On Friday the 13th we took the subway to the Cinelândia station and walked through the Largo de Carioca — the central downtown. Our destination was the ferry terminal (the Estaçao das Barcas). There we planned to cross the Bay of Guanabara to visit Niteroi, a peninsula famous for its 18th-century fortresses, its beaches, and for the Museu de Arte Contemporânea (MAC), which was our particular destination.
The ferry was quick, but we waited a half hour for the Niteroi city bus to the museum. We were tired when we arrived, so before visiting the museum proper, we had lunch in the elegant underground restaurant — always a wise choice, as any museum visitor knows. The lower part of the museum (the part with windows) contained abstract works that left me cold, but also some excellent architectural models that appealed to the Lego-builder in me.
If I don’t know the context of a modern work of art, or if I am unfamiliar with the commentary that it generated, it leaves me in the dark. That is a bit of how I felt after visiting MAC. I just didn’t “get it.” But even that realization stretched me a bit. I guess I have to read a book about contemporary art in Brazil to be able to speak intelligently or write something that isn’t nonsense. We got back on the bus and returned to the ferry.
It was getting to be dusk when we returned to Rio. We walked to the Lapa district, famous for its monumental aquaduct. For further sights of downtown Rio, visit the next page, dedicated to the Largo de Carioca.