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In March 2017, Spanish team Boa Mistura went back to the Favela of Vila Brasilandia, at the north of Sao Paulo, to continue their project “Luz Nas Vielas” that they started in January 2012. Previusly Boa Mistura painted a series of words strategically scattered in different alleys in the favela, known as “vielas”. They wrote “Amor, Beleza, Orgulho, Doçura, Firmeza” (Love, Pride, Sweetness, Beauty, Strength).
“We tried to synthesise the essence of Brâsilandia. The strategy was easy: simplify the spacial complexity of these alleys using the technique of anamorphosis to generate one single ‘canvas’. We would write then a series of words that portrays the true daily life of the neighbours: “Amor, Beleza, Orgulho, Doçura, Firmeza” (Love, pride, sweetness, beauty, strength). The process was collaborative, and took over walls and floor, democratising all the neighbours under one colour field, setting new bondings between people.” Boa Mistura
The project made them realise that urban art can connect people and empower neighbourhoods. Five years later Boa Mistura returned to paint two new words: “Poesía” and “Magica” (Poetry and Magic), highlighting the beauty of the irregular constructions, the magic of the spontaneous urban growth, the intensity of the relationships between neighbours and the smile of the kids playing up and down the stairs.
“It is in these streets where you get to feel the true life of the hood. Where it truly makes sense to include people, to create change. This project aims to be a colourful shout in the middle of a brick ocean, in which life is on the edge. Usually municipal authorities turn the back on the outskirts, which we often get to know because of the infamy from the media. We as urban artists have to reverse that process of negativity, because the favela does not have to be synonym with violence, because life in this place is more intense and real, because “there is no purest and most sincere poetry, than the one that comes from the favela”.” Boa Mistura
Photo Credit Boa Mistura
