Orality and Listening as an Ethical Practice at the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art MuseumCarolina Rodrigues de Lima* and Diana Kolker Carneiro da Cunha†

Introduction

On 5 February 2021, the last patients of Núcleo Teixeira Brandão, one of the spaces within the psychiatric complex of the former Colônia Juliano Moreira (CJM), now the Juliano Moreira Municipal Institute of Health Assistance (IMASJM), were deinstitutionalized. The following year, it was Franco da Rocha’s turn, the last remaining long-term psychiatric hospitalization unit, not only within IMASJM but in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. Its doors were Beginning of page[p. 269] closed in October 2022, in a political-aesthetic gesture, by the hands of two women: Patrícia Ruth and Dirce Maia. Patrícia Ruth is an artist from Atelier Gaia, a collective of artists linked to the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum. Dirce Maia is the flag bearer for the carnival bloc organized annually by the museum. Both were institutionalized at Colônia Juliano Moreira and, through art, found ways to rebuild their lives after the trauma of psychiatric violence. On this occasion, a group of women workers from IMASJM performed excerpts from the speech of Stella do Patrocínio, including:

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1941, Stella was in Botafogo when she was summarily detained by the police — just like Arthur Bispo do Rosário, Patrícia, and so many others — and compulsorily institutionalized at the Pedro II Psychiatric Centre in Engenho de Dentro at the age of 21. In 1966, she was transferred to CJM, where she remained until her death at the age of 51. Patrícia, Dirce, and Stella were contemporaries and met as young women at Colônia Juliano Moreira. Three Black women, victims of psychiatric violence and institutionalized racism. However, Stella was not present to witness the closing of the psychiatric hospital’s doors. She passed away in 1992, before the advent of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform. Nor did she participate Beginning of page[p. 271] in the trajectory of her now-famous speech, which originated from a series of conversations between her and artists Carla Guagliardi and Nelly Gutmacher, recorded during the Workshop of Free Artistic Expression held between 1986 and 1988 at Núcleo Teixeira Brandão, where she lived as a patient.22The Workshop of Free Artistic Expression was carried out in partnership with the Parque Lage Visual Arts School in 1986. It was conceived by psychologists Denise Corrêa and Marlene Iucksch Paula, under the guidance of artist Nelly Gutmacher, and involved students from the Parque Lage Visual Arts School. The execution of this project already reflected some changes to the practices of psychiatric institutions. Years later, her words were again recorded and transcribed with her consent by psychology intern Mônica Ribeiro de Souza. Stella do Patrocínio’s falatório became widely known in the early twenty-first century through a publication organized by Brazilian philosopher Viviane Mosé, titled Reino dos bichos e dos animais é o meu nome (Kingdom of the Critters and of the Animals Is my Name), published by Azougue in 2001. Since then — and especially after the transcribed material was reorganized into poetic form — academic research, theatrical plays, performances, and dance productions inspired by Stella do Patrocínio have been created.

They want to know
how I can keep being born33Do Patrocínio, ‘Verses, Reverses, Thoughts, and More…’, in this volume, p. 215.

The Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum is affiliated with IMASJM, sharing its headquarters with the institute. Located in Jacarepaguá, in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, on land that once hosted one of the oldest sugar plantations from the colonial period, the Colônia Juliano Moreira was inaugurated in 1924. It was inspired by the model of European agricultural colonies, where treatment Beginning of page[p. 272] was based on distancing patients from urban spaces and on work therapy, through agricultural labour and the production of items for internal consumption. Known as the ‘end of the line’, the institution was the destination for patients considered incurable. Its foundation was part of a modernization project for Brazil, starting in the nineneenth century, which involved urban planning and pedagogical, legal, medical, police, and family-oriented devices, particularly guided by hygienist theories. Brazilian psychiatry emerged from this process, pathologizing and intervening in counter-hegemonic existences, especially those of racialized people, in a country shaped by over three hundred years of slavery.

It was only in the late 1970s that the movement to end asylums gained momentum in Brazil. Reports of mistreatment at CJM, which garnered national attention, led to its restructuring, including the creation of projects aimed at minimizing institutional violence. Among these were the creation of the Nise da Silveira Museum in 1982, which aimed to preserve the artistic productions of patients participating in painting workshops; the Free Artistic Creation project, conducted in partnership with the Parque Lage Visual Arts School; and the artistic workshops that gave rise to Atelier Gaia.44In July 1989, the Association of Friends of the Artists of Colônia Juliano Moreira (AAACJM) was created, with the primary goal of preserving the work of Arthur Bispo do Rosário, later expanding its mission to include other institutionalized artists. The AAACJM financed art workshops for CJM patients, supervised by patient-artists of the institution, giving rise to Atelier Gaia. However, these programmes still coexisted with the violence of the asylum model. Law 10.216, marking the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform, was only approved in 2001. Since then, a long process of deinstitutionalization of hospitalized individuals has been underway,Beginning of page[p. 273] along with policies to replace asylums with deinstitutionalized treatment through the Brazilian psychosocial care network. A year earlier, CJM was municipalized and renamed the Municipal Health Assistance Institute Juliano Moreira (IMASJM). The Nise da Silveira Museum was renamed the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum.

The Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum was created to preserve the collection of work produced by institutionalized individuals, especially that of Arthur Bispo do Rosário, interned at CJM from 1939 to 1989 and now considered one of the most prominent figures of twentieth-century Brazilian art and history.55Editors’ note: Bispo do Rosário was institutionalized at Colônia Juliano Moreira between 1939 and 1949 (with some transfers to the National Psychiatric Centre/Pedro II Psychiatric Centre), and later between 1964 and 1988. Over the years and through different administrations, the museum has evolved in its practices, orientations, and purposes. Since 2013, it has taken on the responsibility of acting as a promoter of memory and narratives about the territory where it is located and as a hub for new ethical and aesthetic practices, emerging from the intersection of art, mental health, education, and, more recently, agroecology. The museum’s historical trajectory aligns with the challenges and advancements of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and the policies of the Unified Health System (SUS). Motivated by the ongoing anti-asylum struggle and the mission to operate in this territory, it develops strategies and resources to act as a cultural institution linked to health.

Since 2020, the museum has been reflecting on how to address the legacy of Stella do Patrocínio and her story. How can it engage with her memory without reenacting institutional violence? Thus, it has dedicated itself — first and foremost — to listening to her falatório and has invited Beginning of page[p. 274] interlocutors, researchers, artists, and curators to broaden and deepen the public debate about Stella’s legacy, its developments, and its impacts on the fields of art, literature, and health. Significant initiatives have been carried out, including external partnerships, as well as numerous listening sessions and discussions with the entire staff and the local community, including former asylum workers — some of whom remain on the institute’s staff — and individuals institutionalized during the asylum era, who live in the area and participate in the museum’s activities. Listening to the falatório has sparked profound debates about the effects of institutionalization on both patients and workers, as well as other fundamental issues that intersect with the museum’s discussions, such as gender, raciality, and class. The deep impact of this immersion on the team has been evident, and Stella, alongside Bispo and the artists of Atelier Gaia, has significantly guided the institution’s ethical and aesthetic practices.

In December 2020, the museum participated in the Constellação (Constellation) project, organized by curator and researcher Jessica Gogan, aimed at creating a space to share memories and poetic resonances related to the Free Artistic Expression project. Constellação included contributions from Carla Guagliardi, Denise Corrêa de Almeida, Márcio Rolo, Marlene Iucksch Paula, Mônica Ribeiro de Souza, and Nelly Gutmacher — participants in the project — as well as researcher Anna Carolina Vicentini Zacharias, psychoanalyst/essayist Tania Rivera, independent curator Diane Lima, artist Jota Mombaça, the museum’s education and art coordinator Diana Kolker, and Raquel Fernandes, the museum’s director from 2013 to 2023.

On 18 May 2021 — International Museum Day and Anti-Asylum Fight Day — we publicly launched the programme Stella do Patrocínio: História que Fala (Stella do Beginning of page[p. 275] Patrocínio: A History that Speaks), conceived by independent curator Diane Lima at the invitation of the museum’s education and art coordination department. Diane Lima proposed the creation of a residency programme, Falatório: grupo de escutas e estudos (Chatter: A Group for Listening and Studies), led by thinker, researcher, and artist Denise Ferreira da Silva, director of the Social Justice Institute/GRSJ (University of British Columbia), and featuring ten artist-researchers: Jota Mombaça, Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Ventura Profana, Paulo Nazareth, Juliana dos Santos, Rafael RG, Igi Ayedun, Ana Lira, Rebeca Carapiá, and Kulumin Açú. The programme was accompanied by Diana Kolker and Raquel Fernandes. It consisted of a series of virtual meetings where the group dedicated themselves to listening to the falatório and engaging in an exercise in historiographical speculation guided by Denise Ferreira da Silva’s Black Feminist Poetics. The central question posed by Diane Lima — ‘Since our present cannot free Stella do Patrocínio from what was her future, how can we deal with the impossibility of social justice?’ — shaped all meetings and continues to resonate with the museum team.

In 2022, under the collective curatorship of Patrícia Ruth, Rogeria Barbosa, Diana Kolker, Raquel Fernandes, and Ricardo Resende, the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum held the exhibition Stella do Patrocínio: Me mostrar que não sou sozinha. Que tem outras iguais, semelhantes a mim e diferentes (To Show Me that I’m Not Alone. That There Are Others that Are the Same, Similar to Me and Different).66It is possible to take a virtual tour on the museum’s website: <https://museubispodorosario.com/eventos/stella-do-patrocinio/> [accessed 10 May 2025]. Moreover, the falatório is currently also available on the museum’s website: <https://museubispodorosario.com/stella-do-patrocinio-memorias/> [accessed 10 May 2025]. The exhibition presented the collection Beginning of page[p. 276] of audios comprising Stella’s falatório in its original, unedited format, emphasizing the fundamental importance of its sonic materiality. ‘Stella’s work is sonic’ is an expression frequently shared by curator Diane Lima. Architect Gisele de Paula, responsible for the exhibition design, was invited to create an ambiance that encouraged audiences to experience listening in a bodily relationship with space and voice. Alongside Stella’s falatório, works by artists Annaline Curado, Morena, Natasha Felix, Panmela Castro, Patrícia Ruth, Priscila Rezende, Rogéria Barbosa, Val Souza, Vanessa Alves, Zahy Tentehar, and Rosana Palazyan were presented, in collaboration with Ana Letícia Silva de Souza, Claudia Coura, Mac Laine Faria, Luzia Cavalcanti, and Fatinha da Rocinha, members of the Psychosocial Care Centre for Those Affected by State Violence (NAPAVE).

The curatorial process involved listening to Stella’s falatório, enriched by the perceptions and memories of Patrícia Ruth and Rogeria Barbosa — members of Atelier Gaia — who participated as artist-curators. Their reflections on what they heard added images, information, memories, and various emotions to Stella’s speeches. Together, we thus selected the exhibition’s title, inspired by a phrase Stella spoke that resonated with everyone: ‘To Show Me that I’m Not Alone. That There Are Others that Are the Same, Similar to Me and Different.’ The exhibition invited audiences to listen, affirming Stella do Patrocínio’s importance in contemporary intellectual and artistic production. It was driven by the desire for Stella’s voice to reverberate through our bodies, allowing us to experience words as matter, medium, and action. It was also motivated by a desire for social justice, while acknowledging the impossibility Beginning of page[p. 277] of repairing the violence and neglect of the State — an unpayable debt, as Denise Ferreira da Silva has taught us.77See Denise Ferreira da Silva, A Dívida Impagável (São Paulo: Oficina de Imaginação Política e Living Commons, 2019) <https://ehcho.org/conteudo/a-divida-impagavel-denise-ferreira-da-silva> [accessed 10 May 2025].

During the exhibition, an educational visitation programme was held, featuring educators Taísa Vitória and Eva Costa, with coordination assistance from Rennan Carmo and Jandir Junior. This pedagogical project focused on public schools in the territory and on mental health services in the psychosocial care network, creating experimental actions and unique pathways for each group.88We received a total of 2,650 people on the guided visits. As Carmo stated:

There is a weight in dedicating the museum’s largest gallery solely to Stella’s falatório, presented in its entirety and divided into four parts. Each part was spatialized in niches designed for collective listening experiences, without headphones but with speakers, allowing for a more plural way of listening to her. Visitors would pass through these niches and ‘pause’ for a time. This spatial arrangement spread Stella’s words like echoes throughout the museum space. I remember Taísa and Eva even conducted a (brilliant) study of these words in the space, highlighting personally impactful excerpts.

In addition to the visitation programme, we established a new partnership with Jessica Gogan through the Graduate Program in Contemporary Studies of the Arts at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), culminating in the public performance of Ensaios de Escutas (Listening Essays). The latter were held in the exhibition space, with the participation Beginning of page[p. 278] of artist, poet, and curator Natasha Felix, researcher Sara Ramos, and in collaboration with researcher Anna Carolina Vicentini Zacharias. The transcription of this event was included in the publication Eu não sei o que dizer, mas desejo profundamente que você me escute (I Don’t Know What to Say, But I Deeply Wish You Would Listen to Me), organized by Gogan and Instituto Mesa, and launched in 2024.

Because I don’t know how to do justice. Don’t know how to do justice… And I’m a defence attorney and life saver.99Stella do Patrocínio, ‘Falatório’, Audio 4, in this volume, p. 169.

In 2024, just two years after the closure of the last institutionalization unit and the consolidation of deinstitutionalization at IMASJM, we marked the centenary of Colônia Juliano Moreira’s founding. Once one of the largest asylum complexes in Latin America, the ‘Colony’ is now a residential neighbourhood. The ruins of internment pavilions have been restored, transformed into low-income housing, schools, psychosocial care centres, community spaces, environmental protection areas, and artistic production sites. Some buildings have been constructed to house those displaced from their territories of origin by urban remodelling and gentrification associated with large-scale sports events. Yet, some ruins, desolate spaces, and abandoned roads remain — echoes of a violent past that resists erasure and denounces the possibility of reinvention of the eugenicist ideas underpinning asylum practices.

As a space for culture and memory, the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum aims to serve as an integrative hub for this fragmented community while fostering critical reflection on the memories shaping this history.Beginning of page[p. 279] The museum embraces the multiplicity of perspectives that challenge the dominant narratives publicized over time. How can we recount stories of pervasive violence without reinforcing stigmas or reenacting the pain of countless individuals victimized by asylums and now living within this community?

In recent years, a robust network of research, public debates, publications, exhibitions, and critical revision of Stella do Patrocínio’s legacy has broadened her relevance within institutional politics. The current curatorial team at the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum — led by general curator Carolina Rodrigues, with curators Gabriel Reis, Geovana Melo, and Napê Rocha — builds on these contributions. They recognize Stella as a methodological reference for shaping the centenary’s events and, in particular, the institution’s new curatorial framework.

In a place where many voices were discredited, where identities were erased, and memories dismissed, we recognize that it is through orality — the spoken word — that we access perspectives deliberately silenced under colonial power structures. Stella offers us pathways for research and exhibition design that promote dialogues between historical information, artistic works, documentary sources, visceral testimonies of those who endured asylum horrors, and the imaginative repertoire affirming the humanity of those who lived and continue to live here.

Approaching Stella do Patrocínio’s falatório through an aesthetic lens, and thus crystallizing and reducing her words to their poetic dimension, risks silencing critical information and denunciations that contextualize Colônia Juliano Moreira and Brazil’s political context, which was rooted in eugenic practices well into the late twentieth century. Understanding the limitations of framing Stella solely as an artistic figure compels us to reevaluate the readings of Beginning of page[p. 280] Arthur Bispo do Rosário’s work, as both figures transcend conceptual categorizations that serve only aesthetic enjoyment. From the supposed impossibility of constructing legacies, Stella’s voice resonates, not to fill informational gaps, but to refocus our gaze on intangible heritage and the role of orality in consolidating knowledge rooted in this land.

In a spiralling movement, Stella’s falatório claims a collective past in opposition to the politics of erasure. In this way, Stella transcends being a work, a sound, or a text; she becomes a guide for institutional policies at the Bispo do Rosário Contemporary Art Museum, shaping curatorial practices and education and art projects. These initiatives draw from new technologies of care and sociability to improve territorial articulation and to ensure the preservation, dissemination, and enrichment of memory through the voices of those who continually build the legacy of our community.

Like Stella do Patrocínio, we also do not know how to do justice. We do not aspire to achieve it and may not yet know how to contend with its impossibility, responding to Diane Lima’s provocation. Nonetheless, we will continue mobilizing the strategies of defence crafted by those who sustained life far beyond this place’s hundred years of existence.