Past Future Tense

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"I´ve gotta go back, Marty!"
"Back where, Doc?!"
"Back . . . to the future!"

Brasília, that is.

I left behind the old, bustling, savage world of the Amazon for the complete opposite in little less than a four hour plane ride.

For those of you who don´t know (which I´m guessing is pretty much everyone), I´ll give you a little history lesson, free of charge. Brasília is an enormous planned city, probably the most unique in the world. And it has a very interesting history, besides its odd buildings.

Way back in the mid-to-late 19th century an Italian bishop named Dom Bosco had a dream in which he saw a great new civilization rising up between the 15th and 20th parallels. The dream became widely known in Brazil, and soon there was talk of moving the Brazilian capital to somewhere in the interior, in the area that Dom Bosco dreamed of. It wasn´t until 1955 however that the dream began to come to life.

In answer to a random crowd member´s question at a rally, presidential candidate Juscelino Kubitschek promised to create a new capital in the famous area, as a way to develop Brazilian economy away from the coast and as a symbol of what Brazil would become in the future. After winning the lection, JK began work immediately, starting from literally nothing and building a capital in three years, hundreds of miles away from any other city. Started in 1957, the new city was inaugurated as the capital in April of 1960.

The city was the artwork of three men: Oscar Neimeyer (famous architect), Lúcio Costa (famous city planner), and Burle Max (famous landscape architect). The whole city was landed out in the shape of an enormous airplane or bird, with the wings being enormous residential districts and the fuselage being the location of mostly government and public buildings.

The wings (asas) are centered around one large road the Eixo Rodaviária and are zoned into different districts. So, the one closest, running parallel to the main road are the business buildings, then superquadras 9enormous blocks of very similar-looking apartment buildings), then commerical districts, then residential, then miscellaneous. All addresses in the city are extremely logical and numerical. If someone where to tell you the address of a house or shop, you could know instantly where it is. For example, I stayed in a pousada located at SQS 707, Bloco I, Casa 75. It seems very complicated at first, but within an hour or so, it makes perfect sense.

The fuselage of the plane is centered along the Eixo Monumental, an enormous grassy lawn that runs the entire length of the city. On either side of the eastern end are important buildings, such as the city theater, the city cathedral, all the ministry buildings, and several others. The Eixo Monumental ends at the Praça dos Três Poderes, the Plaza of the Three Powers, where there is the congress building, the supreme court, and the executive office. All of these buildings were designed by Neimeyer in his distinct modernist style and are quite a sight, especially when taken altogether as a whole.

Due to its unique history and odd architecture, there are also a number of strange cults or new-age religiousity in the region. There are even areas nearby where people believe that aliens visit regularly. It´s just a really odd city.

Brasília takes a lot of crap from Brazilians (and others too I think). When I would tell Brazilians that I wanted to go to Brasília, they´d say, ". . . why?" But the truth is, I found the city very enjoyable. It´s certainly not the most Brazilian city in existence, but it´s pleasant, and--I think--immensely enthralling. The thing that struck me first about being in the city was green space. I´m simply not used to seeing any green or any open space in a city, after being in Brazil for almost two months. The city provides plenty of parks and open, spacious areas for its citizens. However, walking around the Superquadras almost gave me the feeling of being on a college campus, surrounded by high-rise dorm buildings.

Overall, the city is just a spectacular work of art. Even if you feel that its dated or too weird or un-Brazilian, its still a fascinating work of art. I really expected it to be like the old version of Futureworld at Disney Land before they updated it, but really, it was a much more engrossing, meditative experience. You could easily spend a few days there photographing everything from every angle. It´s amazing how much just a change of a few degrees of perspective can completely change the curves and lines of the city and its buildings.

I also had the extreme lucky of coincidentally making my trip there ON Brazilian independence day, September 7th. I realized when booking my jungle trip in Manaus that I could catch a plane to Brasília for Sete de Setembro and hopefully see some cool stuff. The festivities centered around a very long parade on the Eixo Monumental, followed by a very cool air show overhead by the Brazilian version of the Blue Angels. Besides the interesting city, it was a cool experience to see how another nation celebrates its independence and to be a part of it.

Brasília´s certainly not for everyone, but I´ve got to say that I enjoyed it immensely.

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