Canceled in 2023, Virada Cultural no Metaverso can still happen, says SP secretary

Last Friday, the 2nd, during a panel at the event  NFT  Brasil, the Deputy Secretary of the Secretary of Culture of the Municipality of São Paulo commented on the Virada Cultural no Metaverso, proposed for this year's edition of the event that  was canceled  and sparked debate among politicians, artists, and the public.

“In terms of public policy, sometimes legislation is a bit of an enemy of the unprecedented. We tried to make Virada Cultural no Metaverso, which would allow a million people to watch the event, but it didn't work because there was a lack of education about technology”, said Bruno Santos. The project was canceled after the Municipal Court of Auditors pointed out irregularities.

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The Cultural Turn in the Metaverse had a  budget of more than R$ 10 million  to happen, taking the classic Virada Cultural events to the digital world. Politicians such as federal deputy Guilherme Boulos, from PSOL, were among the main critics of the project.

Furthermore, the public would have associated the recent armed attacks on São Paulo schools with the metaverse, according to Bruno Santos. “People began to associate attacks on schools with the metaverse and criticize Virada,” he said.

However, the Secretariat of Culture would still have ambitious plans to bring the event to the metaverse at a future opportunity. But before that, educating the population about new technologies is essential, Bruno pointed out during the panel “Challenges for organizations in the era of tokenization”.

“We have to talk, because if it wasn't like this, in 2006 nobody would have made the first edition of Virada Cultural. It was unheard of and someone left it. I think we need to show people that this is the next step. There is no escape and whoever is in front will benefit. We want to show artists and cultural producers the benefits”, said Bruno.

The Deputy Secretary still assumed that part of the fault lies with the city hall for not having initiatives to educate the population and the legal department about the new technology of the metaverse. “We have to make things simple and that's a bit our own fault”.

The metaverse can integrate the new phase of the internet, called Web3, which encompasses blockchain technology, NFTs, among others. According to Bruno Santos, this would be the evolution of technologies we already know, such as the internet and applications.

“We have the internet, smartphones, applications, this is the next step and there is nothing wrong with the City Hall joining this”, he said.

Rio de Janeiro’s City Hall, which has for some time announced its intentions to become Brazil’s main crypto hub, could face stiff competition from São Paulo.

Michael Cerqueira, from SP Negócios, also participated in the panel. During the chat, participants laughed in agreement when Michael said that “our colleagues in Rio de Janeiro say they are the Brazilian crypto hub, but the concentration is here”.

Tokenization of libraries and museums

Another objective approached by Bruno Santos during the panel was the tokenization of São Paulo's cultural heritage, which could make books and works of art reach more people and even break geographic barriers.

“We want to tokenize our collection. We have books from 1812 that were listed in the Mário de Andrade Library. And let's tokenize it so it stays there forever. Public management is to make things reach everyone”, he said.

The tokenization of the works of art from the Museu de Arte de Rua (MAR) is also in the plans. “We have a year and a half of mandate and we want to tokenize MAR. We presented this project in Berlin and they loved it”, he explained.

“7% of our GDP is culture. Imagine if we managed to make this reach the whole world. Imagine how many percent of the GDP it would be”, concluded the Deputy Secretary for Culture.

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