Channebeta - Speciale - A century history of architecture

He was a great man before being a great architect, he gave us a moral lesson before giving one about architecture. He led an extraordinary life that has become patrimony of the mankind. An extraordinary life that still goes on through the witness of his last works and peculiarity of his private life: the first anniversary of the marriage with his friend, secretary and co-worker Vera Lucia Cabreira, falls in these days, a relationship that started just after the end of the bond with the woman of his life, the Italian Annita Balso, which lasted 78 years.

On his hundredth birthday Oscar Niemeyer lunched in the enchanting Canoe House, designed in his youth and for his own pleasure, in the Tijuca Forest and that has been recently reopened to house his foundation. This party has been attended by the most important people of South America. On the evening he choose to dine with just eight friends, the ones still alive of the old group, "the ones that estimate and love each other", as President Lula said, a great friend of him. "I already know what we are going to talk about. As usual we are going to go back to the old times when we lived in Paris, I as a student, he as an exile, both without any money. Then Oscar will address the subject he cares the most, the poor of his land, the damned of the earth, the dictatorships to be defeated, the injustice not to be tolerated. This because Niemeyer, never a pessimist, is still convinced that the healthy part of mankind always prevails on the unhealthy one." In fact he self said in occasion of prise given from the Russian government:" we are optimist, the world is changing" Niemeyer said also, that he would like to see a better world, with more fraternity, [...] where people don't look for each other's faults, but take pleasure in helping and caring for each other. The master made also statements of a more political character as when he said that " the Bush empire is immoral" and at the end he even praised Putin as a leader. Of course the latter opinions, most of all the one about the Russian president, must be interpreted considering the influence of the stage he was on (it was a Russian ceremony) and on the other hand, with some effort, his peculiarly optimistic and ,at the same time, romantic view of the late Soviet Union. But in this way we risk to forget the actual political situation of a nation, where on the same day a former chess world champion Garry Kasparov is arrested because he publicly protests against the government and warns about a possible dictatorship. Yes, it is true, nowadays the dictatorships, the worst ones, are the invisible ones, that don't make propaganda through military parades but can control the society without being noticed.

As it seams Oscar Niemeyer ignores this, but in good faith, in fact his words are always about social justice and love, concepts not fitting with the modern Russian Federation. His is just a overwhelming nostalgia, the nostalgia of a great architect, stronger than everything may happen today in the world.

Channelbeta presents a special service about Oscar Niemeyer consisting in the present article, a some Videos by Francesco Giorgino, our correspondent by the celebration for Niemeyer's hundredth birthday.

Gianluigi D'Angelo

Translated by

Pietro De Berardinis