The Cartographies of the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018

The concept and title Walls of Air was conceived as a response to the theme of Freespace proposed by curators Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara in order to provoke questions about: 1. the different sorts of walls that construct, on multiple scales, the Brazilian territory; 2. the borders of architecture itself in relation to other disciplines.

Therefore, a reflection began on how much Brazilian architecture and its urban developments are, in fact, free. Without the ambition of reaching an answer, but hoping to open the conversation to a large and diverse public, we chose to shed light on processes that often go unnoticed due to their nature or scale. The immaterial barriers built between people or neighborhoods, and the processes of urbanization in Brazil on a continental scale are examples of questions we considered.

The Cartographies of the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018 - More Images+ 38

The content was created based on the widest possible understanding of architecture, relating the discipline to the various fields and forces that make up the contemporary physical environment.

We organized the research in ten broad approaches/lines of study, with the aim of revealing, on different scales, new perspectives on the ongoing urbanization processes in Brazil.

© Imagen Subliminal

To research each of these approaches — and achieve our goal to involve a larger and more diverse team in the process of building the exhibition — we set up a multidisciplinary board and invited various outstanding agents and professionals from different fields to participate on it: filmmakers, historians, real estate developers, activists, artists, businesspeople, geographers, anthropologists, physicians, public managers, mathematicians, lawyers, pixadores, and data scientists.

With one representative per theme, the multidisciplinary board was tasked with guiding the team throughout the research and point out sources and paths for the use of the data and the development of the ideas. Part of this exchange was recorded in interviews, which were published in the book. They were planned and edited in collaboration with Coletivo Entre, from Rio de Janeiro, and recorded with the generous support of Arq.Futuro.

© Imagen Subliminal

In parallel with this, we probed the national scene in search of researchers and professionals with works relevant to these ten approaches, and invited more than twenty specialists to write an essay exploring each of them more in-depth. Some of them worked alone, others involved their research groups (academic or private companies) in the task. From Brazil’s North to South, this group of people produced essays that reveal the countless ways of understanding the walls that shape our country, thus reflecting on the meaning of Freespace.

In addition to the consulting and exchange with these professionals, we organized work dynamics involving more than sixty immigrants, a workshop with master’s students from the School of Architecture and Planning of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and, above all, the rigorous data mining carried out by our team of young architects: based in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Boston, who dedicated themselves exclusively to lending consistency and precision to the research.

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The result of this complex constellation of people, who worked for six months, is presented in the Brazilian Pavilion in the form of ten large-scale cartographic drawings. Measuring 3 × 3 meters each, they were created specifically for the exhibition Walls of Air, and provide a detailed cartography of the ten approaches that seem relevant in the practice of those responsible for constructing the physical environment, whether they are architects or not.

  • 10 approaches
  • 10 scales
  • 10 ways of understanding architecture and relating it with other disciplines

The choice of a cartographic language to present this research was one of the most emphatic decisions of our exhibition design. The choice was made in part with the aim of escaping from traditional exhibition models, saturated by realistic images (photographs, renderings, etc.). On the other hand, it also aimed at combining the use of drawing—the architect’s main tool to represent space—with advanced geo-referencing tools.

© Imagen Subliminal

The large-scale format of the panels refers to the immeasurable extension of the Brazilian territory, the fifth largest country in the world, and sheds light on the hundreds of layers that the research reveals. They are narratives within narratives.

At the same time that they offer new ways of understanding the information presented, the drawings bear a carefully articulated aesthetics which, in a certain way, refers to the idea of painting and a relationship with the world of the visual arts, impossible to ignore in the context of the Venice Biennale.

1. Crossbreedings - Brazilian architects abroad

How frank is the exchange of Brazilian architects with the world?

Cruzamentos. Arquitetos brasileiros no exterior. Quão franca é a troca dos arquitetos brasileiros com o mundo?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

Increasingly, the figure of the architect becomes associated with that of the global traveler. In Brazil, specifically, the ever growing movement of architecture students and professionals abroad has been motivated by better opportunities of career development and the country’s recent unstable economy. This condition of international exchange raises questions about the permeability of the discipline to foreign influences, the circumstances of the domestic market, as well as the benefits of global practices.

Federal study-abroad initiatives in partnership with local and international universities have been an important stimulus to the flow of students to foreign countries, especially in the past two decades. The Ciência sem Fronteiras [Science without Borders] program, implemented in 2012, provided scholarships to Brazilian students in an unprecedented rate and scale for the country, building a network of collaboration that is yet to reveal its impact. However, due to the economic recession that swept the country in early 2015 and the high cost of the program’s implementation, Science without Borders was officially discontinued in 2016.

Cruzamentos. Arquitetos brasileiros no exterior. Quão franca é a troca dos arquitetos brasileiros com o mundo?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

In order to better grasp the magnitude of these recent flows and reflect on the potential impacts of these policies, the “Crossbreedings” map presents the results from data sourcing within specialized institutions as well as Walls of Air’s open data collection platform. The map privileges the American continents and the Western portions of Europe, where the exchanges have been larger in number. The spikes in these areas represent the number of Brazilian architecture students received by universities between 1998 and 2016. The data was collected by the main Brazilian governmental agency for international scholarly exchanges (CAPES). The foreign institutions are also listed along the circumference, where diagrams sort the number of incoming students by year. The year of 2012 is emphasized in red, marking the start of the Science without Borders program.

In the Brazilian territory, each spike represents the number of registered and active architects in each city according to the information provided by the Brazilian National Council of Architectural Registration (CAU). The corresponding diagram shows the ratio between male and female architects in the 400 cities registering the largest number of professionals.

Contributors: Eduardo Aquino, Claudio Haddad, Ana Luiza Nobre 

2. Human Flows - The dilution of barriers through cultural assimilation

How open is Brazil to the reception of immigrants?

Fluxos Humanos. Assimilação cultural como diluição de barreiras. . Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“Human Flows” intends to visualize the wave of displacement of people that complexified  Brazil’s social and urban panoramas in the last decades. A socio-spatial analysis of the Brazilian territory, therefore, aims to understand how open is the country towards immigrants, and how viable is the dissolution of social, cultural, and political barriers inherent to the movement of people.

Brazilian culture has historically been marked by the miscegenation of foreigners and locals. From the country’s foundation to the development of its international policy, political opening brought the inevitable urbanization of the territory and the convolution of external and internal dynamics. In addition, the concept of urban immigrant is increasingly present in the quotidian of cities due to an intense domestic migratory movement.

Fluxos Humanos. Assimilação cultural como diluição de barreiras. . Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

This map summarizes migratory flows during the period between 2000 and 2016, dividing them into incoming flux of refugees (red), incoming flux of international immigrants (blue), and domestic migration flows. The graphics indicate the direction and intensity of these movements, connecting lines between Brazilian cities or between them and other countries listed in the circumference. Additionally, the timeline around the map allows the visualization of more than a million immigrants according to their country of origin. In this same section, the increase or decrease in the flows represented in a yearly basis is illustrated with variating circle diameters.

Finally, as a result of a workshop organized in São Paulo - in January 2018, the map also illustrates the journeys of 23 families, delineating the path they travelled from their birthplace to their current home. Mostly migrating in search of new opportunities, their paths are enumerated alongside narratives that describe the various borders they had to cross before settling down.

Contributors: Carla e Eliane Caffé , Ana Carolina Tonetti e Ligia Nobre, Paula Miraglia, Gabriel Zanlorenssi, Rodolfo Almeida
Workshop: Angela Quinto, Carmen Silva, Cássia Fellet, Juliana Caffé, Preta Ferreira, Nathalia Lima, Thalissa Burgi, Rafael Migliatti, + 63 immigrants

3. Material Flows - Physical imprint of commodities exchange

How sensitive is the urban environment to the movement of commodities?

Fluxos Materiais. Rastros físicos da negociação de commodities. Quão sensível é o ambiente urbano à movimentação de commodities?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

Throughout the world, the evolution of cities has always been intrinsically related to primary production – the one that encompasses agriculture, livestock, and natural resource extraction. An essentially agrarian, exporter country, Brazil has been historically marked by grand production cycles. Today, the country has a significant role in the global production of primary products, especially soy, iron ore, sugar, petroleum, and poultry. Although this production occurs mostly in rural areas in the Central-West region of the country, its distribution invariably goes through the East coast of Brazil, where the large metropolises are located. Because of that, dense urban regions that already present problematic mobility systems are faced with the challenge of planning even more complex networks for the circulation of commodities. 

Fluxos Materiais. Rastros físicos da negociação de commodities. Quão sensível é o ambiente urbano à movimentação de commodities?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

The “Material Flows” map aims to present the landscape created by the impact of the primary production in Brazil, especially focusing on four issues: how Brazilian commodities are spatialized; how they circulate throughout the country; what is the balance between Brazilian imports and exports; and what are the urban implications of these dynamics. The goal is to visualize the location and scale of this production.

Data from national logistics companies was transformed into a network consisting of axes and nodes. While the axes represent the circulation of commodities between Brazilian micro-regions, the nodes indicate the centralities within these micro-regions. These flows encompass the four types of commodities transported within the country: general cargo; liquid cargo; solid agricultural cargo; and solid non-agricultural cargo.

The map also shows information regarding exports and imports, including product type, amount traded, countries involved in the trade, and location where products are shipped or received in Brazil, highlighting the ports where these operations take place. 

Finally, the map presents complimentary details such as population density of Brazilian cities and location of oil fields to help paint a broader picture of the landscape of material flows and its regions of impact within the Brazilian territory.

Contributors: Sérgio Besserman, Philip Yang, Marcela Ferreira

4. Fluid Landscape - Encounters between human and natural ecosystems

How unregulated is the relationship between human and natural ecosystems?

Paisagem Fluida. Encontro dos ecossistemas natural e humano. Quão desregulada é a relação entre os ecossistemas humano e natural?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

The divide natural environment / anthropic transformations has long been obsolete for it is impossible to conceptualize one part without taking the other into account. When it comes to understanding the systems we live in, they are the two sides of a same coin.

There is, however, an issue of scale. Because human actions tend to have a clearer direct impact locally, and natural systems operate in larger territorial and global scales, the consequences one has on another can be difficult to perceive. Aggressive actions such as deforestation, the extraction of raw materials, or the artificial transformations of the landscape might have no immediate effect on the local environment, but they lead to drastic consequences on the longer term and on a larger scale.

Paisagem Fluida. Encontro dos ecossistemas natural e humano. Quão desregulada é a relação entre os ecossistemas humano e natural?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

The artificial barriers and walls erected by humans to create divisions among themselves are derisory in containing the side effects of their actions on the broader environment. Nature does not respect geopolitical demarcations.

“Fluid Landscape” intends to reflect on the cause-effect of human’s impact on natural systems from the perspective of the urbanization of Brazil, a country of continental proportions. The map demonstrates how apparent unrelated events up North of Brazil – the wind regimes close to the Equator (white arrows in the map) and the production of water vapor by the Amazon forest (intensity of blue) – are responsible for the fertile ground where Southeast cities could thrive. 

At the same time, the map points out to the risks our cities are facing as we destroy our forests, even if  they are thousands of kilometers apart. A gradient from yellow to red represents the intensity of carbon emissions from biomass loss, or deforestation. The map stresses how the depletion of the Amazon is not only contributing to global climate change but it is also affecting the very possibility of sustaining life in our major cities.

“Fluid Landscape” aims at instigating architects and urbanists to think holistically in our fields of action, understanding the multiple scales that our decisions might impact.

Contributors: Antonio Donato Nobre, Paulo Tavares, Álvaro Rodrigues dos Santos 

5. The Map is not the Territory - A retraced border

How unimpeded is the access to the Brazilian border?

O Mapa não é o Território. O redesenho da fronteira. Quão desimpedido é o acesso à fronteira brasileira? . Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“The Map is not the Territory” is based on the principle that traditional cartographic representations are not suitable to depict the complexity of the conditions on the ground. Although resulting from political and historical decisions, it is impossible to understand the relationship between territories uniquely based on the drawing of their border lines. Its tracing does not necessarily determine where the identity of one ends, and the other begins. Instead of assuming a restrictive role as containment, the border should be represented as a collection of systems, natural ecoregions, social groups, conflicts, crossing points, and other elements located around it. The border should be seen for its possibility of exchange instead of through the lens of its dividing nature. In fact, the border could become a place where different cultural, social, physical, geographic, environmental, and economic structures meet and complement each other.

The geopolitical border of Brazil measures 16.886 kilometers of extension. The border zone, however, encompasses a strip of 150 kilometers wide, internal to the country’s limits. This border zone was constructed by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, mainly according to their commercial interests. Guided by physical obstacles, including rivers, lakes, and topographic elevations, the tracing of the border ignored the former inhabitants and biomes of the different regions. At the end, this somewhat random line carries political and symbolic meanings disconnected from the physical characteristics of the territory.

O Mapa não é o Território. O redesenho da fronteira. Quão desimpedido é o acesso à fronteira brasileira? . Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

The map illustrates the many layers that form the actual Brazilian border. The 90-degree rotation of the map aims to reinforce the image of the border as a wall, while transforming the familiar image of the South American continent. Red lines represent the possible routes – either traveled by roads, rivers, or air – in which it is possible to arrive and travel as close as possible to the official political border of Brazil. It demonstrates the difficulty (and sometimes impossibility) of accessing the border, exposing how existing barriers occur much before the drawn border. The internal administrative division of Brazil and its neighboring countries is replaced by other factors that define the experience of those places: the intersection between biomes and bodies of water; border patrol stations; twin border cities and urban agglomerations; indigenous reserves; environmental protection areas; historical Jesuit missions; as well as ports and airports.

Alongside data on the population of the main border towns, the map also presents the intensity of the relationships between some of those places, reflecting their different levels of permeability. Lastly, a diagram at the bottom of the map represents the most reasonable route along the extension of the border based on distance, time, cost, and accessibility of each of the sections along the way.

Contributors: Ailton Krenak, Gabriel Duarte, Celma Chaves Pont Vidal 

6. Succession of Edges - Narratives on the building of an urban country

How detached from a cohesive vision of Brazil has the urban formation of the country been?

Sucessão de Bordas. Narrativas da construção de um pais urbano. Quão desvinculada de um projeto coeso de pais tem sido a formação urbana do Brasil. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“Succession of Edges” approaches the theme Walls of Air through the temporal scale of the process of urbanization in Brazil. A historical analysis intends to show the different moments in which the understanding of Brazil changed as a result of morphological transformations in its territory.

The analysis exposes how urbanization was not a uniform process in Brazil, highlighting the key moments in which the form of the country and that of the configuration of its cities changed and demanded a new understanding of what that country was. Apart from that, the map reflects on the dense concentration of cities along the Atlantic coast and, at the same time, on the exclusion of the indigenous populations from the planning of this urban expansion in spite of their fundamental role in building the country.

Sucessão de Bordas. Narrativas da construção de um pais urbano. Quão desvinculada de um projeto coeso de pais tem sido a formação urbana do Brasil. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“Succession of Edges” shows the location of the 5.570 cities correlated with the dates of their establishment, constituting a large timeline in a borderless map. This timeline is complemented by the history of the country’s border evolution, shown in the small maps at the bottom. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas is the point of departure for drawings depicting national and state borders, leading to their current configuration in 1991.

In addition, the map contextualizes local and global events that impacted the configuration of Brazil. Pivotal in structuring the evolution of the country from the colonial period until 2017, these events are organized into 9 categories: architecture, wars and conflicts, culture, economy, country, international, landscape, politics, and society.

Contributors: Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, Antonio Risério, Iris Kantor

7. Geography of the Real Estate Market - Controversies between the agenda of capital and that of architecture

How unobstructed is the agenda of the Real Estate market against that of Architecture?

Geografia dos Investimentos Imobiliários. Discordâncias entre as agendas do capital e da arquitetura. Quão desobstruída é a agenda do Mercado Imobiliário em relação àquela da Arquitetura?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

Upper and middle class residences, office buildings, and shopping centers constitute the largest built square footage in Brazil. “Geographies of the Real Estate Market” approaches the theme Walls of Air by analyzing this landscape of ordinary buildings and the forces that shape it.

This analysis considers the Real Estate market, specifically, and Capital, more broadly, as the main forces modeling our cities. It depicts the panorama of the financial speculation in the Real Estate sector and the geographic concentration of investments. By displaying the magnitude of such market, “Geographies of the Real Estate Market” hopes to open to discussion the possible issues that architecture could, more widely, engage with.

Geografia dos Investimentos Imobiliários. Discordâncias entre as agendas do capital e da arquitetura. Quão desobstruída é a agenda do Mercado Imobiliário em relação àquela da Arquitetura?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

The map presents these aspects by deforming the territory according to the regional concentration of investment – the larger the GDP of the city, the higher the increase in its latitudinal and longitudinal position.  Following the logics of deforming size according to higher real estate values, spikes represent the land value in urban and rural agglomerations  – the higher the price, the taller and darker the spikes.

Data regarding the architecture and construction industries is incorporated in bar graphics that represent the number of companies and employees in each sector. The discrepancy between the amounts for each one is revealing of the wall separating these two activities that should, on the contrary, work in conjunction.

Finally, the map shows the real estate market’s impact on the provision of leisure and cultural spaces for the population in Brazilian cities.  Through a comparison of numbers of venues, it puts together the amount of shopping centers by city with that of public cultural equipment, such as cinema and public library, exposing how  spaces for leisure are becoming increasingly privatized.

Contributors: Claudio Bernardes, Danilo Igliori, DataZap, Sergio Castelani, Eudoxios Anastassiadis

8. Inhabiting the House or the City? - The Impact of the Minha Casa Minha Vida Housing Program

How generous are the Brazilian housing programs in offering the right to the city?

Habitar a Casa ou a Cidade? O Impacto do Programa Habitacional Minha Casa Minha Vida. Quão generosos são os programas habitacionais brasileiros em oferecer o direto à cidade?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“To Inhabit the House or the City” approaches the theme Walls of Air through the study of the federal program Minha Casa Minha Vida - MCMV [My House My Life], the largest housing initiative implemented in Brazil. According to the government, 2.6 million homes have been delivered to the population. This research, prepared in collaboration with LabCidade - FAUUSP and ETH, maps four scales of the program: an overview of its impact in the country, an analysis of the housing complexes in relationship to the location of urban centers, and detailed views of the typologies of these housing complexes as both neighborhoods and living units.

Additionally, the map presents a timeline of housing in Brazil, evidencing socioeconomic aspects as well as data relevant to each scale of approach, such as federal macro and micro-politics since 1930, housing deficit, GDP, population growth, and financial investment.

Habitar a Casa ou a Cidade? O Impacto do Programa Habitacional Minha Casa Minha Vida. Quão generosos são os programas habitacionais brasileiros em oferecer o direto à cidade?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

In terms of the country, the map gives a sense of the large scale of the program, featuring data about MCMV in each Brazilian city. In the scale of the city, the location of the housing developments is mapped and tested against the background of an analysis of the average income per household for each city sector, also incorporating the number of houses built for each income stratum. This directly shows how the lower tiers of affordable housing have been pushed to the outskirts of the city.

Finally, a selection of case-studies in the states of Ceará, Amazonas, Pará, Rio Grande do Norte, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro are presented in studies of the typologies composing MCMV units. These show both the isolation of the housing projects from the urban context and the rigidity of the architectural model applied to their design, stressing the risks of replicating the patterns of impoverishment and modifications suffered by previous housing initiatives.

Contributors: Drauzio Varella, Elisabete França, Raquel Rolnik, ETH (Marc Angélil, Rainer Hehl, Patricia Lucena Ventura), Quapa FAUUSP, LabCidade FAUUSP, Rede Cidade e Moradia.

9. Solid Divisions - Borders within the city

How unrestrained is the trespassing of limits between disparate urban fabrics?

Divisões Sólidas. Fronteiras na cidade. Quão livre é a transposição de limites entre tecidos urbanos distintos?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“Solid Divisions” explores the theme Walls of Air from the urban scale, familiar not only to architects and urban designers, but to all the inhabitants of the city. Through the identification of places in stark contrast with the urban morphology, abruptly separated by dividing natural or artificial elements, it is possible to expose the internal borders that exist within cities.

As cities expanded, they faced similar challenges: precarious and insufficient infrastructures; the canalization of polluted rivers; lack of green areas, urban parks and public spaces; a number of viaducts, roads, and highways fragmenting the territory into several disconnected pieces; the emergence of walled lots monitored by electronic equipment; and, finally, an urban life increasingly private, lived within walls.

Divisões Sólidas. Fronteiras na cidade. Quão livre é a transposição de limites entre tecidos urbanos distintos?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

"Solid Divisions" explores the walls present in 30 Brazilian cities. The map compiles natural elements, such as topography and rivers, with man-made structures and modifications on the landscape that represent physical barriers or divisions in the city fabric. The identification of these artificial modifications in the territory were extracted from the comprehensive mapping catalogue developed by research group Quapa (FAUUSP), which analyzes the Brazilian cities’ morphology and built mass according to parameters that define the degree of segregation within each urban block.

The regions extracted from Quapa’s research received a transparent treatment in four tones of red, identifying ten different categories of urban barriers. From darker to lighter, these are: 1) unbuilt areas; 2) enclosed residential areas (one-floor residential condominiums, over three-floor residential condominiums, and housing condominiums); 3) cemeteries and large non-residential horizontal buildings; and 4) "enclaves" (low built-up volume structures, set of large and scattered buildings, set of complex and horizontal buildings).

“Solid Divisions” invites the general public to rediscover urban elements often ignored. Unnoticed places surface through the acknowledgement of their presence as dividing elements in the urban environment. By uncovering walled clusters within cities – themselves already made up of walls – this survey fosters the discussion about the succession of barriers that ultimately set the conditions and pace of the urban life. These walls gradually determine the relationship of the city inhabitants among themselves, and between them with the buildings, condominiums, neighborhoods, and the urban environment as a whole.

Contributors: Gilson Rodrigues, Marcos L. Rosa, Rodrigo Agostinho, Bruno Santa Cecília, gru.a + o com Escola da Cidade (Pedro Vada (coordinator), Newton Massafumi, Pedro M. R. Sales, Beatriz Dias, Bruna Marchiori, Giulia Ribeiro, Isabela Moraes, Karime Zaher, Marilia Serra, Mateus Loschi, Pedro H Norberto)

10. The Encryption of Power - Disobedience and Exclusion in the City

How liberating can Pixo be in revealing the city’s power logics?

Criptografia das Relações de Poder. Desobediência e Exclusão na Cidade. Quão liberador pode ser o Pixo em revelar as lógicas de poder da cidade?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

“The Encryption of Power” takes the literal walls of buildings as objects of analysis so to understand the role of Pixo– black lettering-like sprayed graphics – in subverting the boundaries between the private and public realms of the city. The practice is an illegal guerilla expression that corroborates in denouncing the critical issues of capital concentration and income distribution in the urban environment. The target objects represent high-class buildings, emblematic landmarks, and  structures abandoned due to market dynamics or bureaucracy. These paint a picture of areas where the marginalized population has been excluded from, or where the negligence of capital and government has left the city with contemporary ruins celebrating the misuse of power.

Criptografia das Relações de Poder. Desobediência e Exclusão na Cidade. Quão liberador pode ser o Pixo em revelar as lógicas de poder da cidade?. Image Cortesia de Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018

In order to reveal the places where the Pixo attacks happened and to reflect on the city’s power logics through Pixo, the map focuses on the expanded central area of São Paulo, the city that is emblematically known as the birth place of this practice. Using data collected from 12.853 Instagram posts – also highlighting the importance of social media in contemporary urban culture – it is possible to visualize the geographic distribution of the mentions of “pixo”, “pixação”, and “xarpi” through their locations in the city. On top of that, the fines applied to the offenders and news from the last thirty years mentioning  Pixo are georeferenced and displayed with their date, media vehicle, and headline. Combined,  this information provides a depiction of the ways in which society sees this practice and the logics of punishment that it entails.

Lastly, the map cross-references this data with over 40.000 entry points of building’s square meter prices as well as with emblematic cultural institutions the pixadores have sprayed at in the past in order to reflect on the concentration of power and the expression of this marginalized activity in the city.

Contributors: Cripta Djan, Kenarik Boujikian, Paulo Orenstein, Victor Carvalho Pinto, Carolina Passos, Escola da Cidade (Pedro Vada (coordinator), Newton Massafumi, Pedro M. R. Sales, Beatriz Dias, Bruna Marchiori, Giulia Ribeiro, Isabela Moraes, Karime Zaher, Marilia Serra, Mateus Loschi, Pedro H Norberto)

Brazilian Pavilion on 16th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia

  • Exhibition Title: Walls of Air 
  • Curators: Gabriel Kozlowski, Laura González Fierro, Marcelo Maia Rosa, and Sol Camacho 
  • Commissioner: João Carlos de Figueiredo Ferraz, President of Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Team

  • Coordinator : Gabriel Duarte
  • Architects : Chiara Scotoni, Olivia Serra, Barbara Graeff, Rafael Marengoni, Haydar Baydoun, Heloisa Escudeiro, Miguel Darcy, Giusepe Filocomo, Manoela Pessoa, Leonardo Serrano, Nitzan Zilberman, Catarina Flaksman.
  • Interns : Júlia Figueiredo, Larissa Guimarães, Luiz Filipe Rampazio
  • Interviews & workshops: Coletivo ENTRE, Ana Altberg (coordenador), Mariana Meneguetti (coordenador), Joana Martins, Juliana Biancardine, Manuela Muller, Michel Zalis, Nathalia Perico, Stephanie Marques
  • Research groups & institutions: Data Zap, Global Forest Watch, Mapping Lab (Carolina Passos), Nexo Jornal, Rede Cidade e Moradia, VIVA Projects, MIT – School of Architecture + Planning (Clarence Yi-Hsien Lee, Collyn S Chan, Cristina Grace Clow, Jaehun Woo, Maia Sophie Woluchem, Marissa Elisabeth Reilly, Nitzan Zilberman, Robert Alva Cain, Yeah Nidam), ETH (Marc Angélil, Patricia Lucena Ventura, Rainer Hehl), FAU USP (LabCidade, Quapa), Cota 760 (Luis Guilherme Alves Rossi, Nicolas Andre Mesquita, Paula Lemos), Escola da Cidade (Pedro Vada (coordinator), Newton Massafumi, Pedro M. R. Sales, Beatriz Dias, Bruna Marchiori, Giulia Ribeiro, Isabela Moraes, Karime Zaher, Marilia Serra, Mateus Loschi, Pedro H Norberto), QGIS consultants, Pedro Camargo, Geology consultants (Cássio Roberto da Silva – CPRM, Serviço Geológico do Brasil, Cristina Boggi da Silva Rafaelli – Instituto Geológico, Eduardo Soares de Macedo – Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas, Lidia Keiko Tominaga – Instituto Geológico), Universidade Federal do Pará (Graciete Guerra da Costa, Ligia T. Simonian Lopes, Bernadeth Beltrão Rosas Bentes, Rodrigo Augusto de Lima Rodrigues, George Bruno de Araújo Lima, Rebeca Barbosa Dias Rodrigues, Luciane Santos de Oliveira, Stephany Aylla de Nazaré Carvalho Pereira, Glenda de Souza Santos, Rebeca Barbosa Dias Rodrigues, Luciane Santos de Oliveira, Stephany Aylla de Nazaré Carvalho Pereira, Glenda de Souza Santos)

Production

  • Local Architect: Martin Weigert
  • Graphic Production: Ligia Pedra
  • Catalogue Printing: Opero
  • Maps metal work and assembly: Euroimmagine S.r.l

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Crossbreedings 
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), 2016. Graduation students abroad. [Shared: December, 2017]
Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Brasil (CAU/BR), 2017. Working architects in Brazil. [Shared: January, 2018]
SEDAC/CIESIN, 2015. Gridded World Population. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v4
Openflight Database, 2017. Flight Routes. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: https://openflights.org/data.html   

2. Human Flows
Comitê Nacional para os Refugiados (CONARE), 2000-2016. Refuge requests. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://dados.mj.gov.br/dataset/7c589e2f-dfb8-40b3-bc96-e389155d8c67/resource/a74a4b65-c38a-4343-9fb5-e1b4e919dd6d/download/conare.csv
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2000. Population Census. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: https://ww2.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2000/default.shtm
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Population Census. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: https://censo2010.ibge.gov.br/
Polícia Federal, 2000-2016. National Records for Foreign Registration (SINCRE). [Shared: January, 2018]

3. Material Flows
Climate Change Initiative via Global Forest Watch, 2017. Land Cover. [Shared: February, 2018]
(EPL) and (IPEA), 2015. OD projections for cargo transportations. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: http://www.epl.gov.br/matrizes-do-transporte-inter-regional-de-carga-no-brasil
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2008. Explanations on Law 7585 from July 1986 and Petroleum Oil Distributions. [Accessed on: February, 2018].
Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral (DNPM), 2015. Brazilian Mining Processes Areas. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: http://www.anm.gov.br/assuntos/ao-minerador/sigmine
SEDAC/CIESIN, 2015. Gridded World Population. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v4
National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), 1997-2017. Petroleum Historical Series of Exploration Auctions. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: http://www.brasil-rounds.gov.br/portugues/coordenadas_dos_setores.asp
Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (EPE), 2015. Blocks and Fields of Petroleum Exploration. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.epe.gov.br/en/areas-of-expertise/oil-gas-biofuels/oil-and-natural-gas-exploration-and-production-(e-p)
Ministério do Meio Ambiente (MMA), 2004. Timber Extraction Focuses and Influence. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://mapas.mma.gov.br/i3geo/datadownload.htm
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2016. Limites Administrativos: Municípios do Brasil. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br
Secretaria de Comércio Exterior (SECEX) via DataViva, 2015. Import/Export Origins in Brazil. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: http://www.dataviva.info

4. Fluid Landscape
NASA Earth Observations, 2018. Water Vapor. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MYDAL2_M_SKY_WV
Jarvis A., H.I. Reuter, A. Nelson, E. Guevara via International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, 2008. Hole-filled seamless SRTM Digital elevation data V4. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org.
International Rivers via Global Forest Watch, 2014. Major Dams. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: http://data.globalforestwatch.org/datasets/537361e2df59486e898cd4e024af57ea_0
Global Forest Watch Climate, 2000-2016. Carbon Emissions. [Shared: February, 2018]
National Centers for Environmental Information via Windy, 2018. Wind Direction and Speed. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: https://www.windy.com/?gfs,850h

5. The Map is not the Territory
The Nature Conservancy, 2003. Terrestrial Ecoregions. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://maps.tnc.org/gis_data.html#TerrEcos
World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), 2016. Terrestrial and Marine Protected Areas. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: https://www.protectedplanet.net
U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Explorer, 2017. Vegetation Monitoring by eMODIS NDVI V6. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), 2017. Terras indígenas no Brasil.  [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/shape
Development Back of Latin America (CAF), 2008. Freshwater Ecoregions. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: https://www.geosur.info/geosur/index.php/es/datos-disponibles/datos
Global Administrative Areas, 2015. Administrative Areas. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.gadm.org/version2
Receita Federal do Brasil, Ministério da Economia (RFB), 2005. Customs Controls. [Accessed on: January, 2018]. Available at: http://idg.receita.fazenda.gov.br/orientacao/aduaneira/importacao-e-exportacao/recinto-alfandegados/area-de-controle-integrado-aci
Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Brasil (CAU/BR), 2017. Working architects in Brazil. [Shared: January, 2018]
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Population Census. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://web.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/716
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2016. Rivers and Water Bodies in Brazil. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.geoservicos.ibge.gov.br:80/geoserver/wms?service=WFS&version=1.0.0&request=GetFeature&typeName=CCAR:BCIM_Trecho_Massa_Dagua_A&outputFormat=SHAPE-ZIP
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Ports. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2016. Administrative Boundaries: Brazilian Cities. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br
Natural Earth Data. Bathymetry. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-physical-vectors/
Natural Earth Data. Airports. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/airports/
Google, 2017. South America/ time and routes between cities. Google Maps [Accessed on: December,2017]. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps/@-13.8326385,-53.8151095,4.75z

6. Succession of Edges
Centro de Estudos da Metrópole (CEM), 2012. Administrative boundaries: Brazil Regions [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://web.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/716
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2016. Administrative boundaries 1892-1991. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/organizacao_do_territorio/malhas_territoriais/municipios_1872_1991/
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Indigenous population in Brazil. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: https://indigenas.ibge.gov.br/downloads.html
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Brazil’s demographic data since 1500. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: https://memoria.ibge.gov.br/
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. City population since 1872. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.ipeadata.gov.br/Default.aspx

7. Geography of the Real Estate Market
Centro de Estudos da Metrópole (CEM), 2012. Administrative boundaries: Brazil States. [Accessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://web.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/716
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Roads. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Railways. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br
Conselho de Arquitetura e Urbanismo do Brasil (CAU/BR), 2017. Working architects in Brazil. [Shared: January, 2018]
Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), 2017. Building Supply Manufacturers Data. [Shared: December, 2017]
UNEP/GRID-Geneva, 2014. Exposed capital-monetary value of urban buildings. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://preview.grid.unep.ch/index.php?preview=data&events=socec&evcat=2&lang=eng
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2011-2015. CEMPRE - Cadastro Central de Empresas. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://preview.grid.unep.ch/index.php?preview=data&events=socec&evcat=2&lang=eng
Associação Brasileira de Shopping Centers Centers (ABRASCE), 2017. Shopping Centers. [Accessed on: November, 2017]. Available at: http://preview.grid.unep.ch/index.php?preview=data&events=socec&evcat=2&lang=eng
Sistema Nacional de Informações e Indicadores Culturais (SNIIC), 2017. Cultural Venues. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: http://mapas.cultura.gov.br/

8. Inhabiting the House or the City?
LEHAB / Departamento de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (DAU) / Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), 2012-2015. Mapping of Fortaleza’s PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
LABCAM / FAU / Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA), 2009-2012. Mapping of Belém do Pará’s PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
Núcleo de Pesquisa Habitação e Cidade do Observatório das Metrópoles / FAU / IPPUR / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 2009-2012. Mapping of Rio de Janeiro’s PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
LabHabitat / Departamento de Arquitetura (DARQ) / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), 2009-2012. Mapping of Natal’s PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
LabCidade / Departamento de Projeto (AUP) / Universidade de São Paulo (USP), 2009-2012. Mapping of São Paulo’s PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
LabCidade / Department of Design (AUP) / University of São Paulo (USP), 2009-2012. Mapping of Campinas’ PMCMV bands 1, 2 and 3 developments [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
Rede Cidade e Moradia + Cota 760. “MCMV” processed database [shapefile]. [Shared: February, 2018]
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Population Census. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: ftp://ftp.ibge.gov.br/Censos/Censo_Demografico_2010/Resultados_do_Universo/Agregados_por_Setores_Censitarios/
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2010. Census Tract. [Accessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: https://mapas.ibge.gov.br/bases-e-referenciais/bases-cartograficas/malhas-digitais.html
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), 2017. Estimated Population - Since 1991. [Accessed on: March, 2018]. Available at: https://ww2.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/estimativa2017/default.shtm
United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report, 2016. Human Development for Everyone, Briefing note for countries on the 2016 Human Development Report - Brazil. [Accessed on: March, 2018]. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/BRA.pdf
UN-Habitat’s Global Urban Observatory, 2018. United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals Database, Urban Data Indicators since 1950. [Accessed on: March, 2018]. Available at: http://urbandata.unhabitat.org/explore-data/
Sistema de Informações Sobre Orçamento Público Federal (SIGA), 2018. Federal Budget Reports 2006-2015. [Accessed on: March, 2018]. Available at: http://www8d.senado.gov.br/BOE/BI/logon/start.do?ivsLogonToken=WWW8D.senado.gov.br%3A6400%409005430JoNhmf74Lz75gQp9QSthAWN9005428JwgFB8tdHWjqjLpy1skg75z
World Bank Global Development Data, 2018. Urban Development, Social Development, Poverty, Economy and Growth Indicators - Brazil. [Accessed on: March, 2018]. Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator
Ministério das Cidades, Secretaria Nacional de Habitação, 2017. Minha Casa Minha Vida General Data. [Shared: January, 2018]

9. Solid Divisions
Brazilian Landscape Research Lab, FAUUSP (Quapá). Urban Block Morphology Analysis. [Shared: February, 2018]
Open Street Map, 2017. Brazilian Streets. [Acessed on: February, 2018]. Available at: https://www.openstreetmap.org/
Flanders Marine Institute, 2016. Marine Regions: Economic Exclusive Zones. [Acessed on: December, 2017]. Available at: http://www.marineregions.org/downloads.php
Google Earth, 2017. Satellite Images. [Acessed on: March, 2018]

10. The Encryption of Power
Instagram, Inc. API, 2016-2018. Data extracted using hashtags #pixo #pixosp #pixacao #xarpi. [Accessed on: April, 2018]
Departamento de Produção e Análise de Informação (DEINFO) / Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo (PMSP) via Geosampa, 2018. Buildings in each neighborhood. [Accessed on: April, 2018]. Available at: http://geosampa.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/
Departamento de Produção e Análise de Informação (DEINFO) / Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo (PMSP) via Geosampa, 2018. Building blocks in São Paulo. [online]. [Accessed on: April, 2018]. Available at: http://geosampa.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/
Prefeitura Municipal de São Paulo, 2017. Infractions related to pixo in São Paulo. [Shared: January, 2018]
Data Zap, 2018. São Paulo’s Metropolitan Area real state database. [Shared: March, 2018]
Escola da Cidade, 2018. News about Pixo in São Paulo. [Shared: April, 2018]

This article is part of the ArchDaily coverage of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018. The texts were provided by the curators of the Brazilian Pavilion - Walls of Air.

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Cite: Baratto, Romullo. "The Cartographies of the Brazilian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2018" [Pavilhão do Brasil na Bienal de Veneza 2018: Muros de Ar - Cartografias] 30 Jul 2018. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/898893/the-cartographies-of-the-brazilian-pavilion-at-the-venice-biennale-2018> ISSN 0719-8884

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