“Brazil Looks at Brazil”? “French-Style Living” Among Contemporary Arbiters of Taste (2000-2015),

Abstract

Although it is commonly argued today that Brazil’s eclectic gardens and dwellings were never just a copy of European models, since they involved a singular appropriation not found in Europe, it can also be shown that, conversely, the ways of living celebrated in contemporary Brazil are still informed by foreign reference. Based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of architecture and interior design reviews, the observation of interior design fairs, and interviews with French and Brazilian professionals from the area of domestic architecture, this article postulates that the contemporary ode to ‘Brazilianness’ obscures the persistence of criteria of excellence imported from countries that have historically imposed their symbolic domination and, in this specific case, the continuing influence of ‘French good taste’ (real or imagined) in representations of the ‘beautiful home’ in today’s Brazil.