Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY 25

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 25 March 2017
Sao Paulo street art debate over what makes cities livable

SARAH DiLORENZO by his predecessor and was
Associated Press showered with complaints
SAO PAULO (AP) — When from artists and architects
completed in 2015, the who said the murals had
mayor’s office hailed the reclaimed a dilapidated
graffiti panels along Ave- area. New York has largely
nida 23 de Maio as Latin won its war to banish the
America’s largest open- graffiti that once covered
air mural — 70 works of subway cars — an art style
street art stretching for several graffiti artists in Brazil
more than 3 miles (5 kilo- have cited as inspiration —
meters) along a boulevard but many New Yorkers pro-
connecting a well-to-do tested when the owner of a
district with the city center. Queens warehouse known
Then this January, they as 5Pointz, which had be-
were painted over. come a shrine to graffiti art,
It wasn’t done by vandals painted over its murals in
or other graffiti artists, as of- 2013 ahead of its demoli-
ten happens with street art, tion. Sao Paulo has tried to
but by sanitation workers clean up pichacao before,
acting on the orders of Sao but it has also long touted
Paulo’s new mayor, Joao its street art, with even the
Doria, a millionaire busi- city’s own tourism bureau
nessman and former host In this March 22, 2017 photo, a man walks next to a mural created by street artist Eduardo Kobra, offering it up as a slice of
of “The Apprentice Brazil.” in Sao Paulo’s Vila Madalena neighborhood, Brazil. Sao Paulo has long touted such colorful mu- the “real,” gritty city. One
The mayor even donned rals in tourist guides. Associated Press law even calls for graffiti
a pair of orange coveralls to be valued and protect-
and wielded a spray gun aiming at a widely despised Doria’s administration has the cleanup campaign to ed — as long as it is done
to put a thin layer of gray style of street art known as increased fines for picha- other parts of his business- with permission. Pichacao,
paint over the murals — an- “pichacao” — a gener- cao, is installing cameras oriented agenda: a priva- though, is always consid-
gering people who consid- ally monochromatic, rune- to catch practitioners, and tization plan to sell off city ered illegal.
ered the paintings part of like calligraphy covering encourages everyone, es- stadiums and open bids “Street art in Sao Paulo is
the city’s cultural heritage buildings across the city. pecially taxi drivers, to re- for concessions in public a postcard for Sao Paulo,”
port it. parks as well as an effort to said Eduardo Kobra, an art-
But most Brazilians make a
distinction between picha-
cao — derived from the
Portuguese word for tar —
and the colorful and pic-
torial street paintings they
call “graffiti.” The latter are
largely tolerated, often cel-
ebrated and widely seen
as linked to Sao Paulo’s ur-
ban identity.
Many considered the mu-
rals on 23 de Maio a show-
case for Brazil’s vibrant graf-
fiti art, and Doria’s decision
This March 22, 2017 photo shows the facade of a building de- to paint over all but a few A man navigates his skateboard, backdropped by wall ramps
faced with a street art style known as “pichacao” in downtown touched a nerve about defaced by a style of street art known as “pichacao”, in down-
Sao Paulo, Brazil. what can be lost when cit- town Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, March 23, 2017.
Associated Press ies revitalize blighted areas. Associated Press
Some of Doria’s critics tie
and sparking a debate revitalize the dilapidated ist who started out in picha-
about what is art and what downtown, an important cao and is now invited to
should be protected. canvas for pichacao. paint murals in cities world-
Removal of the murals was “This is not just about a fight wide.
among the first acts of against pichacao,” said The removal of the 23 de
Doria’s “Pretty City” cam- Marcio Siwi, a doctoral Maio murals sparked a pro-
paign: a traveling circus of candidate at New York test, and tweets flew with
street cleaners and main- University who studies art, before-and-after pictures.
tenance workers who in- architecture and urbanism Juca Ferreira, who over-
stall new trash cans, plant in Sao Paulo. “This is big- saw the painting of the mu-
trees, pick up garbage and ger than that. This is about rals when he was the city’s
cover up graffiti around bringing revenue into the secretary of culture, said in
Sao Paulo every weekend. city in a way that’s very a Facebook post that the
Doria says the goal is not controversial.” new mayor’s message is:
just to clean up Sao Paulo Other cities have waged “Art only for the elite.”
but to restore Paulistanos’ similar campaigns. The Confusing many people,
pride in their hometown. A worker water blasts the base of a statue during graffiti removal mayor of Lima, Peru, in Doria has since said he
Many in Sao Paulo have clean-up efforts in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, Friday, March 2015 ordered the painting wants to promote street art.
24, 2017.
cheered the campaign for Associated Press over of murals authorized q