Favelarte. Audio slideshow: Faces of the favelas. The French artist JR first made his mark in Rio de Janeiro last year, as giant posters of staring eyes started appearing on buildings in the city's oldest favela.
He was drawn there following the controversial deaths of three young men, amid alleged collusion between Brazilian soldiers and a drugs gang. But now JR's work has made it on to some of Rio's grander structures. Take a tour of the city with the artist himself, and meet the people who inspired him. <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="352" align="center"><tr><td><table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="30" border="0" bgcolor="#cccccc" width="100%" height="33"><tr><td bgcolor="#fafafa"><div class="font-family:Verdana;color:#666666;font-size:11px;"><span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#333333;font-size:18px;font-weight:800;"><strong>Javascript and Flash plug-in required</strong></span><P>Either the Flash plugin was not detected on your computer or the JavaScript features of your brower have been disabled.
Links. Unidades de Pacificação Definitiva. Participatory Public Art in a Favela. Last January, five Spanish artists spent almost two weeks living with a family in Vila Brasilândia, a favela on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil.
Known as Boa Mistura, and describing themselves as "graffiti rockers," the group said in a publication that they "wanted settle in the slum, dissect it, smell it, live it and love it. " The result was Luz Nas Vielas, a public art project in which artists and residents painted words like "beleza," firmeza" and "amor" on bright backdrops of flat color across the neighborhood's winding streets. The project is part of a series of participatory urban art interventions that Boa Mistura is leading in low-income communities and will be presented at “Virada Sustentável” in São Paulo on June 4-5, 2012.
Boa Mistura shared their experience with Polis. What did you hope to achieve with Luz Nas Vielas? With this kind of participatory urban art project, what we are looking for is to inspire, to use art in public spaces as a tool for change. . + share. BOA MISTURA IN ‘VILA BRASILÂNDIA’ (SÃO PAULO) Daily MTN BOA MISTURA’s project LUZ NAS VIELAS has been carried out in Vila Brasilândia, São Paulo, during January 2012.
The project is part of the CROSSROADS series: Boa Mistura´s Participative Urban Art Interventions to modify rundown communities using art as a tool for change and inspiration. Between the 4th and 16th of January Boa Mistura had the opportunity to live in Brasilândia, hosted by the Gonçalves family, having this way direct contact with the community. After preliminary studies and analysis, the defined framework are the narrow and winding streets that connects the urban net, known as Vielas and Becos. The dialogue with residents and their active participation has been decisive for the Project. LUZ NAS VIELAS has been made possible with the sponsorship of the Embassy of Spain in Brazil and the collaboration of Singapore Airlines, Montana Colors and the Spanish Cultural Center in São Paulo.