Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói Essay Example for Free

Museu de Arte Contempornea de Niteri EssayThe Niteri Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contempornea de Niteri mac) is situated in the city of Niteri, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is one of the citys main landmarks. It was completed in 1996. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer with the assistance of structural engineer Bruno Contarini, who had worked with Niemeyer on former projects, the MAC-Niteri is 16 meters high its cupola has a diameter of 50 metres with three floors. The museum projects itself over Boa Viagem (Bon Voyage, Good Journey), the 817 square metres (8,790 sq ft) reflecting pool that surrounds the cylindrical metrical foot like a flower, in the words of Niemeyer. A wide access slope school principals to a Hall of Expositions, which has a capacity for sixty people. Two doors lead to the viewing gallery, through which can be seen theGuanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and Sugarloaf Mountain.The saucer-shaped modernist structure, which has been likened to a UFO, is set on a cliffside, at the bottom of which is a beach. In the film Oscar Niemeyer, an house decorator committed to his century,1 Niemeyer is seen flying over Rio de Janeiro in a UFO which then lands on the site, suggesting this to be the origin of the museum. The MAC Scandal was a political dirt that occurred when the mayor Joo Sampaio inaugurated the Niteri Contemporary Art Museum. The MAC is located on a hill slope that had locked construction rights set by the city council. Therefore in December 1996, the new mayor, Jorge Roberto Silveira sent a project to the city council to obtain the rights to construction in that area. The project was accepted in only two days, giving permission to build buildings up to 40 metres (130 ft).The city council did not know that days before, Zeca Mocarzel, sub-mayor of the Niteris Oceanic Region (of Jorge Roberto Silveiras government) bought the lands at a very low price, claiming to the old owner that the region was locked and nothing could be done the re. So he bought the area and, after the inauguration of the MAC which substantially increased the property values of the nearby areas, later sold the land for more than 5 million reals, approximately 1,250,000 US dollars at the clip (2,720,000 dollars today). Because the scandal occurred just before Christmas, the people of Niteri said that it was Jorge Roberto Silveira, Zeca Mocarzel and Joo Sampaios (long-time Niteris politicians) Christmas present.