WEBVTT

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Rio de Janeiro has the moniker
of \"wonderful city\".

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And the aesthetics that have been
produced over time

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dialogue with that image,
which has been very manipulated

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by politicians
at every moment in history.

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The \'pixação\' reflects
a series of questionings.

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In the current context of Brazil,

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it reflects on the process
of urban segregation.

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But if someone wants to say
it\'s art, I say it is,

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because it expresses
a sense of São Paulo

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which is exactly
that crown of thorns

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as if São Paulo
were Christ

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and bore pixação,

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as his crown of thorns.

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For me, graffiti
only exists outside the law,

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through the act of doing something
without permission.

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If it’s allowed, it automatically
stops being graffiti.

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There will always be people
against it and people in favor.

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But one thing is true:
graffiti is not for just anyone.

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Being a fake graffiti artist
is very easy.

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Being a real graffiti artist
is not.

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♪ They call me this and that
\'cos I live my way ♪

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♪ I get dirty from this life
as if it were mud ♪

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♪ I try, I go
if it fails, I’m screwed ♪

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♪ Always true to my desire
elbow to elbow ♪

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♪ The north takes me away
the north is mine ♪

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♪ I write it
every morning is a challenge ♪

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♪ I breathe, watch, and trust ♪

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♪ And when the night comes
I stare at the moon and smile ♪

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♪ Nomad life
wherever life ♪

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♪ Lighter life
Live your way ♪

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♪ Live carefree
live how you want ♪

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♪ Don\'t let anyone set your horizon
or border ♪

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♪ Live without a boss
live without a master ♪

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♪ I\'m led by the beat
of my heart ♪

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♪ I ride the wind
and this song ♪

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♪ They say I\'m lost
I say revolution ♪

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São Paulo is the dream
and the nightmare of the big city.

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Many people come here
following a dream

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of living in a big city,
making a life here.

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And you’ll also find
many people living a nightmare

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in this city.

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So it\'s an extreme city,
and those extremes are visual,

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they’re extremes
of meanings,

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They’re social and political extremes.

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Everything you can imagine
is in this city.

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It really is the dream and nightmare
of a megalopolis,

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represented inside a box.
A Pandora\'s box.

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That idea of the struggle of the individual
against a city the size of São Paulo

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is very political too,
because it leads to the place of memory.

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In order to do something
significant in terms of scale,

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you have to make
a very big effort.

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But to be meaningful,
you have to reach people,

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it\'s not just the size
that reaches people.

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Meaning is what reaches people.

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And it\'s very interesting
because nothing is perennial,

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that is, everything is ephemeral
in the city.

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And what really interests me
the most in the city

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is life,
and its ephemeral side.

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I took \'Metabiotica\'
from an expression that\'s ...

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... symbiosis,
in biological relationships,

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there\'s symbiosis
and parasitism,

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and there’s one between the two,
something called \'metabiosis\',

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which is when
two organism only exist

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when one dies to generate
a favorable environment for the other.

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The piece stops being a painting
and becomes a photograph,

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and there it creates
a perfect environment ...

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for you to have
that series.

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And I was there, giving life to graffiti,
a life I saw was missing,

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and at the same time questioning
the veracity of the photo.

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\'Metabiotica\',
beyond two perspectives.

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You have to think about painting,
and photography,

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each one as a perspective.

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And by combining the two
in the photo frame,

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you get a third thing,
that would be \'Metabiotica\'.

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For me the biggest challenge
is not inspiration,

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because the raw material
is huge,

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it’s dealing with the scale
that São Paulo presents you with,

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that\'s very difficult.

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In order to do something
relevant in a city this big,

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you have to put the individual
against the concrete,

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and that\'s a very tough pressure.

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I think the city has a dynamic,
the walls have a meaning

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that extrapolates
a pre-established idea.

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Everything indicates that Brazilians like
rather inoffensive, cheerful things,

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a little silly,
a little tasteless ...

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Brazilian taste
is very \"brega\", very vulgar,

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Brazilian understanding,
as it comes from the mainstream media,

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is all already processed,
very easy to digest.

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They don\'t understand irony
or read between the lines very well,

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they believe everything
the mainstream media say.

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The mainstream media are even
a barometer for certain people,

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for what\'s true or not.

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If it comes from the mainstream media,
then it\'s reliable.

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Everywhere
you can have lunch in Brazil

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is connected to television,
to a certain channel.

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Always the same.
So what do you expect?

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Well, I got motivated,

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when I saw that my theme
was very difficult

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it aimed for the bizarre,
it was very experimental.

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And I saw that, on the street,
it was possible to do what I wanted,

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without anyone telling me
I couldn\'t show that.

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It was a place where
I could express myself freely,

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and I really liked that.

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When something bothers me,
it\'s hard for me to keep quiet.

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Many politicians promise

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to put the people
above all.

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I like to portray the oppressor,
more than the oppressed,

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but the oppressed
always have to be there.

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The oppressor is usually a ...
has a certain ...

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is a more robust person,

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shown as a caricature,

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forgive me if I\'m guilty
of fat-shaming,

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but it\'s to express
that power.

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It\'s something that
imposes itself, let\'s say.

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I would define
the city of São Paulo as ...

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a large, very chaotic metropolis,

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a place
with a lot of competition.

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Many people come here ...

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from several countries,
but more from within Brazil,

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a continent-size country.

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Everyone who comes here,
arrives with only one goal,

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which is to succeed,

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and that brings a lot of stress
to the city as a whole.

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When you leave the competition,
you also leave the city

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because whoever
isn’t competing

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can\'t live
within the city.

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And your only reason
to continue in São Paulo

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is to continue competing.

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In a city as big
as São Paulo,

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where there are
millions of people.

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We have many people
living here.

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Incredible as it may seem,
the number of people ...

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who live in this place,

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instead of enabling
more encounters,

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on the contrary,
it causes more repulsion.

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In São Paulo,
nobody knows each other.

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Even if you\'re born
on a certain street,

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and live your whole life
on the same street,

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you don\'t know your neighbor
who lives in the house on the right,

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or on the left,
or across from you.

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You live in an apartment building
with 200 families,

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and no one knows the others.

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São Paulo
could be Lilith.

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You know, that first goddess,

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who’s the same as Kali,
a devouring goddess.

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She ... eats everything
in front of her,

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she devours everything ...

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She was also the first ...

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She\'s known as
the first demon, too.

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In São Paulo, where we grew up,
we learned from the beginning

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that if we didn\'t use
the city,

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we would be used
in a certain way.

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We had to discover

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what the stage
outside was.

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How we could dialogue
with the city.

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Without letting the city consume us,
swallow us.

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We had to discover
what São Paulo was.

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What is the street?

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You arrive in São Paulo
and you know it\'s São Paulo.

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São Paulo... it\'s like
it has a life of its own,

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and that\'s what
fascinates me about the city.

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It\'s cold and it\'s not.

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It sucks you in, but it offers you
good things too. It\'s a chaos ...

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and you still like it,

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because you find things
in the chaos.

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We’re from the second generation
of graffiti in Brazil,

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from the mid-80s onwards.

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São Paulo\'s graffiti,
it\'s latex, no doubt.

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That improvisation
of different materials.

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Our first strokes
were all with latex,

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Outline and background.

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Then we started
contouring with spray paint.

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Yes, later we were able to
buy one each.

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We used them
only for the contour.

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Then we began to find
what we’d been doing

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since we were children,
when we drew ...

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We had the need
to put a lot of detail into things.

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A lot.

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If you go to the essence
of graffiti history, when it started,

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nobody would ever ask
permission to paint a wall.

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We\'re talking about
a Third World country,

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where people
sometimes don\'t have

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paint for their own home,

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and you\'re going
to paint their wall,

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without even knowing
if that person wants you to.

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It\'s very crazy that graffiti
from São Paulo, from Brazil,

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despite being
something \'incorrect\',

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ends up being something positive,

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that provokes a social exchange.

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We wanted to discover
if it was possible ...

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to paint graffiti
in places where ...

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you could really
go to jail for doing it,

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and see what happens.

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It was a good discovery.

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We found out you could paint the street
even on Sunday, in broad daylight.

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When you paint something illegally,
you have to work fast.

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We managed to take our time
without being arrested.

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Then we looked for
a larger scale,

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and that enriched our work,
which had been simple,

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due to the ability we acquired
to paint on the street.

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The good thing is that
we never depended on them,

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we never believed in politics,

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in order to do what we do.

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- It was always ...
- Independent.

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Emerging from us.

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Because if it depended on them,
nothing could be done.

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Waiting for authorization,
you wouldn’t do anything.

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DEDICATED TO ALL WHO PLANT AT NIGHT
AND HARVEST BY DAY

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Or your family,
as in Ise’s case.

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He takes his son
to do “rolé”.

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He\'s 7, and he paints.

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He does letters, dolls,
and he\'s 7.

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How cool is that!

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What I would give to be 7 years old

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and for my father to take us
to paint graffiti!

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In my group, we have a saying ...

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Family isn’t what you’re born into,
but who you choose in life.

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There is no blood tie.

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They’re the people
with whom you identify,

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you give your life for them,
and they for you.

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That is the essence
of my true group,

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we really live
for each other.

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I think for us,
our crew is a family.

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Before being a graffiti crew,

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everyone wanted to paint individually
and dispute with others ...

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No, for us
it\'s a family.

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We met a long time ago,

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We all respect each other
very much.

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When we paint together,

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one person’s problem
is everyone’s problem

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No one is left alone.
Ever.

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If we have to run away
and someone stays behind,

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we all stay.

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Because we\'re family.

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For us,
that’s the biggest thing.

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It\'s small,
but we consider it to be family.

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Everyone who takes a spray can,

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the first thing they write
is their name. It\'s amazing.

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If you give your dad a spray can,

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the first thing he\'ll write
is his name.

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For me, graffiti
only exists outside the law,

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through the act of doing something
without permission.

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If it’s allowed, it automatically
stops being graffiti.

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There will always be people
against it and people in favor.

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And few people
realize their power,

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because it speaks
to many people.

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I don\'t know how many people
see my work per day:

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300 thousand?
1 million every two days?

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An absurd number.

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Graffiti is a branch
of the most popular visual art forms.

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It\'s as if it were
the samba of visual arts.

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So something pop results.

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The system kills
movements,

00:23:06.551 --> 00:23:08.637
co-opts them, and there you ...

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you end up being co-opted.

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The moment you pass to
the commercial side, the system side,

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to let them use you,
you must learn to use the system,

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for your benefit,
and to get something too,

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or else, you end up
prostituting yourself, and that\'s not nice.

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São Paulo for me
is simply everything:

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the city where I was born,

00:23:41.086 --> 00:23:42.587
the city where I grew up,

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where I learned everything
I can do today,

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the city that inspires me,
and where ...

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I learned to be who I am.

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So for me, São Paulo
is 100% important

00:23:52.639 --> 00:23:55.142
to what I do
with graffiti.

00:24:38.226 --> 00:24:40.645
São Paulo is the city
that is neglected,

00:24:40.812 --> 00:24:43.440
has many social problems,

00:24:43.607 --> 00:24:45.859
that are much more important

00:24:46.193 --> 00:24:48.445
than walls
dirtied with paint.

00:25:00.165 --> 00:25:02.334
The lack of schools ...

00:25:02.542 --> 00:25:04.461
Those are the real problems.

00:25:04.503 --> 00:25:05.795
They put ideas
in people\'s minds,

00:25:05.921 --> 00:25:08.215
to divert the focus
away from real problems,

00:25:08.423 --> 00:25:10.091
and toward something
not so important,

00:25:10.258 --> 00:25:12.302
because it\'s just a wall
dirtied with paint.

00:25:12.385 --> 00:25:15.096
A wall dirtied with paint
is still a wall,

00:25:15.222 --> 00:25:17.349
it doesn\'t stop
fulfilling its function.

00:25:37.702 --> 00:25:41.540
What ends up making
those things connect?

00:25:41.623 --> 00:25:46.920
How does the madness of the city
have to do with that ... occupation,

00:25:46.962 --> 00:25:49.839
with that chaos
that pixaçao and graffiti

00:25:49.881 --> 00:25:52.384
end up bringing
visually.

00:25:52.509 --> 00:25:56.096
You see tag, pixaçao,
graffiti, stickers,

00:25:56.263 --> 00:25:58.348
murals,
all very close together,

00:25:58.473 --> 00:26:01.977
and I think that chaos
reflects the chaos of the city.

00:26:07.941 --> 00:26:09.401
So for me
it\'s exactly that,

00:26:09.484 --> 00:26:11.570
graffiti and pixação
are the same thing,

00:26:11.653 --> 00:26:13.989
they only live
in illegality.

00:26:14.197 --> 00:26:18.326
And urban art,
mural art, or ...

00:26:19.452 --> 00:26:20.620
street art...

00:26:20.745 --> 00:26:23.832
those are diverse terms ...
I see \'graffiti\' as a blanket term.

00:26:23.957 --> 00:26:26.876
Graffiti is within urban art.

00:26:27.627 --> 00:26:29.170
Except it’s
an illegal urban art.

00:26:40.056 --> 00:26:43.184
Pixação was born in São Paulo,

00:26:43.268 --> 00:26:46.479
it\'s the cradle of pixação,
most likely in the southern zone.

00:26:46.605 --> 00:26:50.650
At the beginning it was writing
one\'s name on the wall.

00:26:50.817 --> 00:26:52.485
It was a school sort of thing,

00:26:52.861 --> 00:26:56.364
and a movement formed
over time.

00:27:01.119 --> 00:27:05.790
Pixação, after the 80s,
early 90s,

00:27:05.915 --> 00:27:09.502
changed a lot:
it was split into modalities,

00:27:09.502 --> 00:27:13.423
it became more organized
and began to grow, until today.

00:27:13.548 --> 00:27:16.217
New pixadores appeared,
new modalities,

00:27:16.468 --> 00:27:18.053
and people keep
reinventing themselves.

00:27:21.431 --> 00:27:23.725
The pixador goes out
on foot,

00:27:23.850 --> 00:27:27.479
And does a lot of pixo
at body level,

00:27:28.021 --> 00:27:31.274
several on the same street,
several in the same neighborhood.

00:27:32.609 --> 00:27:36.363
There’s also the \'building\' modality,
which is what I do.

00:27:36.613 --> 00:27:39.991
We always look for
the tallest building,

00:27:40.116 --> 00:27:43.662
the highest
of all the structures around,

00:27:43.745 --> 00:27:45.580
until reaching the summit.

00:28:37.507 --> 00:28:42.011
The goal is to put the favela
in the modality that we like.

00:28:42.095 --> 00:28:44.931
I’m from São Paulo\'s Arrastao crew,
and I like height.

00:28:45.140 --> 00:28:47.183
The higher, the better.

00:29:02.532 --> 00:29:05.410
And also in the heights
of the buildings

00:29:05.535 --> 00:29:08.788
you can manifest your opposition
to the highest class.

00:29:10.540 --> 00:29:14.377
But we still manage to trespass,
write our name up there,

00:29:14.502 --> 00:29:18.256
We go down,
and that divergence remains:

00:29:18.339 --> 00:29:20.508
they keep feeling so safe,

00:29:20.633 --> 00:29:22.469
but we were just
above their heads.

00:29:35.315 --> 00:29:37.567
I write the name \'Arrastão\',

00:29:37.734 --> 00:29:41.613
that name comes from
the arrastão of Rio de Janeiro.

00:29:41.821 --> 00:29:44.199
I don\'t know if you know
the arrastão on the beach,

00:29:44.282 --> 00:29:45.950
which consists in stealing
from many people at once.

00:29:50.079 --> 00:29:52.665
The arrastão of Rio de Janeiro,

00:29:52.791 --> 00:29:55.710
that intervention
was named in ‘92,

00:29:55.877 --> 00:29:58.838
and the term arrastão was coined.

00:29:59.088 --> 00:30:02.133
And my crew, the pixo,
was born in \'94.

00:30:02.592 --> 00:30:05.345
I started in ’97,
the Arrastão crew already existed,

00:30:05.428 --> 00:30:07.013
and I joined that group.

00:30:16.439 --> 00:30:19.692
The \'meeting point\' is downtown,
it\'s historical.

00:30:19.776 --> 00:30:20.944
It has already changed place:

00:30:21.069 --> 00:30:24.280
It used to be in the Anhagabau Valley,
today it’s on Sete de Abril Street.

00:30:24.364 --> 00:30:27.033
All the pixadores
of São Paulo meet there.

00:30:27.200 --> 00:30:30.787
Everyone lives in their region,
regions have their \'point\',

00:30:30.829 --> 00:30:34.415
But downtown\'s \'point\' is where
you\'ll find pixadores

00:30:34.499 --> 00:30:36.584
that you don\'t see anywhere else ...

00:30:36.918 --> 00:30:39.587
It\'s where
everyone meets.

00:30:39.838 --> 00:30:43.091
It\'s a fantastic place because
you go and meet friends,

00:30:43.174 --> 00:30:45.009
you drink something, time flies.

00:30:45.093 --> 00:30:47.887
Many \'rolé\' start there,
many pixadores agree to meet for \'rolé\',

00:30:47.971 --> 00:30:50.723
they meet in downtown, and
from there they go out to \'pixar\' together.

00:30:51.182 --> 00:30:53.059
The \'point\' is as if it were ...

00:30:53.268 --> 00:30:55.228
the center
of the pixação language.

00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:03.820
The \'little sheets’, what\'s that?
You carry a folder,

00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:07.240
you deliver a sheet,
and you receive a brand,

00:31:07.365 --> 00:31:11.619
a graffiti name: Lixomania
(\"Garbagemania\"), for example.

00:31:12.036 --> 00:31:16.916
Every pixador wants to have
a little sheet from Lixomania,

00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.586
because he\'s a
very famous pixador,

00:31:19.836 --> 00:31:21.170
everyone knows him.

00:31:21.296 --> 00:31:23.089
I think the main thing ...

00:31:23.506 --> 00:31:26.092
to think about
the pixadores collective,

00:31:26.175 --> 00:31:29.053
is precisely in the way
they articulate

00:31:29.262 --> 00:31:31.681
a network of sociability
in the city,

00:31:31.890 --> 00:31:34.684
and that network allows
those young people

00:31:34.934 --> 00:31:37.353
to have social recognition
within it.

00:31:37.729 --> 00:31:39.939
So when he comes
to the \'point\' of the pixadores,

00:31:40.023 --> 00:31:42.525
he\'s surrounded by other colleagues,
mainly the youngest,

00:31:42.692 --> 00:31:43.735
to sign autographs:

00:31:43.860 --> 00:31:46.404
sign the pixação
that he did on the walls,

00:31:46.571 --> 00:31:47.697
on a sheet of paper.

00:31:47.780 --> 00:31:49.282
And that has enormous value.

00:31:49.699 --> 00:31:52.076
So, it\'s interesting
to think

00:31:52.201 --> 00:31:54.037
how pixação
is constituted in São Paulo

00:31:54.120 --> 00:31:56.331
as a kind of
offline social network.

00:31:57.332 --> 00:32:02.086
They’ve grown a network
that today

00:32:02.170 --> 00:32:05.131
is the largest network
that exists in São Paulo

00:32:05.214 --> 00:32:07.800
because it covers a territory

00:32:07.967 --> 00:32:11.346
where 20 million people live.

00:32:14.849 --> 00:32:17.769
Pixação elicits hate
from some people

00:32:17.852 --> 00:32:19.604
because \"It\'s ugly\",
\"It\'s not colorful\",

00:32:19.646 --> 00:32:23.316
any criticism of that kind
is a great reflection of the nightmare

00:32:23.441 --> 00:32:25.568
that São Paulo can be,
which is pixação.

00:32:25.693 --> 00:32:29.948
Which found in São Paulo
the perfect platform to be like a game,

00:32:30.156 --> 00:32:31.908
which you climb onto,

00:32:32.325 --> 00:32:34.869
and you take the city
as a calligraphy notebook.

00:32:43.795 --> 00:32:45.463
I think the main relationship

00:32:45.546 --> 00:32:47.799
between squats
and pixação

00:32:47.882 --> 00:32:50.385
is that those buildings
are more available to be marked.

00:32:50.468 --> 00:32:52.053
So I think
there\'s a relationship.

00:32:52.136 --> 00:32:54.305
We can even think
about whether pixação

00:32:54.389 --> 00:32:57.684
constitutes a certain protest
against that empty space of the city.

00:32:58.226 --> 00:33:01.813
When young people
mark that space,

00:33:01.896 --> 00:33:04.691
they’re denouncing
real estate speculation.

00:33:14.325 --> 00:33:17.620
Pixadores, by nature,

00:33:17.745 --> 00:33:20.206
transform private property,

00:33:20.289 --> 00:33:25.628
they give a public function
to a private good.

00:33:26.004 --> 00:33:28.506
It\'s a side of the city,
a meaning of the city,

00:33:28.548 --> 00:33:32.969
that no form of urban expression
was able to show so well,

00:33:33.052 --> 00:33:35.847
so clearly,
as did pixação.

00:33:36.639 --> 00:33:38.641
But if someone
wants to say it\'s art,

00:33:38.725 --> 00:33:41.811
I say it is, because
it expresses a sense of São Paulo

00:33:41.853 --> 00:33:44.230
which is exactly
that crown of thorns

00:33:44.355 --> 00:33:46.024
as if São Paulo
were Christ

00:33:46.190 --> 00:33:50.611
and bore pixação,
as his crown of thorns.

00:34:00.455 --> 00:34:04.584
However, São Paulo is
a rectilinear city, of buildings,

00:34:04.667 --> 00:34:06.252
of an urban landscape

00:34:06.294 --> 00:34:08.504
because it´s a stone jungle.

00:34:08.671 --> 00:34:10.339
So I think...

00:34:10.339 --> 00:34:12.341
São Paulo pixação
shows that,

00:34:12.467 --> 00:34:15.511
because São Paulo pixação
is all rectilinear,

00:34:16.137 --> 00:34:17.972
as if they were
capital letters.

00:34:18.097 --> 00:34:20.224
While in Rio
it\'s all mixed, all rounded,

00:34:20.349 --> 00:34:22.935
all curved,
like the tags.

00:34:23.061 --> 00:34:26.689
So I think it was
a natural assimilation...

00:34:26.856 --> 00:34:29.567
an introjection of the aesthetics
of the environment,

00:34:29.650 --> 00:34:32.779
and a purge
through those manifestations.

00:34:35.490 --> 00:34:38.159
I believe that Rio de Janeiro
is a city ...

00:34:38.618 --> 00:34:40.661
with very lush nature.

00:34:40.953 --> 00:34:43.498
And natural forms
are not straight,

00:34:43.664 --> 00:34:46.334
they\'re always sinuous.

00:34:56.260 --> 00:34:57.553
Xarpi and pixação.

00:34:57.678 --> 00:35:00.932
Xarpi is actually \'pixar\'
said backwards.

00:35:01.015 --> 00:35:04.310
So, it\'s the language of the
pixadores in Rio de Janeiro,

00:35:04.685 --> 00:35:07.897
and that story of speaking backwards,

00:35:08.272 --> 00:35:10.650
is something very naive,

00:35:11.025 --> 00:35:13.569
in the sense that you use
clandestine codes,

00:35:13.653 --> 00:35:16.405
internal codes, etc.

00:35:16.781 --> 00:35:18.991
There are even pixadores

00:35:19.033 --> 00:35:22.370
who choose only surfaces
that cannot be removed,

00:35:22.703 --> 00:35:25.081
and they are called
\"pixadores of eternal walls\"

00:35:25.331 --> 00:35:27.959
They’ll scribble on a stone,
a tile,

00:35:28.126 --> 00:35:32.839
because you won\'t be able to remove
their paint or pixação,

00:35:32.964 --> 00:35:34.423
unless a technique

00:35:34.465 --> 00:35:35.883
like the sandblaster is used,

00:35:35.925 --> 00:35:36.843
or something worth it.

00:35:48.688 --> 00:35:52.358
Rio de Janeiro is really a...
a unique city.

00:35:52.733 --> 00:35:55.486
It\'s a...
very paradoxical city.

00:35:55.695 --> 00:35:58.948
A city full of beauties
and scars.

00:36:01.659 --> 00:36:04.829
And it\'s a city that ...
like Brazil, in a way ...

00:36:04.829 --> 00:36:08.291
it\'s a city that doesn\'t
deal with its traumas.

00:36:12.670 --> 00:36:17.049
Rio de Janeiro has the moniker
of \"wonderful city\".

00:36:17.258 --> 00:36:20.803
That\'s the image that’s been
projected on this city.

00:36:20.887 --> 00:36:24.599
And the aesthetics that have been
produced over time

00:36:24.682 --> 00:36:27.143
dialogue with that image,

00:36:27.226 --> 00:36:30.980
which has been very manipulated
by politicians

00:36:31.063 --> 00:36:32.982
at every moment in history.

00:36:57.173 --> 00:37:01.385
From the point of view of advertising
and the aesthetics of the city,

00:37:01.802 --> 00:37:05.181
nature and graffiti
embraced each other

00:37:05.223 --> 00:37:08.392
in terms of the marketing that was done
in Rio de Janeiro in that context.

00:37:09.018 --> 00:37:13.648
In this place they called \"Graffiti Paradise,\"
they even wrote it in English.

00:37:13.814 --> 00:37:15.983
And it\'s the same place as ...

00:37:16.484 --> 00:37:19.612
if we carried out an investigation
about the narratives

00:37:19.654 --> 00:37:21.906
of the young writers
of the city walls,

00:37:21.989 --> 00:37:23.908
we would see that
there\'s no \"paradise\" there.

00:37:25.326 --> 00:37:30.998
So, party for the foreigner
who has that postcard from Brazil in his head.

00:37:31.082 --> 00:37:34.043
It\'s hard to understand that party
and torture happen in the same place,

00:37:34.043 --> 00:37:35.503
at the same time,
the same minute,

00:37:35.544 --> 00:37:36.712
and that is what Brazil is melded from.

00:38:06.367 --> 00:38:09.787
Graffiti for me is blood
running through the veins, it\'s life,

00:38:09.870 --> 00:38:12.790
adrenaline, fun, friendship ...

00:38:12.999 --> 00:38:15.584
I can\'t see myself
without graffiti.

00:38:15.584 --> 00:38:18.754
I don\'t know,
I couldn\'t stop being a graffiti artist.

00:38:30.099 --> 00:38:32.143
The importance of graffiti
to the city ...

00:38:32.351 --> 00:38:33.728
it becomes a gallery,
right?

00:38:33.894 --> 00:38:35.313
For those who believe in art,

00:38:35.396 --> 00:38:37.857
who like
new things being painted,

00:38:37.940 --> 00:38:41.319
who are tired of seeing
a completely gray or beige wall,

00:38:41.819 --> 00:38:45.573
they’ll get a drawing,
a unique typography.

00:38:46.365 --> 00:38:48.409
We\'re shaken along with the city.

00:38:48.534 --> 00:38:51.746
With the buildings, with the walls,
with the trains, with everything.

00:38:51.912 --> 00:38:53.247
You\'re forced to see it.

00:38:53.372 --> 00:38:55.666
You can be rich, poor,

00:38:55.833 --> 00:38:58.794
black, white,
Indian, yellow, gringo ...

00:38:58.878 --> 00:39:01.172
Everyone is forced to see it
in that great gallery.

00:39:01.422 --> 00:39:03.883
For me it\'s beautiful.
I like to see it.

00:39:04.008 --> 00:39:06.844
I understand that there are
many people who don\'t like it.

00:39:20.900 --> 00:39:23.944
Here in Rio de Janeiro
there\'s beach, there are waves.

00:39:24.028 --> 00:39:26.697
There are the mountains,
seagulls flying.

00:39:26.906 --> 00:39:30.034
Not that this is paradise,
because actually it\'s hell here.

00:39:35.456 --> 00:39:39.251
Rio de Janeiro is one of the most
dangerous cities there is.

00:39:39.335 --> 00:39:41.420
I live here, so
what am I going to do?

00:39:41.545 --> 00:39:43.798
Am I going to gather paint to
paint in another city? Never.

00:39:43.839 --> 00:39:45.508
I have to paint here,
I grew up here.

00:39:45.591 --> 00:39:50.346
So, going through dangers,
problems, obstacles is part of it ...

00:39:50.513 --> 00:39:53.391
But ... it ends up
being fun too.

00:39:58.020 --> 00:40:01.273
GRAFFITI IS A CRIME IN THE COUNTRY
WHERE STEALING IS ART

00:40:44.567 --> 00:40:48.362
I\'m just looking to portray reality.
What people have gone through.

00:40:48.696 --> 00:40:50.906
That part about difficulty, survival ...

00:40:50.906 --> 00:40:54.243
Portraying the foundation
of the local association,

00:40:54.368 --> 00:40:57.121
all that was portrayed
with graffiti in the \'favela\'.

00:40:57.288 --> 00:41:00.541
And that shows
the new generations

00:41:00.624 --> 00:41:02.751
that life was much
harder in the past

00:41:35.201 --> 00:41:38.954
That sculpture
is the personification

00:41:39.163 --> 00:41:41.081
of the expression
\"rigged scales\",

00:41:41.207 --> 00:41:43.792
thinking about everyday life
in Rio de Janeiro,

00:41:44.126 --> 00:41:47.379
with violence ...
the image that the media shows

00:41:47.463 --> 00:41:50.132
about Rio de Janeiro
as a dangerous place.

00:41:53.093 --> 00:41:55.596
And here I have
the social pyramid,

00:41:55.763 --> 00:41:58.140
which has several steps.

00:41:58.265 --> 00:42:01.185
On top of this pyramid

00:42:01.352 --> 00:42:04.104
is knowledge, which is for
those who have more power.

00:42:04.188 --> 00:42:05.940
And on the other step of the pyramid,

00:42:05.981 --> 00:42:08.400
on the lowest step,
which is us poor people,

00:42:08.526 --> 00:42:10.903
violence is what’s left over
for people.

00:42:40.266 --> 00:42:44.228
The fascination with the ocean,
the depths,

00:42:44.436 --> 00:42:46.605
and with the similarity
between words too.

00:42:46.772 --> 00:42:50.442
The sea of knowledge,
the depths of knowledge.

00:42:50.901 --> 00:42:52.570
The diving helmet symbology

00:42:52.653 --> 00:42:55.197
is intrinsic in that
search for knowledge.

00:42:55.364 --> 00:42:56.865
The courage of the scuba diver,

00:42:57.116 --> 00:43:02.204
who was the first diver
with the initiative to enter the sea

00:43:02.329 --> 00:43:04.582
in an era in when
that technology didn’t exist

00:43:04.623 --> 00:43:07.084
to find out what was there,
before entering.

00:43:07.376 --> 00:43:10.546
So, that\'s a leap of faith,

00:43:10.713 --> 00:43:15.342
to go into something without knowing
what you’ll find down there.

00:43:27.980 --> 00:43:32.026
And to seek knowledge,
you have to get used to loneliness.

00:43:32.026 --> 00:43:34.570
So, it\'s the symbolism
of the solitude of the diver.

00:43:34.695 --> 00:43:38.282
Because aside from diving
for an underwater adventure,

00:43:38.365 --> 00:43:41.160
in the period he has
to return to the surface,

00:43:41.243 --> 00:43:43.537
he must go through
a decompression process.

00:43:44.288 --> 00:43:48.250
And that process of decompression
lasts 72 hours.

00:43:48.334 --> 00:43:52.838
It\'s 3 days enduring
in a decompression box.

00:43:52.963 --> 00:43:55.424
That period is
a moment of reflection.

00:45:46.869 --> 00:45:50.706
My search is to try to pass on
the concept I have,

00:45:50.873 --> 00:45:52.666
of my original ideas.

00:45:53.041 --> 00:45:57.546
Make people understand
and care about it.

00:45:57.671 --> 00:46:01.425
In a society that walks more and more
towards banality,

00:46:01.717 --> 00:46:03.051
it\'s a very big challenge.

00:46:03.177 --> 00:46:08.432
People end up interacting
with the paintings daily.

00:46:08.557 --> 00:46:12.895
And what you don\'t
get to say verbally,

00:46:13.020 --> 00:46:15.981
you manage to induce reflection
through an image.

00:46:38.754 --> 00:46:41.757
In the favela,
many new things are lacking.

00:46:41.882 --> 00:46:43.717
The topics have to be renewed.

00:46:43.842 --> 00:46:48.430
When you make a painting,
people are intrigued:

00:46:48.514 --> 00:46:50.182
What does it represent?

00:46:50.307 --> 00:46:53.727
That\'s going to be
a starting point ...

00:46:53.811 --> 00:46:57.815
to talk about it,
and discuss it.

00:46:58.106 --> 00:47:00.442
And there you get their attention,

00:47:00.943 --> 00:47:03.153
it\'s like a persuasion strategy.

00:47:03.278 --> 00:47:05.739
If you paint about
a different culture,

00:47:06.114 --> 00:47:08.951
automatically people
will want to know why.

00:47:09.076 --> 00:47:10.661
What does that symbol represent,

00:47:10.702 --> 00:47:12.913
then you have
a topic to exchange.

00:47:13.121 --> 00:47:14.456
It\'s like watching a movie together,

00:47:14.623 --> 00:47:17.209
You end up watching the movie
and commenting on the story.

00:47:23.549 --> 00:47:29.429
I always try to focus
on the issue of changing habits,

00:47:29.596 --> 00:47:33.225
trying to change people\'s habits
through the image.

00:48:29.072 --> 00:48:33.118
But when I see graffiti used
for a social or educational purpose,

00:48:33.327 --> 00:48:37.581
I say that’s also graffiti because it\'s very
connected with the spirit of the movement,

00:48:37.623 --> 00:48:39.958
that has to do with education,
raising awareness,

00:48:40.042 --> 00:48:42.210
doing things that elevate you,
positive things.

00:48:43.420 --> 00:48:46.590
They\'re realizing that
there\'s commercial art, focused on sales,

00:48:46.673 --> 00:48:48.300
and art to make people think.

00:48:48.383 --> 00:48:50.177
That\'s becoming
increasingly clear.

00:48:50.260 --> 00:48:53.388
I have nothing against buying
art to decorate your home.

00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:56.058
There\'s a difference between
commercial art, and other art ...

00:48:56.141 --> 00:48:58.477
which is often ugly,
it’s made to irritate,

00:48:58.602 --> 00:49:00.437
not to decorate your living room.

00:49:12.199 --> 00:49:18.372
Graffiti transforms a lot
the places where it acts.

00:49:18.538 --> 00:49:24.252
We have several real examples
of places that were abandoned,

00:49:24.503 --> 00:49:28.632
places with high crime rates
and drug trafficking,

00:49:28.715 --> 00:49:31.426
where people linked to crime
gathered,

00:49:31.593 --> 00:49:34.972
and that,
after the arrival of graffiti,

00:49:35.097 --> 00:49:38.809
began to be frequented
by other people.

00:49:38.976 --> 00:49:42.771
Naturally, from the increase
in circulation

00:49:42.854 --> 00:49:46.566
of normal members
of society in those places,

00:49:46.900 --> 00:49:49.236
The environment itself changes.

00:50:02.582 --> 00:50:05.085
Another aesthetic
is shown in the city,

00:50:05.168 --> 00:50:07.754
an aesthetic
that confronts order

00:50:07.879 --> 00:50:10.257
through images.

00:50:10.632 --> 00:50:13.427
They’re action collectives
in the city,

00:50:13.593 --> 00:50:18.640
showing figures of
local and national politics,

00:50:18.765 --> 00:50:21.309
and also questioning
that social order.

00:50:21.560 --> 00:50:26.231
Some try to evolve people
through art, but ...

00:50:26.732 --> 00:50:29.651
it\'s a really big challenge.

00:50:30.318 --> 00:50:33.405
But I still think
it\'s worth a try.

00:50:43.582 --> 00:50:47.210
We’re occupying our space,
because the city is really ours.

00:50:47.377 --> 00:50:51.006
It’s made up of all of us,
we own the city too.

00:50:51.089 --> 00:50:52.549
We also own
the monuments,

00:50:52.674 --> 00:50:55.052
we also own
the city walls.

00:50:56.595 --> 00:50:59.264
Well, the city for me
represents my gallery ...

00:51:00.057 --> 00:51:01.892
Because it\'s like I say:

00:51:02.225 --> 00:51:05.103
I keep traveling
in the structures of the city,

00:51:05.228 --> 00:51:06.480
because the city doesn\'t stop,

00:51:06.521 --> 00:51:08.398
and there are always
new things to do.

00:51:08.690 --> 00:51:12.194
You see new neighborhoods
you hadn\'t been to, a new region ...

00:51:12.277 --> 00:51:13.195
And it is endless.

00:51:20.994 --> 00:51:23.580
It\'s a lot of responsibility,
what you’re doing.

00:51:23.872 --> 00:51:26.792
Because you become part
of people’s everyday lives.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:29.961
So it\'s like a word.
What you said, is said.

00:51:30.295 --> 00:51:31.421
It came out of your mouth.

00:51:31.505 --> 00:51:34.883
You hurt someone,
or left them happier.

00:51:35.092 --> 00:51:37.886
So, we know
how strong ...

00:51:38.220 --> 00:51:40.180
that connection with the street is.

00:51:49.272 --> 00:51:51.149
But the street has always been ...

00:51:51.274 --> 00:51:55.112
When you have the goal
of doing a certain thing,

00:51:55.946 --> 00:51:59.199
There will always be people
against it and people in favor.

00:51:59.241 --> 00:52:01.618
But one thing is true:
graffiti is not for just anyone.

00:52:01.868 --> 00:52:06.790
Those of us who do graffiti
know one another’s worth,

00:52:06.832 --> 00:52:08.625
because ...
graffiti is not easy.

00:52:08.750 --> 00:52:11.378
The difficulties made us grow.

00:52:11.503 --> 00:52:13.421
Being a fake graffiti artist
is very easy.

00:52:13.630 --> 00:52:15.382
Being a real graffiti artist
is not.