After seven years since the first exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, the exhibition Dialogue in the Dark returns to the city, opened this Thursday (13), at the National Historical Museum (MHN). April was the month chosen for the opening because it is dedicated to the awareness campaign to combat blindness and awareness of the importance of eye health care. The exhibition is free and will run until July 30, opening on Thursdays and Fridays. The first session is at 10 am and the last one at 4 pm. On Saturdays and Sundays, the first session starts at 1 pm and the last one at 4 pm. You must be over eight years of age to access. Children under 12 years old must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Group bookings can be made by email. Diálogo no Escuro is a creation of Calina Projetos and Dialogue Enterprise, based in Hamburg, Germany. Both were responsible for assembling the exhibition in Brazil, Rio and São Paulo. In the capital of São Paulo, the installation was set up in 2015, remaining on display for a year and a half. In 2016, it went to the National Historical Museum, in Rio, where it stayed for ten months, registering 85,000 visitors. The show is a multisensory experience where the visitor enters a completely dark space that simulates city environments, Luiz Calina, managing partner of Calina, told Agência Brasil. “Through the other senses, mainly touch and hearing, people can identify where they are. You enter with your cane and the guide is a visually impaired person,” he said. In the completely dark rooms, elements such as smell, sound, wind, temperature and texture reproduce the characteristics of everyday environments in Rio, such as the Botanical Garden and Copacabana Beach. Empatia Calina clarified that this is a reversal of roles, because the visually impaired person, who is often helped on the streets, is the one who helps the visitor. “Because he’s in his environment and you’re out of your comfort zone. It is a process of total empathy, because the visitor feels the needs of the other. It’s a more tangible thing,” he said. He reinforced that this is not a simulation of blindness, because this is a permanent condition. In the case of the exhibition, the public is immersed in this experience for 45 minutes. The goal is to change society. Visitors are led by visually impaired guides through purpose-built, pitch-black rooms, where smell, sound, wind, temperature and texture exhibit the characteristics of everyday environments such as parks, streets, grocery stores, cities and cafes. Visitors learn to interact without sight, using their other senses. Photo: André Hof Nascimento/Disclosure – André Hof Nascimento/Disclosure “It’s about making people with visual impairments and people with disabilities in general more visible to society, showing that they are productive, because each of us has our difficulties. No one is absolutely perfect and immune to difficulties. But all difficulties are surmountable. That is the goal. Show a little of the life of the visually impaired person with this contact. Because prejudices are broken through experience, encounter and dialogue. That’s why we have Dialogue in the Dark.” He stressed that nothing replaces people’s affection and attention. In Rio, the initiative is carried out in partnership by Calina Projetos and the National Historical Museum and is part of the centenary celebrations of the cultural equipment. The project was created in the 1980s and has already passed through 170 cities in 47 countries, covering more than 10 million people. It is currently in over 30 locations. Accessibility is another issue that the facility seeks to draw attention to. “Accessibility is important, but society’s attention is essential so that their lives [deficientes visuais] be made easier”, he opined. He maintained, then, that the objective of the exhibition is to show that the visually impaired are not totally dependent and, also, are not supermen. “They are people like all of us, who have strengths and weaknesses and can always improve.” For MHN Deputy Director Pedro Heringer, once again hosting the Dialogue in the Dark installation, now part of the museum’s 100th anniversary celebrations, reaffirms the institution’s commitment to “give prominence to narratives and stories that, by chance or by convention, ended up being marginalized”. Guides The role of exhibition guides is performed only by visually impaired people. Psychologist Carla Gomes da Rocha, 42 years old, who was born with congenital visual impairment, is the show’s master guide. It was up to her to train the other guides, all without vision like her. They will lead visitors the entire way, in the dark. “It is very rewarding to convey security and confidence to visitors. This is our day-to-day life, as we often depend on others to cross a street or get to a certain location”, observed Carla. For her, every day is an adventure and a challenge for blind people. Carla pointed out that it was common for people to leave the exhibition modified, after the empathy, trust and solidarity work. Work In Brazil, the inclusion of visually impaired people in the labor market is still low. According to data from the Ministry of Labor, visually impaired people occupy only 1.07% of formal vacancies, although they represent 6.7% of the population. In July 1991, Brazilian legislation passed Law 8213, better known as the Quota Law, in response to the unequal opportunities for work and socialization experienced by people with disabilities (PCDs). The law determined that companies with more than 100 employees must allocate between 2% and 5% of their vacancies to PCDs, according to the number of employees. Visual impairment is the most common disability among Brazilians, affecting 3.4% of the population, which is equivalent to 6.5 million people. Worldwide, the Dialogue in the Dark project employed more than eight thousand visually impaired people.
Agência Brasil
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