Paulo Barras, Viradouro’s creative director, justifies the float depicting the Holocaust proposed for this year’s Carnival in Rio, saying that in many European countries neo-Nazism is on the rise. The float, an “extremely serious” and “very respectful” work, according to Mr. Barras, is intended as a timely reminder.
It also recalls the meaning of Carnival (the “monstrosity” of excess combined with a devoutly carnal “festivity”), which is the very opposite of Judge Juliana Kalichszteim’s argument by imputation that the Holocaust float’s appearance in the context of the Carnival would serve as “an instrument of hatred” … “racism and [a] clear trivialisation of barbaric and unjustified acts against minorities.”
This anamnesis has been banned from taking on the sambadrome under Judge Juliana Kalichszteim’s ruling, just as an earlier float was banned, in 1989, representing the national landmark, Rio’s Christ the Redeemer (as luck would have it built by an atheist) as a contemporary beggar.
