When the Party Is Over: The Fragmentary References of an Emergent and Socially Progressive Brazil in the 2012 London/Rio Handover Ceremony and Beyond

Abstract

Olympic ceremonies are international arenas from where the hosting nations often display revisited versions of their nationalistic accounts to update their identities. The analysis of such events can thus unveil the progression or regression of a nation towards a given political agenda. By the same token, their study can also expose different ideological stands between successive ruling parties as well as different historical moments of the hosting nation. The theatrical depiction of the 2012 London/Rio handover ceremony can be thus understood as a historical milestone on the nation’s soft-power development. What is more, the recent events that took place in the country shortly after the event and during the event’s Olympiad (2016-2020) – i.e. civil unrests caused by corruption scandals and a deep economic crisis which culminated with political turmoil and the election of a far-right president in 2018 – have given to the ceremony a further connotation as the symbolic pinnacle of Brazil’s New Republic economic growth and its advancements towards a more progressive political agenda.