The Art Among The Streets of Rio by Carolina Varela

(there's still minor editing needed on this blog)
With every action there follows a reaction

All around Rio you can find that space relates itself though drastic contrasts. One of these contrasts are the modernist buildings that have risen next to traditional buildings and favelas. It is clear that the infrastructure of Rio is rapidly changing toward the modern, for the consumer and by the bourgeoisie. These changes in Brazil continue to push the old, and the poor aside. Some of these spaces that deliberately marginalize the poor, are new and some were built during its colonial time. Yet, all these structures work in a way that they subliminally create social stratas for the people of Rio

One of the conversations I remember the most in my Urban Sociology course, was one had with our Professor Arianna Martinez. We spoke about zoning regulations in cities and discussed how certain neighborhoods get placed within certain services. The circumstances that determine which neighborhoods get placed near what services, depend on the social class. The “Not in my backyard mentality”, is usually representative of the civic power that wealthier neighborhoods have. And in our class we discussed the location of airports and how it seemed that when it concerns airports, low income neighborhoods are usually in proximity of these structures because they easily contaminate and pollute the environment. This environmental racism occurs often in minority populations that have less political and social power.

When traveling to Brazil I made a conscious effort to take this discussion with me and observe my environment with a critical eye. Therefore, when we came out of the airport and started driving toward the city I wanted to keep note of the surrounding communities. Immediately we noticed that the highway that led us to the center of the city, passed this wall that was brightly painted and you could easily infer that the wall served as a barrier within the open space. That wall had been built in order to hide a favela from tourists that traveled to Rio. My eyes and mind due to our conversation in New York, and talking about the ways in which people become marginalized, compelled me to stay alert while in Brazil and I instantly started making connections between space, identity and art.

This is when I noticed a particular piece of graffiti that looked like calligraphy. Although I couldn’t translate its meaning directly, I knew instinctively that this particular piece of art was a message to those that viewed it. And maybe it's because my mind always goes to the political, but I had a gut feeling that it was a message of advocacy to the tourists that were visiting Rio. Part of this reasoning came from my own understanding of what art does to space and how street art is always made in relation to its environment and the audience who will perceive it. Street artists have an immense amount of responsibility when they put artwork in public space. Therefore, in terms of placement I found it interesting that this work would frequently be in touristy areas and in controversial spaces. This work became my personal detective case during the trip.

On the day that we decided to visit a museum of modern art in downtown Rio, I came across the artist responsible for the calligraphy graffiti. I was beyond ecstatic. I was so happy, that I kept grabbing people and explaining to them my personal journey of that piece. And to add to my excitement, I was spot on about the intention of the work.

So this specific work of graffiti is called Pixação and it’s completely native to Brazil. It’s a style that is based off heavy metal and originated in the 1980’s. The artists who practice this style are called pixadores. The motivation behind this particular style of work and the spaces they occupy are completely political.

The work is a protest to the inequality and corruption that occurs in Brazil. Therefore, the areas in which they are was placed were very much in relation to significance of the structure. And there so much academic a work written about this form of art. It makes me feel really special to have seen this in Brazil and immediately known that it was something unique and significant, and this feeling mostly emerges from shock because I live inside my head and normally I project a lot of my own meaning onto things.

This is is why street art is so impacting. It dominates attention and when it grabs it, it inspires and motivates. Even though street art isn’t always evidently political, it does become that way because of the interaction between the individual and the environment.

In Brazil, this relationship develops into an even more complex and interesting one as the act of painting or putting graffiti on a wall had become legalized in 2009. The legalization of street art decriminalizes a behavior that was usually viewed as vandalism, and a destruction of property. The citizens of Brazil have taken this new freedom of expression and used it to open a conversation between the people of Brazil and its responding government. Like many of the conversations emerging in Brazil’s current political and economic crisis, the dialogue is reflective of a need to address inequality and change the present society to a more fair and just environment.