I Want To Go To There

If the setting for a Dr. Suess story came to life and mated with a candy store, its offspring would be this town square in Rio. Glorious, right? I’d love to make a point by saying, “what a difference a little color can make,” but this isn’t a little color. It’s gigantic, outlandish, amazing color. For comparison, here’s what the square of Santa Marta looked like before its technicolor transformation…

Bright colors and bold stripes are known to attract attention, and that’s exactly the point. The Dutch art duo Haas & Hahn have been using their work to draw international awareness to some of the most impoverished areas, or favelas, of Brazil since 2005, and this is their latest endeavor. Local townspeople received training on different types of paint and safety measures (think massive amounts of scaffolding) along with much needed paychecks for the month this project lasted. Now, they’re left with a sense of pride and a potential national landmark.

But the project doesn’t end here…

The ultimate goal is to transform an entire hillside! I can only hope the project called O Morro, which translates to hillside, is underway when the World Cup (and hopefully I) hit Rio in 2014. I’d definitely pitch in. The artists are seeking micro-financing for what could be one of the greatest community-driven artworks of our time. Hmmm, I wonder if they’ve heard of Kickstarter...

You can find more info on Favela Painting here.

Thanks to friends Megan and Casson for sending this project my way! I feel like I must be doing something right when people see crazy amounts of color and think of me!