Artistic intervention re-signifies traditional space for coexistence and socialization of students 

In the year in which it celebrates 110 years of existence, the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) promotes the exhibition "Basement: democratic space", which rescues its institutional and student history in various moments of support for democracy. Going through the violent years of the Brazilian dictatorship and exploring movements such as "Diretas Já" and "Fora Collor", a vast documentary and iconographic collection now covers the underground space of the college's central campus, at the heart of Avenida Doutor Arnaldo.

Traditionally occupied by students from FMUSP undergraduate courses, the place (also known as Basement) is home to several student organizations, including the Academic Center Oswaldo Cruz (CAOC), main student representation of the Medicine course and responsible for maintaining the space. It was in 2021, during a major renovation project, that the idea for the exhibition came about.

CAOC's Director of Asset Management, Ricardo Padlipskas Alves: “The FMUSP student body has always been involved in very important struggles in the history of Brazil, whether in the creation of the Hospital das Clínicas, in the fight against the military regime – a period in which presidents of the CAOC were arrested and murdered –, in Diretas Já (social movement demanding direct popular vote) and countless other movements.”

Hence, the new artistic intervention proposes a re-signification of this socializing environment that has been part of the Faculty’s history for over 90 years, since the inauguration of the current headquarters building, and allows students to learn more about their own academic heritage. At a time of national division, “strengthening the image of the Basement as a diverse, articulated and democratic space allows us to convey the message that there will be no openness for those who do not seek to dialogue with democracy”, says Ricardo.

The marks of a resistance guided by the diversity of voices stamp the walls and columns of the FMUSP basement, where the graphic project invokes a narrative that opens paths through several thematic sections. Decades of document style photos of CAOC members line up next to each other, joining the pages of journals produced by the students (such as O Bisturi, or The Scalpel, in English, released in 1930), photos of social activities, records of the so-called “golden years” of scientific and technological advances, acts in defense of the Unified Health System, university hospitals, student financing, among others.

While the CAOC and Academic Center XXI de Junho, from the Faculty’s Department of Physiotherapy, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy (FOFITO), helped to select documents and photos for the elaboration of the project, it was the Historic Museum of FMUSP that curated the material.

For professor André Mota, coordinator of the Museum and professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine, “the Faculty wanted to bring as a message, based on the proposals of the students of the student centers, a little-known collective trajectory”. As consequence, he analyses, it turns out that oscillations in the national political situation directly affect the student body and the Faculty of Medicine as a whole. “It is clear in the exhibition that in democratic moments, the Faculty advances in terms of research, education and community outreach”, he says. “In moments of democratic suspension, on the contrary, the institution withdraws and so does student life.”