The Museum of Images from the Unconscious reopened its doors in September 2022, and one of its main attractions was the new exhibition From the Asylum to the Park: 70 Years of History. It offers a tour of the transformations that the old Pedro II Psychiatric Centre underwent over time, before it became the present Nise da Silveira Municipal Park – a project currently still in process, which aims to establish a great centre for leisure and culture for the population in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro.

Through works created in the museum’s studios during the last 70 years, the visitor will get to know stories and people from different eras, as well as facts that forever transformed Brazilian psychiatry. One of the highlights of the tour is the beautiful series Japonezas (Japanese Women) by Fernando Diniz, which illustrates the term ‘catalyzing affection’. The exhibition demonstrates how the Museum of Images from the Unconscious occupies a central place in the transformation process which culminates in the project of the Park, contributing to deconstructing the stigma that was created around mental health and the old hospital surroundings over the years.