EXHIBITION | SANTOS = DUMONT DESIGNER – 2009
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On display from March 25th to May 3rd, 2009.
With multimedia resources and period films, the Museu da Casa Brasileira opened in March 2009, the exhibition “Santos=Dumont designer”, which revealed Alberto Santos Dumont (1873-1932) as the pioneer of product design in Brazil and allowed for visitors to pilot the 14 Bis and the Demoiselle in flight simulators, which that year celebrated its centenary as the first aircraft to be mass-produced in the world. There was an animation of Santos Dumont’s experience with the tricycle and the reconstitution of the flight of Airship No. 6, whose feat was to go around the Eiffel Tower, as well as films from the 14 Bis period and its most faithful reconstruction. On one of the 12 LCD screens, there was the 3D project of the 14 Bis and, on another, the Demoiselle. The animation of Cavalgada Patriotica, when Santos Dumont took the initiative to ask for the expropriation of the area to create the Iguaçu State Park, was another highlight of the exhibition.
Exhibition Exhibition
Designed and assembled by the artist Guto Lacaz, the exhibition recreated the Campo de Bagatelle, in Paris, in the garden of the MCB, with the fuselage and the rudder of a life-size 14 Bis, in which visitors could interact and have a vision that SD had when piloting. There were also original balance tests and scenic demonstrations of two historic flights of the 14 Bis. Inside the museum, they had scale models of the 14 Bis and Demoiselle planes flying inside two wind tunnels. Two hundred miniatures of the Demoiselle, the estimated number of its series production, made up a scenic sky. There was also the scale model of the Airship No. 6 in the vicinity of a stylized Eiffel Tower, installed on a revolving base.
Records Disclosed at the Show
“Brazil has a curious tradition in aeronautics. In the exhibition, a canvas with the image of Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, born in Santos, paid tribute to the inventor of the hot balloon”, said Guto Lacaz, the multimedia artist who conceived a scenography capable of translating to the public the genius and inventiveness of Santos Dumont. “One hundred years later Santos Dumont was born, who would solve the driveability problem. Currently, Brazil has a Brazilian aviation industry with state-of-the-art technology”.
Opening of the Show
The Santos=Dumont designer exhibition was held in 2006 with great success at the MCB, having received an audience of 42,000 visitors; it is always remembered by those who have seen it and lamented by those who have only heard of it. Many visitors presented Guto Lacaz with new documents and other admirers of Santos Dumont also presented the results of their research in the form of films and books. This collective improvement and the sponsorship of 3M do Brasil brings “Santos=Dumont designer” back to MCB more dynamic and with many new features. “For 3M, a company recognized for innovation, it is a reason to be proud to sponsor this exhibition, which highlights the creative and innovative side of Santos Dumont, one of the great examples of Brazilian inventiveness”, comments Luiz Eduardo Serafim, Corporate Marketing Manager at 3M from Brazil.
Opening of the Show
The exhibition project involved names such as Fernando Martini Catalano, PhD in aerodynamics, professor of Mechanical Engineering at USP – São Carlos; Henrique Lins de Barros, physicist and head researcher at the Brazilian Center for Physics Research, in Rio de Janeiro, and the master François Durant, responsible for the scale models, to whom the exhibition paid tribute in memorian. The company Elo3 Integração Empresarial, organizer of the fair, also coordinates the entire production of the project.
The spelling of the name chosen by Guto Lacaz comes from the reproduction of a signature of the aviator himself. Of French descent from his father and Brazilians from his mother, Alberto liked to express that, in his view, both nationalities had equal weight. In some moments he added the two surnames with a hyphen (Santos-Dumont), in others he added the equal sign (Santos=Dumont).
Interview with Guto Lacaz
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Animations and movies on 12 LCD screens
• Tricycle animation, Santos Dumont’s first experience with the possibility of flying. The scale model of an oil-powered tricycle suspended in a tree proves that the gasoline engine could be used in an airship.
• Reconstitution of Airship No. 1, the first airship to successfully use the combustion engine.
• Reconstitution of Airship No. 6 with which, on October 19, 1901, Santos Dumont proved that man could control his displacement through the air and won the Deutsch Prize.
• Period film of the flight of the Balloon nº 9 (1901-1905), when Santos Dumont crashed into a building in Paris and had to be rescued.
• Period film of Pipa nº 14, pulled by a boat and which served as inspiration for the 14 Bis.
• Period film of the 14 Bis flight and film of the most perfect replica flight, built by Alan and Aline Calassa. On October 23, 1906, the 14 Bis flew in the morning, when Santos Dumont failed to win the race. On the same day in the afternoon, the 14 Bis even flew 60 meters, the first flight of an object heavier than air.
• Period movie of Speedboat nº 18.
• Season movies of flights 19 and 20.
• Animation of the Marciano Converter, which was a motor to be placed on the back of skiers and which, through cables, produced the oscillating movement on the skis. Thus, the skier moved effortlessly. Santos Dumont read in HG Wells that on Mars the oscillatory movement was widely used by the Martians.
• 3D design of 14 Bis.
• Demoiselle 3D design. Its first model (nº 19) flew in 1907, being developed until 1909 (nº 20). Santos Dumont had made available to anyone who wanted the plans and details of the Demoiselle, as he did not patent his inventions, which should be shared by all mankind. The Demoiselle was manufactured by different companies (at least two hundred units were built). This device was the inventor’s preferred means of personal transport when visiting friends around Paris. The Demoiselle – named for its grace and similarity to dragonflies – was the first popular plane.
• Animation of the Patriotic Cavalcade, in 1916, when Santos Dumont traveled through Argentina and arrived in Foz do Iguaçu, where he discovered that the place was the private property of Jesus Val, a Spaniard residing in Paraguay. On April 7, he set out on horseback along the telegraph line. He traveled for six days to Guarapuava, where he got a car to go to Ponta Grossa. By train, he arrived in Curitiba on May 5th. He asked the president of the State of Paraná, Affonso Camargo, to expropriate the place. On July 28, 1916, the Iguaçu State Park was created.
• 14 Bis and Demoiselle flight simulators.
• There were two simulators for each of the planes and visitors were able to fly with the use of joysticks.
Wind tunnels
In the central room of the MCB, there were two wind tunnels. In one of them was the scale model of the 14 Bis. As you could see, his flight appeared to be in reverse, just as it happened on October 23, 1906 at the Campo de Bagatelle in Paris. In the other wind tunnel was the 1907 Demoiselle scale model 1907.
About MCB
The Museu da Casa Brasileira, an institution of the Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020, is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the material culture of the Brazilian house, being the only museum in the country specializing in architecture and design. The MCB’s program includes temporary and long-term exhibitions, with an agenda that also includes educational service activities, debates, lectures and publications contextualizing the museum’s vocation for the formation of critical thinking on themes such as architecture, urbanism, housing, economy creative, urban mobility and sustainability. Among its numerous initiatives, the MCB Design Award, the main award in the segment in the country, held since 1986, stand out; and the Casas do Brasil project, to rescue and preserve the memory of the rich diversity of living in the country.
Museu da Casa Brasileira
Av. Brig. Faria Lima, 2705 – Jardim Paulistano
Phone: +55 (11) 3032.3727
