The Exhibition Galleries and Programme
Ongoing since 2013
The galleries occupy the former offices on the upper floors, a sequence of high rooms opening off corridors that still have their moulded door surrounds and cornices. What hangs in them changes several times a year. The CCBB network is one of the largest exhibition organisers in Brazil, and shows are usually produced for all four centres and travel between Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte. In recent years that has meant retrospectives of modern masters from Europe and Latin America, surveys of Brazilian modernism and contemporary art, design and photography, and immersive shows for families.
Because the rooms were built as offices, the exhibition designers work hard to adapt them: temporary walls, controlled lighting and climate systems are installed for each show and taken out afterwards. Look for the places where the old building shows through, a stucco cartouche above a doorway or a strip of original floor at the threshold. The scale of the rooms suits paintings and works on paper better than very large sculpture, and the best shows here are the ones that treat the sequence of rooms as chapters in a story.
Admission to the exhibitions has been free since the centre opened, funded by the bank as part of its cultural programme, and this has made the CCBB the most visited cultural institution in the city. Check the programme before you come, and if a major show is on, book a timed slot; the ticket is free but the numbers are limited. The centre also runs a long-term exhibition about the history of the building and the square, which is a good place to start if you are new to Belo Horizonte.
Did You Know? The CCBB network's touring exhibitions have made the four centres, together, among the most visited art venues in the world by annual attendance.
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