Brasil, Culture
R2B: “Reverse Graffiti”
Street Art Intervention: Alexandre Orion’s “Ossário” in São Paulo, Brazil
It wasn’t long before the Max Feffer Tunnel in São Paulo became dirty. Opened in September 2004 and running east-west from the Praça Mário Bollo to Avenue Cidade Jardim, the tunnel serves as a short but critical artery in the network of roads through which the commuter traffic of a burgeoning megalopolis makes its daily commute. By 2006, the tunnel had been painted black by exhaust fumes, an underground monument to the impact of rapid growth.
That summer, street artist Alexandre Orion enacted what he termed an “intervention.” Armed with little more than water, rags and a respiratory mask, he began to selectively remove layers of soot from the wall, leaving images of human skulls in the newly cleaned negative space. The police came, but could do nothing—he hadn’t broken any laws. Eventually, the authorities returned with hoses and washed Orion’s work away—
Read More: Sensate.
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