RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil: From the outside, it looks like another historic edifice in Rio’s rundown city center.
Inside, however, is a multi-tiered library so spectacular, so ornate, that stunned visitors feel like they’ve walked into a movie fantasy set.
“In ‘Harry Potter’ we’ve seen libraries like this!” exclaimed Didier Margouet, a 57-year-old French tourist, looking around at the shelves of leather bound books climbing the walls under an octagonal skylight of red, white and blue stained glass.
“Yes, like in the movies,” agreed his partner, Laeticia Rau, 50.
The Royal Portuguese Reading Room — the Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura in Portuguese — was built in the late 19th century under the stewardship of an association of Portuguese migrants that still cares for the institution.
Its Gothic-Renaissance architecture and plethora of carvings, tiles and sculptures celebrate the glory of the Portuguese discoveries era in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Holding some 350,000 books, some of them very rare, the library today is more a tourist attraction and selfie backdrop than a reading room, though for a few it remains an indispensable haven for the largest collection of Portuguese-language books outside of Portugal.
One such loyal reader is Carlos Francisco Moura, an 86-year-old who writes about the history of Portugal.
He arrived in Brazil from Portugal aged four with his parents, and from childhood became a regular visitor. Now retired from his profession as architect, Moura spends his time leafing through the tomes, copying information for his own books.
“This is the alma mater of the Portuguese in Brazil — the reading room is that, and a lot more,” Moura told AFP, sitting at one of the dark wooden desks.
The library is a valuable resource, he explained, because since the 1930s it has become a repository of every book published in Portugal.
Brazil’s historic connection with its former colonial ruler runs deep. In 1808, Portugal’s king and his government made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the Portuguese Empire.
Later, the king’s son declared independence and made himself the emperor of Brazil. Portuguese remained the country’s principal language, and with it a two-way literary culture between the two countries. Today, the Portuguese and Brazilian flags both fly on the library’s exterior.
Orlando Inacio, 67, manages the place. He too came from Portugal as a boy — and has never returned.
“It’s a real point of pride to know that this library created by Portuguese is one of the most beautiful in the world,” he said.
Giving a bit of its history, he traced the library’s roots back to an association of Portuguese immigrants started in 1837.
“The aim was to help the immigrants, who in general were little educated, to improve their knowledge, their education,” he said.
The association continues to fund the library, its members paying a monthly amount that helps cover part of its overheads. The rest of the income comes from other buildings owned by the association that are rented out.
Inacio acknowledged that the Internet has brought changes, reducing the need for researchers and bookworms to frequent the place except for consulting rare books that are otherwise unavailable.
But his delight in his everyday office is evident. He is, after all, custodian of a temple of literature steeped in history, connecting Portugal and Brazil in a bond of language.
Historic library weaves ‘Harry Potter’-style tourist magic in Rio
Historic library weaves ‘Harry Potter’-style tourist magic in Rio
- The Royal Portuguese Reading Room was built in the late 19th century
- The library is a valuable resource because since the 1930s it has become a repository of every book published in Portugal
Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus celebrates 10 years with new show
- ‘Rays, Ripples, Residue’ triple exhibition runs until April 16
- Focus on UAE art, director Faisal Al-Hassan tells Arab News
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus has just turned 10 and is marking the milestone with an exhibition “Rays, Ripples, Residue,” running until April 16, 2026.
The exhibition comprises three sections, each curated independently but with a cohesive thread.
The curators, Emirati Munira Al-Sayegh, Lebanese transplant Nadine Khalil, and Sharjah-born Indian writer, Murtaza Vali, explore how artistic practices and exhibition-making in the UAE has evolved over the past decade.
Faisal Al-Hassan, director of the arts hub and commissioning institution, spoke to Arab News about the showcase.
“‘Rays, Ripples, Residue’ is a landmark exhibition that celebrates this 10-year milestone and reflects on artistic practices over the past decade or so. The exhibition unfolds in three separate chapters, each curated from a distinct point of view,” he said.
Al-Sayegh’s chapter, titled “Leading to the Middle,” is perhaps the most personal and rooted, because of her deep connection to the land and its people. She looked at how seemingly minute moments have a rippling effect.
In her space, she examines the practices of established artists including Emirati Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and the late Kuwaiti creative Tarek Al-Ghoussein.
In the adjacent space, Khalil presents “Ghosts of Arrival,” described by Al-Hassan as “an intimate look at what it feels like to arrive after the moment has passed.” This serves as the residue part of the exhibition.
Al-Hassan said: “She (Khalil) brings to the fore the practices of artists from the past 10 years who were influenced by work that was created a decade prior. It is both an analysis of artmaking in the UAE and a personal reflection of her own arrival in the country in 2017.”
Artists featured in the section include Hashel Al-Lamki, Mona Ayyash, and Nadine Ghandour.
Vali’s “SUN” presents the rays part of the show, highlighting a sunny — and shady — survey of the last 10 years and the preoccupation of local artists with the flaming ball in the sky.
According to Al-Hassan, Vali selected “works made between 2015 and today that are focused on the sun as both a symbolic and physical presence in our everyday lives — presented visually and metaphorically — to convey and investigate environmental degradation, hyper-commodification, and urban development.”
The three chapters feature new commissions, as well as previously presented works, or new iterations of existing works.
It also spans a wide range of disciplines, including photography, video, performance, installations and multimedia works.
“When we started our journey 10 years ago, the mission was clear: we wanted to provide a nurturing space for emerging artists to experiment and grow,” Al-Hassan told Arab News.
In the last decade, 421 has supported over 1,500 emerging creative practitioners, presented over 50 exhibitions, including solo, group and traveling shows, and commissioned hundreds of new works across visual art, design, performance and writing.
During that time, it also delivered around 2,000 impactful programs across residencies, grants and exhibitions. This was alongside various public programs including talks, workshops, film screenings and special events, while training and mentoring more than 60 interns and creative facilitators.
“We see our work as complementary to the wider ecosystem,” he said.
“It took some time for the creative community to understand why it was so important for us to include such an extensive set of access points in the exhibitions,” he added.
“To us, these materials, like the tactile books, family labels, glossaries, and wall text annotations for example, are just as important as the artwork itself.”
Mays Albaik, who is 421’s “wall whisperer,” walked Arab News through the overall space and explained how the organization gets it done.
“So from the get-go, 421’s mission has always been about breaking down the wall that makes people say, oh, it’s art, I don’t get it, it’s not for me. And so in everything that we do, we’re constantly thinking, how do we tell people: no, actually, it is for you,” Albaik told Arab News.
“Art spaces should be fun,” she added with a laugh.
Text on the walls are written in English and Arabic and the wording used is aimed to be simple but not simplistic, being mindful of the extensive expatriate community in the UAE who may not be fluent in either language.
“What we actually do is, the version of the wall text that you see — or an earlier version of this wall text — goes to a few different members of our community. We go to our operations team, for example, our housekeeping staff and our security guards,” she said.
Arab News spoke with Rajesh Maurati, 28, who has been a security officer at 421 for the past four years, to find out more.
“Initially, we did not have a lot of context, there was some description about the artist, the curators and about the artist point of view,“ Maurati, who is from Nepal, said.
During his 12-hour shift, he would spend a lot of time walking past the walls. Now those walls are a part of the show for him.
“Initially, it was a little bit hard for me to understand the text. Before, I said nothing. Now, before the exhibition, they give us the text to read and if we don’t understand something, we just underline it. And they listen.”
With this simple shift, he now takes pride in not only responding to questions from visitors, but being able to make the space even more immersive and welcoming. And much more human.
“It is really helpful for me personally, too, to create more knowledge about art. Even English, my communication is better — it was not really good before.”
“When I came here (to 421), I learned a lot of things; how to communicate with our clients, our colleagues—we are a mixed nationality. So every time we communicate with each other it gets better. It is better,” he said.
