Graffiti

The graffiti in Salvador is awesome. Most of it is very beautiful and artistic. A few weeks ago, the American Society sponsored a graffiti tour in the city. We rented a small bus, and drove to a couple sites of awesome graffiti. One of the local graffiti artists, Eder Muniz and his partner, Carly (an American Fulbright scholar) were our guides.

Eder Muniz

The tour was enlightening. Salvador treats graffiti artists very strangely. At one time, they had a progressive program encouraging graffiti art. They sponsored artists, believing the public art enriched the city (as it clearly does). The program was a great idea, but it never really took off, and eventually the government stopped funding it. While the government has an officially friendly relationship with graffiti artists, the police decidedly do not. Eder and Carly explained that the police have an inexplicable, burning hatred for graffiti artists. If they have an opportunity to arrest or harm them (painting on an unauthorized structure, etc), they take it gladly. Some policemen even harass or beat artists' mothers/girlfriends/wives. Many artists are beaten. Eder, himself, has never been beaten, but he has been arrested and was driven to the police station in the trunk.

We focused mainly on Eder's work (which is probably my favorite in the city) but we saw a lot of great art from many artists.

Afterwards, Carly invited us to a graffiti event in Castelo Branco, near an old Nestle factory. Andrea and I went with some other ladies on Sunday. It was interesting, though not quite as exciting as I expected.

They invited many graffiti artists to come together to share one wall and paint together. They had some music and food. It was cool to see their work - it's amazing how precise and expressive they can be with just spray paint.

A visiting artist from Philadelphia

Eder at work

Eder's plan for his piece

Part of the wall when we left

Carly is an American who is only living here for a while. She and Eder live in the favela where his family is from. They just had an adorable baby. Carly was kind enough to show us her home right before we left. I loved it. I loved the whole area. I wish we lived somewhere that felt more...Brazilian. Or vibrant. She has an amazing view from her back porch.

Eder's work is really beautiful. You can see a lot of it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calanguiando
I'm obsessed with this window he found and painted:

but it's far too expensive :(