High up in the Gávea neighborhood and surrounded by the lush Floresta da Tijuca, the house where Walther Moreira Salles and his family used to live became in 1999 the headquarters of the Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro. IMS Rio offers exhibitions, film screenings, concerts and cultural events, and shelters the institution’s photography, music, literature and iconography collections. The house, planned by Olavo Redig de Campos with landscape design by Roberto Burle Marx, is a landmark of 1950s modern architecture and an attraction in itself.

Marc Ferrez: território e imagem

Marc Ferrez: territory and imagery

The exhibition showcases the photographer's extensive work throughout the country over the course of more than 50 years of his professional career, between 1867 and 1923. Marc Ferrez (1843–1923) covered Brazil's Northeastern, North and Southeastern regions as the official photographer for the Geological Commission of the Brazilian Empire (1875-1878), whereas the South and Southwest where documented during his times as a photographer for the main railroads being built and reformed during that period.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Ferrez also intensively documented the Empire's capital and its surroundings. His professional and creative activities were decidedly marked by an everlasting search for language and technological innovations, while keeping a close association to great names in engineering, sciences and art.

With over 300 items from the IMS archives, as well as some other institutions', the exhibition includes photographs and original photo albums, glass negatives, stereoscopies, autochromes, cameras and photographic equipment, original documents and mail, discussing the role of photographic images in the exploration of the Brazilian territory throughout its diverse regions, as well as the construction and consolidation of the idea of a nation, especially during the Second Empire and the early days of the Republic. All the while, this exhibit also goes through the many image territories explored by Ferrez on his professional practice, from collodion to color photography, as well as cinema and print, all the way up to mass visual communication.

Escrever com a imagem e ver com a palavra

WRITING WITH IMAGES AND SEEING WITH WORDS

Few photographers have translated Brazil so well, with all its complexities, as Maureen Bisilliat. Born in England, she moved to Brazil in the 1950s and built one of the most solid works of photographic investigation of the Brazilian soul.

This exhibition at the IMS Rio Small Gallery highlights books in which her photographies dialogue with the works of great Brazilian Writers: João Guimarães Rosa, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Euclides da Cunha, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Adelia Prado, Jorge Amado, Ariano Suassuna, Mário de Andrade, and Jorge de Lima. An insightful and curious reader, Bisilliat seems to disagree with the cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words: "My photographs," she says, "are only complete with the text."

Since December 2003 her complete work, consisting of 16,251 images, including photographs, black and white negatives and color chromes, has been incorporated into the IMS collection.

Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 476 - Gávea

By bus
Bus lines: Troncal 5 (Alto Gávea x Central via Praia de Botafogo); 112 (Rodoviária – Alto da Gávea via Túnel Rebouças / Rio Comprido); 538 (Rocinha-Botafogo); 539 (Rocinha-Leme); Ônibus executivo (frescão) Praça Mauá-Gávea

By car
Parking at IMS Rio is free. The parking ticket must be validated at the reception desk before exit.

Exhibitions and admission to the house is free. Tickets for the cinema can be purchased at the reception or online at ingresso.com (please check the calendar available online). For shows, courses and special events, tickets (also available through Eventbrite) or passes may be distributed separately.