ABSTRACT
A blended musical theme, featuring both samba and technologically enhanced classical instruments, accompanies the countdown to the opening. In line with the transductive cinematic preamble, the Ceremony is set as an exploratory journey of Rio's and Brazil's art-scenes in the world. In the mega-event, a synecdochal connection of Rio to Brazil makes sense, given that not all members of its principal artistic contingent are Cariocas. Amongst the Ceremony's subtle references to federal connectivity we may count those on the sculptural properties of Brazilian design and specifically the work of Athos Bulcao. Part of Brazil's macho cultural coding, the whistling, which denotes admiration for beauty, is updated in the Ceremony's casting of professional model Gisele Bundchen. There is a productive contradiction in the dancing sequences, which appears in every public performance of dance, but is exaggerated in ceremonial performance: the quest for an art of the body in action that exceeds the classic division of arts into plastic and theatrical art.
