Grace" performed by the Ouro Preto Symphony Orchestra, reinforces the longing and respect for those who have sadly departed.
SCIENCE IS THE PROTAGONIST
Bringing hope for the future, the exhibition pays special tribute to science, which has taken center stage during the pandemic and played a key role in intensifying scientific research. The Science is the Protagonist module immerses visitors by recreating laboratories with real research equipment, as well as personal items belonging to Brazilian scientists. Reinforcing the fundamental role of science in survival, the room will honor Brazilian researchers represented by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)—one of our content partners—who immersed themselves in the search for a cure and the development of a vaccine against Covid-19.
A CULTURA É O CAMINHO
This room concludes the exhibition. As the cultural industry is one of the sectors hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic, the room highlights the challenges faced and the transformation of culture, "from traditional to digital," with major productions incorporated into digital environments, not only as a means of survival but also as resilience and a source of mental well-being for society.
Coronaceno: Reflections in Times of Pandemic is an exhibition held by the Museum of Tomorrow, in partnership with Globo and GloboNews.