Exhibition Quem Tem Medo de Bicho Pau?

Museu Vale opens the exhibition space at the Governor’s House Cultural Park in Vila Velha

The “Quem Tem Medo de Bicho Pau?” (Who’s Afraid of Stick Insects?) exhibition will be open to the public from May 9th to August 17th.

The enchantment of animals from land, water, and imagination will inaugurate Galeria Gabinete, a new exhibition space at the Governor’s House Cultural Park in Vila Velha. The exhibition will host the “Who’s Afraid of Stick Insects?” exhibition, presented by the Museu Vale in partnership with the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center (CCVM), from May 9th to August 17th.

Visitors will be able to see up close more than one hundred sculptures by Hiorlando, a folk artist from Água Doce do Maranhão. He transforms wood into animals and animals into enchantment, revealing, through shapes and textures, a world where reality and imagination coexist. The exhibition is curated by Gabriel Gutierrez, director of the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center.

For Claudia Afonso, director of the Museu Vale, this is an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of artistic expressions and create multiple experiences for the public. “The exhibition celebrates the encounter between two spaces that make up the Vale Cultural Institute, bringing together Maranhão and Espírito Santo through folk art, culture, and the creative power of these seaside territories. We will connect the people of Espírito Santo with the creative universe of Hiorlando, occupying the Casa do Governador Cultural Park, with its enchanted fauna, valuing closeness to nature and play,” she states.

The exhibition curator emphasizes the importance of folk culture in shaping critical thinking and affirming ancestral heritage. “We often think of ancestry as something abstract that hovers over our heads, when in fact, it is physical and present. Hiorlando’s animals are proof of the ancestral mark of folk practices. They connect distant times and spaces, reminding us that folk culture is original. In Hiorlando’s animals, we can recognize cave paintings, the carrancas of the São Francisco River, and even the Capixaba coat. The movement is the same: to give and create meaning based on the values ​​of the land, minimally ordering the world around us,” explains Gabriel.

The exhibition is an initiative of the Museu Vale, the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center, and the Vale Cultural Institute, sponsored by Vale and produced by the Ministry of Culture, through the Cultural Incentive Law. It will feature accessibility features, including a tactile map and audio description, ensuring that all visitors can fully enjoy the experience.

The accessibility project was planned with Museus Acessíveis, an accessibility consulting agency for museums and cultural spaces, so that everyone can fully experience art, strengthening their connection with the collection and reaffirming the role of culture as a democratic and accessible space.

Service – Exhibition “Who’s Afraid of Stick Insects?”

Location: Galeria Gabinete, new exhibition space at the Governor’s House Cultural Park

Opening: May 9, starting at 4 p.m.

Exhibition period: until August 17, Tuesday to Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Group Scheduling: For group visits, advance scheduling is required by phone (27) 99252-7525 or by email at educativo.mv@institutoculturalvale.org

Free tickets to the park can be picked up: https://parqueculturalcasadogovernador.byinti.com/#/ticket/

All ages

About the artist

João Pereira Marques, or Hiorlando, or even Daolinda, as he is known, was born in 1963 in the town of João Peres, Araióses, Maranhão. He began his working life in a salt mine near the municipality of Água Doce do Maranhão, where he still lives. For a time, he replaced his father as a longshoreman. After suffering an accident and suffering a spinal injury, he decided, according to him, to indulge his passion for creating animals. His first was a large sea lion, which gained fame under the cashew tree in the garden of the artist’s home.

About the Museu Vale

The Museu Vale, in its off-site period, expands its activities and brings various artistic expressions and educational programs to squares, parks, schools, and other cultural institutions, reaching new audiences and expanding into other municipalities in Greater Vitória. Through exchanges and knowledge sharing, the Museum’s work continues its legacy of preserving cultural memory, enabling and fostering research, education, communication, and training initiatives, always closely aligned with the productions of the state of Espírito Santo.

The highlights include the latest exhibitions developed by the Museu Vale, which attracted over 170,000 visitors: “Transiting Time,” “Following Through,” “The Extraordinary Universe of Leonardo Da Vinci,” “Memories of the Future – A Look at the IHGB Collection,” and the exhibition “Where Dreams Come From – The Andre and José Olympio Pereira Collection.”

About the Vale Cultural Institute

The Vale Cultural Institute believes that culture transforms lives. It is the largest private supporter of culture in Brazil, sponsoring and fostering projects in partnerships that foster connections between people, initiatives, and territories. Its commitment is to contribute to an increasingly accessible and pluralistic culture, while also working to strengthen the creative economy.

Since its inception in 2020, the Vale Cultural Institute has supported over 800 projects in 24 states and the Federal District, covering all five regions of the country with investments of over R$1 billion in Vale’s own resources and through the Federal Cultural Incentive Law (the Rouanet Law). Among these, a network of its own cultural spaces with unique identities and vocations: the Minas Gerais Vale Memorial (MG), the Museu Vale (ES), the Vale Maranhão Cultural Center (MA), and the Canaã dos Carajás Cultural Center (PA). Where there’s culture, Vale is there. Visit the Vale Cultural Institute website: institutoculturalvale.org.

Technical Details

EXHIBITION
Quem Tem Medo de Bicho Pau? (Who’s Afraid of Stick Insects?)

General Coordination
Claudia Afonso

Curatorship
Gabriel Guitierrez

Expography
Claudia Afonso
Gabriel Gutierrez
Raimundo Tavares

Production
Automatica
Luiza Mello
Mariana S. Mello
Marisa S. Mello

Local Production
Lorena Simões

Visual Identity and Graphic Design
PS2
Fábio Prata
Flávia Nalon
Yugo Borges

Lighting
Vitor Lorenção

Photographic Recording
Claraboia

Texts
Gabriel Gutierrez
Juliana Benvilacqua

Text Revision
Ana Cíntia Guazzelli

Press Office
LR Communications

Accessibility Project
Museus Acessíveis

Assembly
Danilo Montagens
Danilo Prophírio de Almeida
Victor Malta Valadares

Cenotecnia
AG cenografia
André Luiz
Gustavo de Oliveira