(Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
When Eduardo Kobra began his career as an artist, he painted the walls of the city of São Paulo with furtive representations of urban life , while he scrutinized lifeless walls during the early hours of the morning, hidden from view by police cars. That is now a thing of the past . Kobra is now an internationally acclaimed muralist, and Latin America’s largest city, São Paulo, has begun to embrace—and even fund—the work of artists who were once persecuted and defamed by authorities. (Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
The art of wall graffiti has boomed during the pandemic, as artists have found solace and inspiration under the open sky during months when galleries, museums and performance spaces have been closed. In fact, many of the murals painted last year addressed the health crisis, which took the lives of more than 480,000 Brazilians and was a fundamental factor in deepening political polarization in the country. One of them was created by Kobra himself, who painted a mural on the facade of a church showing children of different religions wearing masks. "Coming across these works of art makes city life more human , more colorful and more democratic," said Alê Youssef, São Paulo's Secretary of Culture. Since 2017, the city has spent about R$8 million on art projects. street. Graffiti: a way to protest and exist
(Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
Graffiti art took off in Brazil in the 1980s , when artists sought inspiration from New York's hip-hop and punk scenes. It was a male-dominated pursuit, fueled largely by artists from marginalized communities . Kobra says the scribbles were a form of rebellion by people who felt powerless and invisible in the bustling metropolis that is Brazil’s economic engine. “It was a way of protesting, of existing, of spreading my name throughout the city.” From billboards to graffiti
(Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
In the 1990s, São Paulo had few regulations to control outdoor advertising, such as on the sides of buildings and billboards, which gave the impression of a disorderly and polluted urban landscape. With the approval of the Clean City Law in 2006, the city began to to ban large, flashy outdoor advertisements. These giant blank spaces were captivating to Mundano , a well-known muralist and graffiti artist from São Paulo who had always been averse to works displayed in galleries and private collections. “I always felt uncomfortable with conventional art because it was mainly for the elites,” Mundano said. . “In the 2000s, I took to the streets with the aim of democratizing art ." (Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
In 2014, Mundano began painting garbage collectors’ carts, transforming them into colorful traveling exhibits . “I always wanted my art to be useful,” Mundano said. “Art can solve Brazil’s crucial problems .” One of them, in Mundano's view, is the tendency of many Brazilians to forget moments of trauma – a phenomenon that is at the heart of his work as a muralist. "Brazil is a country without memory , where people tend to forget even our recent history. We need to create monuments to the moments that marked us as a nation ." (Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
The mural " Workers of Brumadinho " is exactly about that. It pays tribute to the 270 workers killed in January 2019 during the collapse of a sludge retention dam in Minas Gerais. Mundano traveled to the site of the accident, where he collected the more than 550 kilos of mud used in painting the mural. The mural is a replica of the 1933 work "Operários" by Tarsila do Amaral. Mundano decided to replicate the earlier painting as a way to highlight how little has changed in almost a century. "They continue to be oppressed by the industries," said the artist. . The power of a woman's graffiti
Muralist Hanna Lucatelli Santos is also motivated by social issues, saying she felt called to portray the ways in which women demonstrate their strength. She discovered the unique power of murals when, years ago, she drew an image she called " woman strong but delicate " in your own home . (Victor Moriyama/CASACOR)
Santos sought to replicate this effect on a larger scale by painting murals of serene, mystical women gazing out over the city. His creations go against the grain of the portrayal of women in Brazilian advertising and art that reflects a male gaze . One of his recent works shows the same woman seen from the front and back. The front image includes the words "Did you realize that we are infinite?"; the other side shows the woman carrying a baby on her back. "I wanted people to question how society views mothers," she said. "I know that a woman of that stature, a mystical woman, has the power to change the environment beneath her, to balance the energy of the street, which tends to be so masculine." Source: NYTimes
