PRAÇA CANTĀO
Rio de Janeiro 2010
The third Favela Painting project took place in Zona Sul (South zone). Here the favelas are built on the steep mountains in the central area of the city. A sharp contrast between formal and informal. The location was Praça Cantão in a neighborhood called Santa Marta. The location consists of houses built around a public space with a circle drawn into the concrete, in the middle. The project required a simple design as it involved painting over 34 houses, covering an area of 7000 square metres and a limited amount of time.
We created a design based on a color circle fanning out its colors from the centre of the square, covering the buildings in bright contrasting rays. The colored lines run diagonally across the buildings, accentuating their organic positioning.
The project involved training the local youths in painting and employed 25 locals to realize its completion within a month. The main objective was to create a huge piece of community art that serves as a catalyst for the improvement of housing and neighbourhoods. By empowering and bringing colour and joy to these people, we hoped to ignite personal and societal change on all levels.