The "flying saucer"

MAC - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Oscar Niemeyer (2006)

"Como é fácil explicar este projeto!
Lembro quando fui ver o local. O mar, as montanhas do Rio, uma paisagem magnífica que eu devia preservar.
E subi com o edifício, adotando a forma circular que, a meu ver, o espaço requeria.
O estudo estava pronto, e uma rampa levando os visitantes ao museu completou o meu projeto. "

Manuscrito da primeira versão do texto de 1996


The Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói — MAC)was designed by the great modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer, born in Rio de Janeiro in the 1907 and still alive.
The museum has a modern structure and is cupola makes it look like the big calice of a flower("surfacing of the water surface that is an echo of the sea - as a strong stem which opens into flower, flame, cup?" sais Italo Campofiorito, architect and art critic)or a flying saucer (in Portuguese "disco voador", as Brazilian people are used to call it).

The entire structure of the building, whose cylindrical base is surrounded by a 817-square metre reflecting pool, is the perfect place where experimenting, with the camera, visual effects of its shapes and reflections on the water...


Photo available also here

Behind the prickly pears

Praia do Arpoador - Rio de Janeiro- RJ- Brazil

Arpoador literally means "the harpoon thrower", probably because once whales used to be harpooned in this area. It is considered to be both a beach and a rock and is located in a small rocky peninsula between Ipanema and Copacabana.
This beautiful corner of paradise is the right place for surfing-lovers, since the waves break againts the outcropping rocks and the promontory is interested by a strong riptide.

source: Wikipedia

I tried to create a contrasting effect in this photo: I wanted to fix the waves' continous motion in the background, damped by the shadowy horizon line, as a stream behind the solid fixity of the plants (in this case the prickly pears). The black prickly pears' thorns should express a sensation of "hardness",and emanate, in a certain way, the heat of the place; the light waves, instead, should give an impression of "fluidity".

Photo available also here

Behind the prickly pears

Praia do Arpoador - Rio de Janeiro- RJ- Brazil

Arpoador literally means "the harpoon thrower", probably because once whales used to be harpooned in this area. It is considered to be both a beach and a rock and is located in a small rocky peninsula between Ipanema and Copacabana.
This beautiful corner of paradise is the right place for surfing-lovers, since the waves break againts the outcropping rocks and the promontory is interested by a strong riptide.

source: Wikipedia

I tried to create a contrasting effect in this photo: I wanted to fix the waves' continous motion in the background, damped by the shadowy horizon line, as a stream behind the solid fixity of the plants (in this case the prickly pears). The black prickly pears' thorns should express a sensation of "hardness",and emanate, in a certain way, the heat of the place; the light waves, instead, should give an impression of "fluidity".