The bemusement of the rioters who made their way into Brasília's National Congress this month pointed to an increasing disaffection with architectural symbols of power, writes Will Wiles.

On 8 January, supporters of defeated Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro swarmed the heart of the nation's capital, Brasília, in a mass protest that turned into a rampage of vandalism. On first impression, it looked like an uncanny replay of almost exactly two years earlier, when supporters of defeated American president Donald Trump overran the United States Capitol.
There were important differences between these events, most significantly the fact that Brazil had already inaugurated its new president when its parliament buildings were overrun, and its lawmakers were elsewhere. The potential for mischief, violence, or even a serious threat to the transfer of power, was thus greatly diminished. But the comparison was irresistible; patterns are pretty, and the contrast between the settings of the events ? the neoclassical grandeur of Capitol Hill against the modernist grandeur of Three Powers Square ? only served to heighten the temptation. The drama of the moment was emphasised by the sculptural power of the spaces
After 6 January 2021, I wrote in the art magazine Apollo that the surreal scenes produced by the Trumpist insurrection ? shamans in the Senate chamber and so on ? served to reveal the United States Capitol Building. They pierced the fog of familiarity and mystique around it, l...