At the beginning of the 20th century, a bomb exploded at 2 Rua Helvetia, in downtown São Paulo. This occurred during the 1924 Paulista Revolution, also known as "the revolution that São Paulo forgot": a tenentista uprising harshly suppressed by government-loyal troops. After 23 days of bombardment that primarily affected the civilian population, newspapers celebrated the victory of legality and the crushing of the revolution. A century later, under the justification of maintaining that same legality, many other bombs—both real and symbolic—have exploded over that same territory, impacting the most vulnerable above all.
It is this historical moment—and its repercussions to this day—that is portrayed starting March 18 at the Instituto Pavão Cultural in Campinas, through the exhibition "Under Attack" ("Sob Ataque"). Conceived by Coletivo Garapa and realized with the support of Proac-SP, the exhibition is a cultural initiative that examines the territory now known as Cracolândia in São Paulo. Using a photograph of the property at 2 Rua Helvetia, bombed during the Revolution, as a starting point, the project maps other explosions and violent events that have occurred in that space since then. To this end, the collective, known for its photographic work in the fields of visual arts and documentary, employs a mix of techniques and approaches, ranging from the collection of historical imagery to the creation of new photographs of the territory in focus.
