The image above is one of the last records of the panel commissioned to adorn the Central Energy Building of Goiás (Celg).
With the advent of modernist architecture in Goiás, the buildings featured works by artists such as Dj Oliveira, Octo Marques, Luiz Curado, Henning Gustav Ritter, Antônio Peclat, and Frei Nazareno Confaloni. Invited to create one of his paintings, Confaloni produced the panel titled "Electric Energy: The Origin, the Invention, and the Use," located in the main hall of the old Celg building.
Until 2001, the building served its purpose, housing employees of the state-run company responsible for managing the distribution of electricity in Goiás. Following the privatization of the service, the property was handed over to Enel, an Italian company that took over electricity management in Goiás.
Even after the sale of Celg’s assets, the state continued to use the space for the Secretariat of Education. With political management changes, this department was relocated to a state-owned area. This vacancy led to a series of anarchic interventions, such as broken windows, theft of parts of the structure, and graffiti, which began in 2019.
In an article published in the newspaper O Popular on February 18, 2020, cultural producer PX Silveira reported that the panel was completely covered in black paint. According to the delegate, there were no "signs of taggers" [Link to the article]. In other words, it is not possible to attribute the vandalism of the panel to Goiânia’s interventionist artists, who adhere to a code of ethics among themselves.
Cut, removed, and transported, Confaloni Conflagrado was taken away. We at MUDDA witnessed this process. It took five days, four workers, two trucks (one with a mechanical arm), and a lot of persistence. With care, the panel was transported in the open bed of a 1989 Volvo truck.
Here, the panel is no longer present. The emptiness exposes the presence of nature and the absence of a displaced artist. Confaloni has gone, leaving behind the building that housed him until 2023. Today, the old Celg/Seduce building houses, among the ruins, MUDDA - Museum of the After Tomorrow, a call to observe the composition and beauty of an abandoned and unpreserved heritage
