2012 _ Nuit Blanche at the park

Artistic direction: Paulo Pederneiras; coordination: Fernando Maculan; curatorship: Fernando Maculan, Francisca Caporali and Ricardo Portilho.

In not much more than 100 years, the allotted land planned for the new capital of Minas Gerais state, encircled by Contorno avenue, now represents less than 5% of Belo Horizonte’s total area. During this huge urban expansion, the City Park – the main green and collective space in the downtown – has had it’s surface reduced to 60% of the original one, losing space to traffic and real estate development.

The project ‘Noite Branca’, in parallel with a series of other events and temporary interventions, which have occurred with increasing frequency, gave rise to the possibility of inverting the conventional use of the urban space, giving back, in a certain way, the city to it’s inhabitants. The place chosen to hold the first edition was the City Park, where ‘Palácio das Artes’, the city’s most relevant cultural complex, is inserted (though it is separated from the green area by fences).

Throughout an entire night, Afonso Pena’s Avenue was partially closed to cars and buses, ‘Palácio das Artes’ and the park were opened to the public, allowing a lively nocturnal experience, mediated by a diverse range of artistic interventions and performances.

A fifty meter section of the fence between the cultural complex and the park was removed, marking the beginning of a re-integration – the theater becoming once again an integral part of the park, as originally envisaged by the architect Oscar Niemeyer in the 40’s.

www.noitebrancamg.com.br

X International Architecture Biennale in São Paulo