Adaptations of architectural monuments for exhibition purposes: damage to built and artistic heritage in recent interventions at the Museu de Arte Moderna and at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Bahia

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the complex and difficult relationship between architectural restoration and the functional requalification of buildings and urban centers of cultural interest – based on the analysis of contemporary reuse interventions in two historical monuments of immense artistic and cultural value, and the consequences of these initiatives. Strangely, in contemporary times there has been a prevailing understanding that the revitalization of works through their “reuse” would decree their “restoration,” regardless of the spatial, typological, and compositional alterations that the architectural or urban objects may have undergone. In another direction, we believe that use must be appropriate and compatible with the preexisting object; otherwise, the intervention that prioritizes reuse at the expense of spatial characteristics, in order to adapt the structure to a new function, ultimately mutilates the very object of preservation interest. To defend this premise, we will analyze the actions undertaken to implement or improve exhibition functions in two museums in the city of Salvador. In the case of Solar do Unhão – a colonial complex that underwent a celebrated intervention led by architect Lina Bo Bardi – a 1990s renovation closed the window openings of the large exhibition hall with wooden walls. In the case of Palacete Comendador Catharino, an eclectic mansion from the early 20th century, the interventions the building underwent from the 2000s onwards, conceived to Museu Rodin Bahia, later Palacete das Artes and now MAC Bahia, resulted in extensive architectural mutilation and damage to its integrated artistic elements. The harmful impact of the improvements made to meet contemporary demands reveals the dangers of prioritizing use over the architectural unity of buildings – and how these initiatives stray from the field of restoration.