Abstract
In 2022, we are commemorating two important Brazilian anniversaries. 200 years ago, the country gained independence from Portugal, and between February 10-17, 1922, the so-called Modern Art Week took place in São Paulo, an art festival that was both a cultural and political event. It marked the beginning of Brazilian modernism and influenced not only the artistic events in the country for several decades to come.
In the Week of Modern Art, elements that had been forming in Brazilian culture since the First World War mixed together to create a broad platform of various opinions, polemics, new magazines and manifestos. All art was included, including theater and visual arts. Brazilian modernism combined all European -isms without forgetting its own Indian and African roots, perceived through the lens of a certain primitivism, which it did not hesitate to praise. It was followed by many movements, especially the so-called Cannibal Movement (Movimento Antropófago, 1928), which, following the example of the primordial cultures in the area, proposed the so-called cultural atropophagy, i.e. the consumption of imported culture without losing one's own identity. Its authors were Oswald de Andrade, Mário de Andrade, Tarsila do Amaral and Raul Bopp.