Dead Files

Arquivo Morto

In the current University Palace of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), echoes of a silenced past remain within its walls. Formerly Pedro II Asylum, the building holds the history of thousands of inmates from Brazil's first mental asylum. Through research using medical records and documents preserved at the university's Institute of Psychiatry, fragments of these lives are reconstructed with the words of a famous writer who was also interned there.