The National History Museum, which was closed almost a year ago, will reopen this Thursday (13th) with an exhibit on slavery.

After its world premiere in Washington (USA) in December 2024, the exhibition will arrive in Rio and can be visited until March 1, 2026. He then embarks on an international tour with stops in Cape Town (South Africa), Dakar (Senegal) and Liverpool (UK).

MHN closed nearly a year ago for its first electrical project in its more than 100-year history, but has begun a race against time to hold the exhibition.

The entire area surrounding the Patio de Cañoes, which houses three large galleries on the ground floor of the museum, has been completely revitalized to host the exhibition. The upper part of the space, which houses fixed collections, will remain closed for work.

“The past that never passes away”

Organized into six thematic sections, Beyond Slavery offers a deep dive into the impact of African trafficking on shaping modern society. Highlights include new archaeological artifacts being shown to the public for the first time, including beads and pipe fragments recovered from Valongo Pier.

For Cicero de Almeida, the museum’s director, these objects symbolize and help us understand how current inequalities are a direct legacy of slavery.

– This population, kidnapped from Africa to other parts of the world, resisted all along. She resisted the use of violence, incorporation, and changing places and cultures. And Brazil stands out. From the (colonial era) tailors’ rebellion to Mariel Franco. The exhibition always wants to confront us with this past that has not passed.

This exhibition not only looks back on the past, but also proposes a connection between the present and the future. One section juxtaposes the chains that once restrained enslaved people with the handcuffs currently used in prisons around the world. Both of these are manufactured by the same company to this day.

The exhibition also features Freedom Songs, an installation featuring songs reflecting timeless struggles and black liberation by artists such as Nina Simone, Gilberto Gil, Miriam Makeba and Margarethe Menezes.

A renovated museum facing the city

The reopening will include the entire first floor, including the carriage room and Patio dos Cañois, with food trucks set up in the side garden. This is a dry run for the new phase of MHN. Having completely renovated its electrical system, the museum is preparing to host other major international exhibitions in 2026.

The new facilities include a new auditorium, cafe and snack bar. The museum’s long-term exhibitions, which are made up of modules, will undergo a “reconceptual review,” Almeida said.

According to the director, the museum will now focus on the historic environment of the city center, in a project that connects the spaces with the areas where Ladeira da Misericordia, the Church of Nossa Senhora do Bonsucesso, Paso Imperial and the Naval Museum are located.

– The museum connects with the city from the side with a very pleasant garden. We are going to look at Rio’s historic center and have agreed with City Hall to create energy in this corridor, he says.

Three other exhibitions will be held in parallel with the exhibition at MHN.