Looking for art, in Continho de Cue there wasn’t as much art as I expected. There was some graffiti, but mostly tags or pixacao (text), off course used as a way to express yourself.
I was pleasantly surprised about the quality of the infrastructure. They really have all they need, water, electricity, a sewage and good roads. Everyone seemed happy. We met a man in a suit, (wondering why he was wearing the suit), who lived in a newly painted house with a little front yard and some flowers. He was wearing the suit because he went to the bank and wanted to look good. He was very happy with his house, and very proud. Far more happy than the people we saw at the super luxurious shopping mall Parque Cidade Jardim.
Paraisopolis
Paraisopolis was amazing to see. At first I felt a little unpleasant walking there like tourist, but everyone was actually very nice. I liked the coziness of the streets and houses, and I was surprised by the many children on the streets.
There were many drawings of children on the walls, and graffiti in the public places. Also the shops all paint their own windows. The public space in Paraisopolis, like the street with all the shops, was nicer than I would thin, it works great as Paraisopolis’ centre.
The social housing project looks very different, but these people also build their own houses. The people build in the weekend and pay for workers during the week. It takes many years, but now they have their own very good looking house, in a good neighborhood.
IAB, Alphaville and Conjunto National
Though the lectures were nice, I was really amazed by the poor maintenance of the IAB building.
Alphaville was… well alphaville. Many large houses, very little people, so when you’re making a stroll trough the park you’ll meet… well, no one. What bothered me most was the fact that no one could visit unannounced, so no surprise visits. No surprises at all, everything is strictly organized, how boring. It’s almost not possible to compare it with Paraisopolis.
The view from the top of Conjunto National was breathtaking, When you see this big city, with all the expensive high rise, it’s hard to imagine there are also so many favelas.
Estudentes
While walking under the highways we saw all kinds of graffiti art. I am really impressed by the art of the artists named ‘os gemeos’ (the twins), they make more subtle graffiti art mixed with text. They are well known, not only in Sao Paulo, and have been asked for many expositions. Often using the graffiti to reflect the things they see and hear in the city and on TV.
The sort of homeless shelter under the highway, where we went to with Erik, was a really nice use of the once useless space, and it looked good too.
I was sort of convinced that if you live in these creative dwellings (made of all kind of materials) like in Paraisopolis, they would also decorate it more. I think creativity in any way should be stimulated so that children rather want to be creative than turn to criminality.
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