Favela Painting

Jun 2010

By Sebastian J — Filed under: Misc , Brazil, Dre Urhahn, Favelas, Jeroen Koolhas, Rio de Janeiro

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Jeroen Koolhas and Dre Urhahn are two artist from Netherlands who started working together in 2005. In 2006, they started developing the idea of creating community-driven art interventions in Brazil. Their efforts yielded two murals which were painted in Vila Cruzeiro, Rio’s most notorious slum, in collaboration with local youth. After both murals were finished, they started their third stage of their project, ‘O Morro’.

The initial idea of the Favela Painting project was always to paint an entire hillside favela in the center of Rio, visible to all inhabitants and visitors. As the portuguese translation for ‘the hill’; ‘o morro’ is also used as a synonym for slum or favela, the artists chose to use this name for the third stage of the Favela Painting project. ‘O Morro’ started early in 2010 and was recently finished.

You can find more on the projects in their official website and their Facebook Page. See more images of ‘O Morro’ after the break.

Seen at TheCoolist

Cite:
Jordana , Sebastian . "Favela Painting" 01 Jun 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 08 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/62689>

Comments (28)
Tweets (21)
Links to this entry (20)

juan says:

love it!

did you guys see this?… is the Dulux Walls let`s colour project.

quote: Dulux Walls – Global film for the Let’s Colour Campaign by Euro RSCG London

Let’s Colour is a worldwide initiative to transform grey spaces with colourful paint.

This 2 minute global film was shot by multi-award winning director Adam Berg over four weeks in Brazil, France, London and India. Every location is real and they remain transformed by a palette consisting of 120 different colours. The people in the film are not actors, they are real people who rolled up their sleeves to transform their community with colour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPpMWaSPt-s

incredible!

# June 1, 2010 at 12:15

OS says:

I think you wrong.

# June 1, 2010 at 12:48

brasileiro / brazilian says:

…still expecting the day when these community projects approach a change in the way people live and participate in the dynamics of construction and intervention in space and its habitability.
Even if this project stands for a way to this community communicate about its reality and take its first step into a change, still a showcase for people from outside this community.
We architects must continue to put our mind to work in ways to promote the market profit interests in improving this communities with space integration to the rest of the urban context and opportunities to put these people to participate in the economy.
Urban farming and exotic tourism seem not enough… their space infrastructure should let them stand by themselves.

O. ARQUITECTOS SRS says:

Favela Painting | ArchDaily http://bit.ly/b1QGcj

# June 1, 2010 at 12:52

Nicholas Patten says:

Favela Painting. http://bit.ly/9XPGNa

# June 1, 2010 at 15:31

finn says:

all my scepticism will be removed if i saw the houses these guys lived in was painting in the same garish way, it really looks like an attempt to polish a turd, im sure they meant well

# June 1, 2010 at 18:35

lvbkts says:

um, its an ART project? can’t we make beautiful things, or things beautiful?

as an art project, its great… and it probably has unseen social benefits?

“The Favela Painting Project creates striking artworks, collaborating with local people to use art as a tool to inspire, create beauty, combat prejudice and attract attention.” – facebook site.

# June 1, 2010 at 23:31

robledo duarte says:

Very nice, they could paint also the violence and the drugs,it will be nice isn’t it?

# June 1, 2010 at 18:39

Notorious Favela (Slum) says:

I think it’s shamefull that archdaily publishes informations such as “Vila Cruzeiro (is) Rio’s most notorious slum”, without checking it before. It’s a important piece of information and gives a shallow notion about the conditions of Rio’s favelas.

Besides that, it leaves an really negative idea of self promotion for this two artists, since for a social project it shouldn’t be taken on account if a favela is famous or not but its social and infrastructure condition.

Shame on you!

# June 1, 2010 at 20:21

karen prinsloo says:

Real pleasure to see their imaginative, transforming, refreshing work – Hope there is much more to come :-) Keep painting dudes!

# June 2, 2010 at 08:20

chk says:

What’s the use of this mass urban repainting, forcing the residents to repaint their houses in a certain scheme which some or most of the residents might not fully accept.

# June 2, 2010 at 12:44

Beatriz says:

Como se adiantasse alguma coisa dar uma pintadinha por fora, e melhorasse a qualidade de vida de alguém da comunidade.

Fora o desconforto visual. Imagine ter que passar por essas ruas todos os dias, e ver essas cores gritando.

Achei muito feio, prefiro tijolinhos à vista.

Ah além disso tudo, é invasivo demais. Os caras tratam a moradia das pessoas como um painel para a arte deles.

# June 2, 2010 at 13:21

TM says:

Do you people realize that many of those “houses” are badly ventilated, or not at all. They don´t have proper sweage systems and the area they are at is controlled by drug dealers.

Apart from that, favelas are a shameful testmony of lack of planning, bad government, corruption and disrespect for our professional practice, which is contantly taken for granted.

Nothing against those people who struggle to live in those places when nothing else is offered.

I know that there´s nothing to do with the paintings. But my general idea for favelas is to put them down and make them better by respectful, healthy, community dirven urban planning, and not trying to give poverty some color…

# June 2, 2010 at 13:53

We share this point of view

# June 2, 2010 at 15:18

Juliano says:

I am an architect. I have a friend – who is also an architect – who had her comment – deleted from this thread just because she said she did not appreciate this work. She was 10 times more polite than I am being now.

Once one work has been published on the internet, it is subject to receiving comments of any sort – either positive or, unfortunatelly, negative.

Hope this comment is not deleted as well. Because I did not like this art.

Regards.

# June 2, 2010 at 19:00

Lucas Vidal says:

Realmente é muito bom encontrar artistas que demonstram interesse de expor seu trabalho no Brasil, é fantástico o modo como esses holandeses conseguiram demonstrar sua arte perante um povo que necessita dela. Gostaria muito de ver mais mostrar como “O Morro” aqui no Brasil, mas por enquanto vou me contentando com o Museu Rodin em Salvador.

# June 2, 2010 at 20:08

Juan Cristobal says:

Like a Valparaiso 2.0

# June 2, 2010 at 20:57

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=all&q=valparaiso+color&m=text

# June 2, 2010 at 20:58

DauD ArC says:

perfetto ragazi PERFETTO!!

# June 3, 2010 at 02:48

spasmody says:

very good initiative, very successfull. Moreover, we often forget that favelas are a very good town planning

# June 5, 2010 at 07:42

????????????????

YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY COME TO LIVE IN ONE OF OUR FAVELAS. YOU CAN PICK YOUR FAVORITE.

I FEEL SORRY TO READ COMMENTS LIKE THESE. YOU COULD AT LEAST SAY WHY YOU SAY SUCH A THING THAT ENDS UP BEING DISRESPECTFUL FOR THE TYPE OF LIFE PEOPLE LEAD THERE.

# June 6, 2010 at 13:29

ONE MORE THING… FAVELAS ARE NOT “PLANNED”…

# June 6, 2010 at 13:31

Remkool says:

I don´t like this “dutch colors concept”.
But the idea can be a strong engine for begin
to change some things for this people…
Lula made nothing for this 50 milion brazilians
Thay make paintings, music, sports….

# June 8, 2010 at 05:26

Dow Kimbrell says:

Hi,

I know I’m late to post this, but I wrote up a review of this project that you might like.
http://www.dowkimbrell.com/2010/06/03/supergraphics-inside-out/

Thanks,

Dow

# August 10, 2010 at 22:38

analia says:

I appreciate this color therapy. Living in this kind of environment is tumultuous. Even tho this is not a complete change, it brings attention to the Favela.

# August 11, 2010 at 09:10

mila says:

Its awful. I hate this dutch candy packaging.
There are people living there… Its a shame the way brazilian politicians support such terrible ideas.

É uma porcaria de projeto. Parece um monte de imobiliária de periferia. mau gosto. Acho um absurdo nossos políticos e leis de incentivo cultural aderirem tão facilmente a esta @#&# holandesa.

# September 7, 2010 at 23:54

Stephen says:

If you haven’t walked through sewage in a slum and understand the dynamics of people trapped in poverty and what it does to their pysche, don’t comment from behind your desk in Paris. Well done guys it looks awesome.

# February 7, 2011 at 04:08

FavelaGirl says: