The Museum of Contemporary Art in Niterói, one of Oscar Niemeyer's most celebrated architectural masterpieces overlooking Rio de Janeiro's bay, is hosting a groundbreaking exhibition that bridges Brazil's design heritage with its contemporary future. "Then and Now: Brazilian Legacy," curated by Galerie Philia, presents sixty works that create a compelling dialogue between mid-century modernist masters and today's innovative designers, positioning Brazilian design within the broader context of cultural history and architectural innovation.

Galerie Philia has organized this exhibition as part of its ongoing mission to create site-specific encounters in architecturally significant spaces around the world. The gallery has previously activated notable locations including Le Corbusier's famous Cité Radieuse collective in Marseille and Milan's historic San Vittore church. Within Niemeyer's distinctive circular galleries, the exhibition unfolds across multiple disciplines, creating striking contrasts between the established legacy of modernist masters and the urgent voices of contemporary creators.

The exhibition's setting in Niemeyer's landmark building provides the perfect backdrop for exploring figures who fundamentally shaped Brazil's mid-century identity through design. Featured modernist masters include Joaquim Tenreiro, Lina Bo Bardi, José Zanine Caldas, Jorge Zalszupin, Sergio Rodrigues, Giuseppe Scapinelli, Ricardo Fasanello, and Oscar Niemeyer himself. Their pieces tell a rich story in which furniture transcended mere functionality to become an embodiment of cultural imagination and national aspiration. Tenreiro's radical lightness, Bo Bardi's social engagement, Caldas' carved protest furniture, and Rodrigues' sensual warmth represent distinct yet interconnected approaches that demonstrate how Brazilian modernists successfully integrated architecture, craft, and industry to articulate a vision of modern life that was simultaneously universal and distinctly local.

The contemporary section of the exhibition showcases today's Brazilian designers, who work within a dramatically different context marked by ecological urgency, cultural plurality, and a renewed focus on material origins. These contemporary practitioners reinterpret modernist ideals through the use of reclaimed wood, exploration of hybrid identities, and experimentation with innovative forms. Featured contemporary designers include Arthur Casas, Gabriela Campos, Hugo França, Zanini de Zanine, Aver, and Mauricio Arruda, who collectively expand the design narrative from utopian optimism to one of resilience and memory.

Hugo França's monumental furniture carved from salvaged tree trunks particularly emphasizes environmental concerns, while Campos' cross-disciplinary practice echoes Bo Bardi's inclusive ethos. Aver's architectural lighting reimagines precision with sculptural warmth, and Zanini de Zanine continues his father's legacy of working with reclaimed materials, positioning sustainability as a central philosophical stance in contemporary Brazilian design.

For Ygaël Attali, founder of Galerie Philia, Niemeyer's museum represented an essential setting for this exhibition. "MAC Niterói is one of the most emblematic works of Oscar Niemeyer, and it embodies the very spirit of Brazilian modernism," he explains. "Its futuristic form, suspended above the bay, already suggests a dialogue between past and future. It was crucial for me to situate this exhibition in a place that is itself a manifesto of modernism."

Working within Niemeyer's powerful architectural language presented both challenges and opportunities for the exhibition's presentation. Attali continues: "The architecture is so strong that it risks overshadowing the works, but it also creates a rhythm that naturally lends itself to dialogue. We opted for interweaving modern and contemporary works rather than separating them, so that resonances and dissonances could be felt."

Despite the significant distance between postwar optimism and today's global ecological urgency, Attali emphasizes the continuity that connects these two generations of designers. "What unites them is an ethic of material intimacy and craft," Attali says. "Whether it is Tenreiro working with native woods, Zanine Caldas carving salvaged trunks, or Hugo França reclaiming monumental fallen trees today, there is a deep respect for the expressive potential of material." Another shared value is the belief that design can carry profound cultural meaning.

Among the modernist works, Tenreiro's lightweight wooden chairs symbolize both refinement and absence, installed in an empty circle as a tribute to the legacy of masters. Zalszupin's modular works reveal a careful balance between European sensibility and Brazilian innovation. For the contemporary pieces, Attali highlights França's monumental reclaimed wood sculptures and Campos' narrative-rich objects, alongside Aver's luminous architectural forms. Together, these diverse works illustrate the sculptural, poetic, intimate, and monumental breadth that defines Brazilian design across generations, demonstrating how the country's creative legacy continues to evolve while maintaining its distinctive character.