In the meantime, there are some things moving. The City Hall of Bucharest started a redesigning and thermally restoration project of the socialist blocks which means good looking and more comfortable households at very little or no cost for the inhabitants. Just to give you an idea, this is before and after.
At a bigger scale, there’s the Favela Painting project which is supporting the “creation of striking artworks in unexpected places. It collaborates with local people to use art as a tool to inspire, create beauty, combat prejudice and attract attention.” And I thought, this should be a powerful inspiration for all the cities that need a new face.
The first painting, finished in 2007, was a 150m2 mural depicting a boy flying a kite, by far the most popular pastime in Rio’s favela’s.
A mural painted in VIla Cruzeiro, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by Duch painters Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn. The artists came up with the idea of painting the cement staircase – installed to prevent landslides by the city government – after painting another mural in the slum. Most slum residents have never been to an art museum and now find themselves living in one. It has helped bring positive news to community known for the dangerous shootouts of police and drug gangs.(Australfoto/Douglas Engle)
Now they are working on the so called ‘O Morro‘. Instead of painting a part of a slum in Rio de Janeiro they came up with the idea to paint this entire hillside in the center of Rio. When finished, it will be the greatest community driven artwork of our time, visible to all inhabitants, visitors and Google earth. Wonderful work, guys!






