In the 1950s, Brazil grew industrially and invested in a new capital - Brasilia. Brazilians breathed an atmosphere of invention and brazilianness in the visual arts, music, architecture.

Coisa Mais Linda is a Brazilian series, launched by Netflix in 2019, which tells a story of female empowerment during the flourishing of Bossa Nova in Rio de Janeiro as from the experiences of four women. The production is signed by Prodigo Films, under the general direction of Caito Ortiz, and the producers are Beto Gauss and Francesco Civita (Prodigo Films).

Plot

In 1959, Malu (Maria Casadevall) moves from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro to meet with her husband, but discovers that she was robbed and abandoned by him. Willing to make a comeback, she dives into the universe of the newly created bossa nova when she meets Chico (Leandro Lima), an insecure and talented singer who takes her on a journey of self-knowledge. She becomes friends with Adélia (Pathy Dejesus), a black girl who lives in a favela, fights against racism daily and works seven days a week to support her younger sister Ivone (Larissa Nunes) and daughter Conceição (Sarah Vitória) - although she hides that the girl is not the fruit of his romance of years with the musician Capitão (Ícaro Silva), but of a mysterious relationship.

Together, Malu and Adélia open a music club, but soon realize that they will face several problems in a time of male dominance. The path of the two is also crossed by Lígia (Fernanda Vasconcellos) and Thereza (Mel Lisboa), married to the brothers Augusto (Gustavo Vaz) and Nelson (Alexandre Cioletti), respectively. Ligia dreams of becoming a professional singer, but is repressed by her husband, a conservative sexist aspiring politician; Thereza is a journalist who fights for women's rights in the labour market and has the support of her husband, with whom she lives an open relationship of sexual adventures with other people - men and women.

The new chapters of the series starring actresses Maria Casadevall, Patty de Jesus, Mel Lisboa and Fernanda Vasconcellos, will be available on June 12, 2020. To celebrate this beautiful production, Bossa Mag exclusively brings an interview with Fabio Goldfarb, who is the series art director and signs the scenographic productions of the two seasons.

- In addition to your works with fiction, you also have several experiences in the production of advertising pieces. Are there any differences in the construction of scenographic spaces within advertising and entertainment?

There are differences, but these happen more in the work development process. In advertising, we have some agents that do not appear in fiction: the customer, the product, the product`s color, the competitor`s color… These are a few examples. When we are on a fiction project, the Art Director is effectively behind the wheel, he is more the decision maker. The paths will be traced by him, the universe to be built is really in our hands. In advertising, those who define a part of the paths are the customer, research, target audience, external elements to the context of the realization.

Alongside all this effervescence, we observed that the marks of inequality were already well established in Brazilian urban centers. Economic conditions led the marginalized population (usually ex-slaves and their descendants) to occupy the hills with self-built buildings. Therefore, the favelas were already the backdrop of the wonderful city. Here we have one of the contrasts that we seek to explore through the character of Adélia, a black woman descendant of slaves, a worker that was forced to undergo various humiliations in order to guarantee a precarious job and, thus, her family's survival.

São Paulo, on the other hand, was the young city, a new urban center, with little history. The city of the coffee economy in the beginning of the 20th century now asserts itself as an industrial center and its bourgeois society, even in the first generations, did not bring with it the refinement and sophistication found in Rio`s society. The paulistano, when compared to the carioca, was still provincial, even if he had a lot of money. In this context, we find Maria Luiza's family.

- In the plot of the series, we have the protagonism centered on the life of four very strong female characters, with very different personalities. How were the different domestic spaces conceived in relation to the characters? What guided the choices of objects and, more specifically, the furniture for these spaces?

We have very well-defined personalities, as well as each of the protagonists` social / family context, thus the references happened by character:

Maria Luiza comes from a context of a high society in formation, without the sophistication of traditional Cariocas. Therefore, in her parents' house, there is a classic architecture that seeks to mirror palaces, loaded, but without true sophistication references. However, when Maria Luiza, after a season in Rio de Janeiro sets up her apartment, we have someone there who absorbs and starts to consume modernity, the Rio sophistication that was presented to her. So it was important that this atmosphere appeared in this space.

Thereza is our cosmopolitan, modern, transgressive character. Coming from Paris, Thereza and Nelson are at the center of artistic and social events taking place in the capital and in the world. They are members of traditional and traveled families. It was in Thereza's apartment that we wanted to show a lot of our 50's design. Not only the furniture but also the tapestries, objects. Some of the key names of modern Brazilian furniture appear here. Tradition is added to the modern look of the furniture and works of art. Family furniture, older and no less sophisticated, appears alongside the contemporary of that time. We wanted a stunning apartment.

Adelia, our warrior. We present the favela [1] and interior of Adélia's house with a realistic tone supported by the references found in photo essays and films of the time. The minimum, the necessary, the precarious, the practical. We did not seek a degrading tone, we sought dignity in the midst of poverty. Immediate contrast to the reality of the other protagonists.

Lígia is the paradox between the desire to sing, for freedom, associated with the old and servile romanticism of her education and her love for Augusto. The woman who takes second place in the face of her husband's wishes. Lígia's apartment seeks to present this classic, straightforward, sober, and somewhat oppressive romanticism. The princess' castle which is also, somehow, a prison.

- Which designers were chosen and why?

I didn't make choices thinking about certain designers. As it is a project of a specific time period, the challenge of composing any scenario always involves a great field research so that, from a universe of possibilities, we can edit the elements we want. From the beginning, we looked for authentic design and elements that bear witness to an era. I have always been passionate about Brazilian design from the 50s, and Patricia Perla, our set dresser, did a wonderful research that allowed us to have excellent options to compose. Many of my favorite designers are present on the set.

- Speaking of Brazilian design, what are your favorite pieces and designers?

I can say that names like Joaquim Tenreiro, Jorge Zalszupin, Sérgio Rodrigues, Estúdio Preto & Branco and Zanine Caldas are part of the group of favorite designers. As for a particular piece ... difficult to say. I could talk about the Poltrona Mole by Sérgio Rodrigues, but we didn't use it in the first season because it was created in 1961. I don't have a favorite piece of furniture of that time, it's the whole set.

- Fabio, please feel free to extrapolate the questions and talk about what we didn`t ask you.

Coisa Mais Linda is a love declaration for Rio de Janeiro and the 50s. We wanted to bring to the screen the visual charm of a very special time in Brazilian history, especially in Rio. We went in search of the delight that the images and music of the time gave us during our realization process.

NOTES

[1] A favela is a type of low-income slum neighborhood in Brazil that has experienced historical governmental neglect.

This time frame is also when women enter into the labor market, mostly occupying secondary positions, mainly secretarial. In the field of modern Brazilian furniture design, very few women could stand out. This is a recent field of research, which has its theoretical framework marked with Maria Cecília Loschiavo dos Santos’ work publication, O móvel moderno no Brasil (Brazilian Modern Furniture), in 1985. It is important to note that, although there are many gaps on the participation of women in activities related to the creation of modern Brazilian furniture, the research and construction of this history is led by women [2].

In 1946, Georgia Hauner (1931-), a Croat immigrant of Jewish origin, moved to São Paulo with her family. Unlike the great immigration of some decades before, the flow of this period would be largely formed by professionalized, intellectualized and urbanized groups, which would act to change social relations in the capital and particularly in the field of cultural production and consumption. In the 1950s, a third of São Paulo’s population was of immigrants or immigrants’ children [3]. When she arrived in Brazil, Georgia was 15 years old. She had already survived World War II, and moved between countries with Nazi, fascist and Stalinist occupations. Georgia had had classes in four languages and two alphabets, and experienced life between extreme poverty and high culture.

FROM GALERIA ARTESANAL TO MOBILINEA

At the end of 1953, Galeria Artesanal was opened, a three-floor store that combined furniture sale and art gallery. It was located at Rua Barão de Itapetininga - one of the most important commercial streets in São Paulo. It was there that Sergio Rodrigues had his first job in the city, after the unsuccessful experience at Móveis Artesanal Paranaense in the previous year [4]. Georgia Morpugo [maiden name], who had just returned from the United States - where she was studying Advertising & Illustration at Art Center School in Los Angeles - was hired as her assistant. Due to a sensitive and loaded eye for references, added to the skills in drawing and painting, Georgia soon took on the activity of setting up the store windows and interiors.

Upon returning to Brazil, in 1958, Ernesto opens a new company, Ernesto Hauner Decorações (E. H. D). At this time, it was common for couples to partner and divide tasks between them, relegating men to a more technical design focus and women to the arts, which were considered minor [6]. Ernesto Hauner Decorações was already investing in the production of advertisements for periodicals, and Georgia was responsible for the furniture interiors shot for promotion in the photographer’s studio.

In 1962, along with the opening of the first showroom, Ernesto Hauner Decorações was renamed Mobilinea. This name comes from the Italian words mobile and linea, which mean, respectively, furniture and line. The company logo, which is its name in uppercase and in a serif font, was Georgia's responsibility [7]. Ernesto took home some prototypes of the new furniture he designed, to seek Georgia’s opinion as a “housewife”, although she had previously performed professional activities of this nature. In an interview for the decoration book of JOIA magazine in 1967, Georgia narrates in relation to the period: "my job was to check if the pieces were child-proof, domestic animal-proof and other domestic concerns". Here we can draw attention to the still secondary aspect of the activities performed by Georgia in the company’s eyes at that time. However, a new concern with the domesticity of furniture arises, taking into account women as consumers and also as a target audience.

In that same year, the company moved to a larger warehouse, also employing a larger number of employees. In order to have her own source of income, Georgia starts making lamps from folded paper [8] and places them for sale in stores. In this way, she gradually returns to the job market, until she takes on the creation of advertising images and the company stores’ scene design.

The production of images and compositions developed by Georgia in the works of ambience and scenography - initiated in the previous decade, within the Galeria Artesanal - will acquire aesthetic complexity and an innovative look. Its multiple references, which often came from outside the design world, represented the most current and innovative ways of living.

Mobilinea acquired conceptuality layers and grew gradually, which is directly related to the work developed by Georgia. In 1965, there were already two stores in São Paulo, one in Rio de Janeiro and resellers in Belo Horizonte and Salvador. In the following year, Georgia and Ernesto were invited to open a store at the first shopping mall in the city of São Paulo. The internal space and shop windows were planned by Georgia, designed to be used in advertising pieces.

With their growth, there was also an increase in investments in advertising in the enterprise, which marked the arrival of Mobilinea at a greater recognition level in the market. In a 2013 correspondence written for researcher Mina Warchavchik, Georgia states:

"Mobilinea furniture cannot be separated from the total image. The upholstery fabric, the floor on which they were placed, the objects around it, the models in the photographs, are all part of the design. The advertisements published in magazines and the photographs for promotions and catalogs, are also a part in the context of the Mobilinea image. " [9]

Even though, a military dictatorship had been restricting the civil rights of Brazilian citizens since 1964,, Mobilinea's work was not directly impacted by the regime. São Paulo was the largest city in the country and continued to grow rapidly, which impacted in real estate production and housing conditions. The domestic interior assumed a central role of refuge, mainly for the new urban middle classes. It would be not only used for the retreat amid the adverse conditions of the political-social context, but also as a means that could provide the free meeting of people, establishing new standards of comfort and privacy, guided by the expansion of consumption.

In 1968, Georgia Hauner is invited to be the new decoration editor for Claudia magazine special editions. This milestone further legitimizes the strength of the creative work developed by Georgia, extrapolating Mobilinea itself. Researcher Mina Warchavichik states that Georgia created innovative images by mixing products from several companies in the same environment, presenting possibilities for incorporating art into decoration for various income ranges and playing with the way the photos were taken [10]. In the few article texts she wrote, there is a desire to encourage housewives to appropriate the domestic space and to trust their own taste.

Her experience as a woman, as a creator and communicator, was essential for the implemented innovations, inserting women in the market as consumers and as a labour force. All Mobilinea stores had a large number of saleswomen, which was very groundbreaking for the time. Still, it is worth mentioning that, with some exceptions, the gender division between the factory and the stores was quite evident. The furniture design and manufacturing activities were still mostly performed by men. Most women worked at the store for a short time, usually leaving when marrying or pregnant, which again is a reflection of women’s social role at the time.

According to Georgia, factory employees called Ernesto “father” and her, accordingly, “mother”. Both held roles of great recognition within the company and in Brazil’s design landscape, which brought also great responsibilities. In 1975, the couple decided to leave the company and the country. Shortly before leaving, Ernesto sold his shares to a businessman named Salvatore Ambrosino. Georgia and Ernesto had another short stay in Italy and, then, immigrated permanently to Vancouver, Canada. There, they founded a glass and ceramic products factory called Interstyle, in 1977, which is still in operation and is currently managed by their two children.

Georgia Hauner’s and Mobilinea’s history demonstrate, indeed, a change in lifestyle, illustrated not only by Georgia's personal trajectory but also by the company itself.This story permeates the shift from the her housewife position to the position of creator, passing not only through her own insertion in the job market but also through the development of a structure that employed so many other women in her offices, having communication with other women as the core of her performance as a creator - women who until then were not recognized as furniture target consumers. Although she did not work in furniture design, Georgia's work was immensely important in consolidating an aesthetic of taste and in building a social imaginary around the consumption of Brazilian modern furniture, writing her brand in the history of design.

NOTAS

[1] WARCHAVICHIK, Mina. Mobilinea -design de um estilo de vida (1959-1975). [Master's] - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, São Paulo.

[2] To cite some of these authors: Ethel Leon, Mina Warchavick, Ethel Leon, Mariana Vieira de Andrade, Aline Sanches, Marlene Milan Acayaba, Cristina Garcia Ortega

[3] WARCHAVICHIK, Mina. Mobilinea -design de um estilo de vida (1959-1975). [Master's] - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, São Paulo.

[4] In 1953, they inaugurated the branch Móveis Artesanal Paranaense, which would be the first store to sell modern furniture in Curitiba. The experience, however, was a fiasco. As Sérgio Rodrigues states: "We inaugurated the store and it only lasted six months. In these six months, I can say, without overstating it, that there were plenty of visitors. It constantly seemed that the shop had a vernissage happening. Daily, in the afternoon, curious people and students passed by wanting to know about the pieces. But they did not shop there. They knew I was representing a company, and that I had some advantage over the furniture bought in São Paulo." RODRIGUES, S. Interview [November 13, 2012]. Interviewer: Mina Warchavchik Hugerth. Rio de Janeiro, 2012. Digital recording (143 min.)

[5] For more information about it, read “The Sistematization Of Production Of Furniture By The Architects Carlo Hauner And Martin Eisler In The 1950s", written in 2019 by Isabela Milagre.

[6] WARCHAVICHIK, Mina. Mobilinea -design de um estilo de vida (1959-1975). [Master's] - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, São Paulo. The major arts are understood as the fine arts (architecture, painting, sculpture), which theoretically would be related to a greater degree of creation or inventiveness. The minor arts would be those related to crafts, and which theoretically would be linked to execution and reproduction. It is a distinction used only by some cultures, and which has been questioned as outdated concepts. To find out more, see Guide to the History of Art, written in 1992 by Giulio Carlo Argan and Maurizio Fagiolo.

[7] Idem.

[8] The luminaires made by Georgia become a brand of Mobilinea, and started to be used widely in its ambient compositions in the following years.

[9] WARCHAVICHIK, Mina. Mobilinea -design de um estilo de vida (1959-1975).[Master's] - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, São Paulo.

[10] Idem.