Discover all the Occupations Weaving with Zuzu Angel
The Ocupação project, created by Itaú Cultural, opens its 17th edition with an exhibition, performances, film shows and meetings with designers in remembrance of one of the most unique women of our history, Zuzu Angel – Zuleika Angel Jones (Curvelo, MG, 1921 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1976).
Responsible for the genesis of Brazilian fashion, a pioneering business woman, a successful artist and a woman sensitive to the changes of society, at the height of success Zuzu shifted her life and work onto her quest for the truth about the disappearance of her son – Stuart Angel Jones, tortured and killed by the military dictatorship at the age of 26 -, thus determining her own death.
Fashion, an important segment to reflect on culture, is for the first time on the agenda of Ocupação, which now innovates by spreading over different spaces and proposing an exhibition on the move: the dresses created by Zuzu are showcased on the runway by models and actresses, who also give voice to the letters that she would send in her endless hunt for Stuart.
As Zuzu was multiple, the proposition to this show is diverse and depicts different moments and locations. The early days in Curvelo, the time spent in Bahia and the arrival in Rio de Janeiro. The water where she used to swim, the sky of Minas Gerais, the mother-in-law’s tongue plants. The studio, the boutique, the international career; the collections, the prints. The neat marketing and communication. The militancy. The angels, the mourning and the fight.
After 50 years of the coup – the spotlight is turned on the transformation of Zuzu‘s work decrying the atrocious government repression, which corrupted individual freedoms and caused violence and deaths.
Just like her fashion, Zuzu‘s protests traveled beyond the borders of the country. In 1976, she was caught in a fatal ambush.
The reinvention of herself is the driving force to weave this narrative of facts, time, places, truths and myths arising from the life of Zuzu Angel. This Ocupação is just one more thread to be woven together.
Itaú Cultural