Praça da matriz: imagem, memória e sociabilidade

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation it is to think about the relationship between man and public spaces in contemporary cities, establishing an analysis about the new ways of using the Matriz’s Square, which for many years was a sociability space and today is abandoned by the government and forgotten by population. Sought to highlight the social, cultural and historical significance of this square and wonders how it would be possible the population perceive and value a place that has disappeared over the years due to constant urban transformations. For this, there was the bibliographical and documentary survey on Matriz’s Square, in order to understand the different roles that place exerted in recent years and how the social and urban changes occurring in Manaus in the last decades of the 20th century changed the socials relations on the square. Interviews with formers goers Manaus’s downtown were carried out so that, from the "look" of respondents, we can gain insight into the transformations that occurred in the Center of Manaus, both in its landscape aspect, as in the social relations. The dissertation will include an iconographic study about Matriz’s Square, through postcards produced in different decades of the 20th century in order to investigate the purpose of its publication. A study about the photograph in the Amazon has been done, where we will present the accounts of owners of old photographic studios of the city and the modern photographers working in the premises of the Matriz’s Square. The discussions presented in this study makes us understand that the inclusion of industrial capital in Manaus in the late 1960s, triggered a series of changes not only in the economic and scenic aspect of the city but also in the use and appropriation of public spaces Manaus’s downtown by the population.