"Arthur Bispo do Rosario is back ": patrimonialization and memory in the invention of an illustrious personage

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the invention of an illustrious personage, noting how he became a cultural heritage in its hometown. The character in question is Arthur Bispo do Rosario, who lived for 50 years and hospitalized in a mental hospital in Rio de Janeiro in total anonymity and that after his death was established as a contemporary artist recognized nationally and internationally. In 2004, his hometown, Japaratuba (SE) erected a memorial in his honor, which has housed his remains. The process that connects to the Bispo and Sergipe is marked by assigning new values, meanings, uses and meanings that sought to give recognition to an artist hitherto unknown in his hometown, working directly in the construction of an asset value that sets the character as a memory site.