Rio de Janeiro
Museum of Tomorrow and Port Area
The biggest symbol of the reform of the port area of Rio, it opened on December 17, 2015. And in its first year of existence, the Museum of Tomorrow, became the most visited in the country.
The visitation of the museum in 2016 was greater than the sum of the 3 museums that followed: MIS SP , MASP and MAR . ( Source )

There are several factors pointed to this success, among them we can mention: the location of the building in the port area, the differentiated architecture, the impetus of the Olympic games and all the events that occurred in that perimeter and, finally, the mass dissemination in the media.
The experience found inside this museum is different from conventional museums. And this is an international trend, where less collections and more experience of the building’s architecture are offered.
The Museum of Tomorrow is a space of sensations and there the visitor finds a language that is more easily understood by the public of today, more connected people and that absorb information more quickly and instantly.
This museum explores 6 major trends: climate change, change in biodiversity, population growth and longevity, greater integration and differentiation of cultures, advancement of technology and expansion of knowledge.
And it was within this scenario that we visited the museum and the port area, totally revitalized and beautiful, on any Saturday.
So let’s tell you about that experience!
I’ll start by telling you how to get to this area, and if you go by car, a means of transport not suggested by the Museum, which is the best place to park.
How to get:

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- Ferries: visitors from Niterói, Ilha do Governador and Paquetá can use the ferry that stops at Praça XV. From there to the Museum there is the option of walking (about 20 minutes) or taking a bus (about 20 lines connect Praça XV to Praça Mauá).
- Bicycle: there are bike racks in Praça Mauá that add up to 120 spaces for cyclists.
- Bus: check the Go by Bus website for the best line option to visit the Museum.
- Train: from Central do Brasil, take bus line 225 or walk about 15 minutes to the Museum.
- Metro: from Uruguaiana station, there are 2 walking options:
- Cross Avenida Presidente Vargas, follow Rua do Acre until you reach Praça Mauá / Museu do Amanhã;
- Follow Avenida Presidente Vargas towards Igreja da Candelária, turn left at Avenida Rio Branco and continue straight until you reach Praça Mauá / Museu do Amanhã.
- VLT: to arrive by VLT , take a line 1 (blue) – direction Santos Dumont airport or road direction | Praia Formosa – get off at the “Parade of Museums”. The station is approximately 200 meters away from the Museum of Tomorrow.
- Airport: the nearest airport is Santos Dumont , about 3.5 km away. From the airport to the port area you can take an Uber, a bus to the bus station and from there take a tram or consult buses on the Vá de Ônibus website .
- Car: Place Rua do Acre on a GPS or Waze, a street nearby and well located, where you can find some parking lots. On this street the most affordable parking we found was G Park . During the week it is 28 reais until 00h and on weekends 30 reais until 00h.
( Source of instructions above, with the exception of the car item)
We used the last option, went by car and stopped at the parking lot mentioned.
And our route was as follows:
We stopped the car at Rua do Acre and walked about 10 minutes (650 meters) to the Museum of Tomorrow. The day was cloudy and with a light rain, which somewhat inhibited people from leaving the house that day. For this reason, Praça Mauá was full, but not crowded as usual on holidays and weekends.
Our first route was around the Museum of Tomorrow.
Right when you come across the museum the first thing you see is the front of it and the lines, which are always full of people. And soon you can see that around the museum there is a path that the tourist can walk. It was there that we started the tour that day.
After the classic ride, we headed towards the right side of the Museum where today there is an exhibition in honor of Steve Jobs – Steve Jobs the visionary .
“In this exhibition, through original pieces, you will discover the main and most important steps in the life of this great entrepreneur. It will be a journey of discovering man and his dreams, through his work, from the first ideas in the early seventies, from the Pixar dream, from the creation of perfect devices like the Macintosh and the iPhone to the extraordinary explosion of the “Economy of the Apps ”.”
Values: R $ 10.00 whole and R $ 5.00 half.
Address: Touring Building, Praça Mauá, 10
Ticket Office Operation: From 3rd to 5th, from 10am to 5pm. From Friday to Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm.
We stayed there for a few minutes, we did not enter the exhibition and we waited for the rain to end.
Then we proceed to the Port Zone, an area where the Etnias Mural is located, made by the international artist Eduardo Kobra.
The artist
Eduardo Kobra is an exponent of the São Paulo neovanguard. His talent emerges around 1987, on the outskirts of São Paulo, and soon spreads throughout the city. Following the developments that urban art has gained in São Paulo. In this way, he develops the project “Walls of memory” that seeks to transform the urban landscape through art and rescue the city’s memory. A synthesis of his peculiar way of creating, through which he paints, but also adheres to, interferes with and superimposes scenes and characters from the first decades of the 20th century, this project is a combination of nostalgia and modernity, resulting in scenographic paintings, disappear monumental. Through them creates portals for homesick moments in the city.
Kobra presents works rich in lines, light and shadow. The result is a series of three-dimensional murals that allow the public to interact with the work. The idea is to establish a comparison between the romantic air and the atmosphere of nostalgia, with the constant agitation characteristic of large centers, as is São Paulo today. ( Source )
The work
The work, 15 meters high and 170 meters long, depicts five indigenous faces from five different continents: the Huli, from New Guinea (Oceania), the Mursi, from Ethiopia (Africa), the Kayin, from Thailand (Asia), the supi , from Europe, and the tapajós, from the Americas.
The painting is inspired by the Olympic rings and represents peace and unity between peoples. Located on the Olympic Boulevard in Praça Mauá, in Rio de Janeiro, the mural was made with 180 buckets of acrylic paint, 2,800 spray cans and seven hydraulic elevators.
According to Kobra, the project is the continuation of a history of struggle through art and that record is not just about size. For the artist, the work is the greatest painting for peace between nations. ( Source )
In addition to the most famous mural in Brazil, in this region, other graffiti adorn the area. We passed through this route and, despite the rain, many photos were taken.
A little wet, but equally satisfied, we headed for lunch on the same street as the parking lot, Rua do Acre. There are many self-service and affordable restaurants.
After lunch, we returned to Praça Mauá and went straight to the entrance to the Museum.
We bought an entrance ticket at 2pm, but as the queue was long we decided to go to the place a little earlier.
This was a family tour and to facilitate entry to the venue, I decided to buy tickets online, even though there is a convenience fee (R $ 2.50 / person). As there were 2 gratuities and 2 full tickets (R $ 20.00 / person), we went straight to the free queue and there we stayed, more or less, 40 to 50 minutes until our entrance.
How to buy tickets:
- Access the link;
- Choose the best date and time for your visit;
- Click BUY;
- Choose the product you want: MUSEUM OF TOMORROW or MUSEUM OF TOMORROW + MAR;
- Choose your ticket option (full, half, free, etc.);
- Click on ADD TO CART;
- Make your registration or login, if you already have a registration;
- Select the next steps: CONTINUE SHOPPING, GO TO CART or FINISH PAYMENT;
- If you proceed to FINISH PAYMENT, proceed to the payment method;
- Make the payment and immediately afterwards the voucher is issued;
- Print the voucher or take it with you on your cell phone, you will need to present it at the entrance along with your identity document (as I explained above, we were in 4 people and 2 were free due to the age of over 60, however, if you do not have this benefit, you must go to the express queue entrance with the voucher purchased on the internet).

Note: If you do not purchase the ticket online, you must purchase it at the entrance to the Museum.
Once presenting the voucher + identity of the buyer and the identities of the gratuities, we enter the Museum.
I collected a map and went on to explore the Museum of Tomorrow.
The content of the Museum of Tomorrow was prepared with the participation of a team of more than 30 Brazilian and international consultants, names recognized in several areas, and will be continually updated based on data and scientific analysis from institutions around the world. The experiments were developed by an extensive group of artists and creators – among them the producers O2 and Conspiration, the journalist Marcelo Tas and the American artist Daniel Wurtzel -, gathered, as well as the scientists, at the invitation of the Roberto Marinho Foundation.The museum also has partnerships with some of the main science institutions in Brazil and abroad, such as the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) .
The Museum of Tomorrow explores six major trends for the next five decades: climate change; alteration of biodiversity; population growth and longevity; greater integration and differentiation of cultures; advancing technology and expanding knowledge. The main exhibition, with a museographic conception by designer Ralph Appelbaum and creative direction by Andres Clerici, is divided into five areas, based on the five questions that guide the museum (Where are we from? Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going? How do we want to go?): Cosmos, Earth, Anthropocene, Tomorrow and Us. ( Source)
In each of the areas, the public has access to an overview of the topics and can go into it later.

At the first attraction, we found a line and stayed in it for approximately 40 minutes.
COSMOS – Where did we come from? it is an immersive experience in a 360 ° dome in which the public takes a sensory journey through the universe, from the most distant galaxies to microscopic particles.

After 10 minutes of presentation we proceed to the second attraction: TERRA: Who are we?
In this sector, 3 cubes represent the 3 dimensions of existence: matter, life and thought. There, the public knows more about the functioning of the planet, biodiversity, the relationships between species and the development of human culture and thought.
In the central part of this narrative we find attractions that make the visitor think about today, its characteristics and its symptoms.
Totems over 10 meters high form the third attraction, ANTROPOCENO: Where are we? – the geological era in which we live today, the moment when man became a planetary force with an impact capable of altering the climate, degrading biomes and interfering in ecosystems – with audiovisual content on the impact of man’s actions on the planet and the acceleration activities . Studies indicate that humanity will have 10 billion people in 2060 and that the next 50 years will concentrate more changes than the last 10,000 years.
The fourth attraction followed, TOMORROWS: Where are we going?
In this space we find an area in the form of origami, with 3 environments that deepen the 6 main trends. The public can calculate its ecological footprint; participate in a collaborative game in which it is necessary to manage the planet’s resources to keep it sustainable; and discover, in a good-humored way, what your profile would be in view of technological advances and challenges that the future presents.
And finally, the fifth part, the area WE: How do we want to go?
Place where the visitation closes symbolically, with an experience of light and sound in a wooden sculpture that refers to a hollow. Its central element, a churinga (kind of amulet) of Australian Aboriginal culture, is the only physical piece that makes up the main narrative and represents the transmission of knowledge through the generations.
( Source )
When the visitor arrives at the end of the route, what he finds is a beautiful area that overlooks a huge windowpane where many gather to take a photo of the back of the Museum, where the PUFFED STAR II : the star of 20 points and 6 meters in diameter, a sculpture by the North American artist Frank Stella, donated to the Museum of Tomorrow.
With the circuit closed, we headed towards the exit, passed the souvenir shop and headed for the parking lot where we left the car, at Rua do Acre.
The tour of the Museum of Tomorrow and the Port Zone of Rio was finished.
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