The first image I saw looked like a view of Manhattan from Queens with buildings that have been painted. So I went in and visited the storefront of Art and Architecture "a nonprofit organization committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design".
The installation was by Haas & Hahn @ www.favelapainting.com They are the artistic duo of Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn who conceived Favela painting in 2005. Favelas are the name of Brazil's shanty towns. They began in the late 18th century as the home of freed black slaves. Favelas have become infamous as one of the worlds most dangerous slums. They have been the setting of a number of Brazilian movies, most notably "City of God". That's the movie about teenagers living in favelas where the only character that gets out alive is the pet chicken.
Now what do an artist and an architect do to create change?
They gave them tools to create something of their own. Something to be proud of.
They kept doing more and more
They painted the town.
From the brochure of the Storefront for Art and Architecture:
"Haas&Hahn have been able to generate a body of work that grows from the formal intricacies, legal conditions and social dynamics inherent to slums and produce a method of action that would hardly be able to be envisioned within the normative spaces of western models of urbanization."
1 comment:
very informative and hopeful.
That is funny that there is a rice pudding store.
I remember when I was at Art & Design there was a Popcorn store near Bloomingdales. All they sold was popcorn, in all kinds of crazy flavors. The watermelon popcorn was the one that sounded least appealing to me.
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