A cidade brasileira como espaço cultural

Abstract

This article discusses Vilém Flussers controversial thesis. The Czech philosopher lived in São Paulo for over 30 after having fled the Nazi occupation of Prague. Of all Brazilian towns, São Paulo is the one which least deserves to be called a city. It lacks an innovative cultural space, in spite of its rich and dynamic economy and political strength. The concept of city subjacent to Flussers view is based on the model of the Greek polis and on Prague before the Second World War. Flusser also values the new codes (of language, architectural, aesthetic, musical and pictorial expression) which are parts of the multicultural influences on Brazilian history. The author analyses Flussers reasoning and shows how his was a hasty thesis. Flusser, who is considered to be a post-modern Walter Benjamin, left São Paulo in the 70s, before the end of the dictatorship: he never got to see the great achievements of the Modern Art Biennial; he never saw the accomplishments of the Art and City at the end of the 90s, based mainly on the micro-electronic technologies of the digital era, the PC and the internet, which he praised as the new languages.