From June 27, 2026
Age rating: General Audiences
Don’t be startled, human offers an in-depth look at Alípio Freira Collection, created and maintained by the political militants Alípio Freire and Rita Sipahi and incorporated into the São Paulo Resistance Memorial in 2023. This collection brings together designs made by a number of prisoners in São Paulo between 1969 and 1979.
Created under conditions of confinement, vigilance and state-sponsored violence, these works reveal different strategies used by prisoners to preserve emotional bonds, express ideas and affirm their subjectivity in the face of repression. Beyond historical records, these reveal how art became a space of autonomy and resistance within imprisonment. The trajectory sorts these works according to their prisons of origin, deepening their historical context and helping us understand the day-to-day practices of oppression and resistance during the Civil-Military Dictatorship.
The exhibit also shows over 20 works from São Paulo’s Pinacoteca, made by artists outside of prison during the 1960s and 1970s, as well as more contemporary works during the 2010s about art and politics, featuring Carla Chaim, Jaime Lauriano and Marilá Dardot. Displaying these works among the Alípio Freire collection is what bridges different forms of art created in response to abuses against human rights and violations of democratic values.
