Cemeteries: a place of pain, mourning and scenic memories

The project, coordinated by Professor Rubens de Andrade, is dedicated to the study of places dedicated to the rites of consecration and celebration of the memory of the dead in the design of the contemporary city landscape, from a historical, socio-spatial and landscape perspective. In situ and in visu landscapes of cemeteries, memorials and spaces dedicated to a range of events inscribed in the funerary ritualistic universe will be studied. The research will focus on the analysis of material and immaterial culture, produced from the relations of society with spaces, whose concrete and symbolic appearance is inscribed in the sign of human finitude, that is, death. In this sense, will landscape aspects of cemeteries, memorials, religious buildings (sacred precincts) and hospitals (chapels) be considered? the project, the gardens, the tomb art, the cemetery architecture? subscribed to the daily life of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The relationships established here offer an expanded epistemological field to explore processes and phenomena that are instituted in the ritual spaces established throughout the history of the city. In the work The city in history, its origins, transformations and perspectives, Lewis Munford affirms that since the genesis of the city, the idea of ​​death is something present when he proposes that the city of the living is a result of the city of the dead, that is, the dead they were the first to have an address, a space, where the group that buried their dead would probably return at regular intervals (MUNFORD, 2002). Within this perspective, we could assume that we are closer to the ancient Egyptians than we imagined. The contemporary city continues to live with death and this is a concrete and irrefutable fact. However, it seems to us, it is restricted to places dedicated to ceremonial rites or, many times, they are present in the urban daily life in a spectacular way through the media. These channels not only amplify such information in cyber space, but also mitigate in different social spheres, the idea that society is experiencing one of its most violent historical moments. However, this fact should not be considered an absolute truth, after all, when thinking about drawing comparative tables between violence today and, for example, violence in the 18th century, it is more likely that in that period the city is a more dangerous place to live. 

https://sucupira.capes.gov.br/sucupira/public/consultas/coleta/projetoPesquisa/viewProjetoPesquisa.jsf?popup=true&idProjeto=625834