Painting Brazil’s Favelas

The favela, before. Haas&Hahn are two Dutch artists who started working together after they filmed a MTV documentary on hip-hop in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo.

The favela, after. They united again, they say, on “a journey to bring outrageous works of art to unexpected places, starting with painting enormous murals in the slums of Brazil together with the local youth.”

The result is the Favela Painting project, which reminds me of the fantastical street art that covered the slums of Nairobi and of Rio, Phnom Penh and New Delhi by the French artist JR.

The artwork spanned over 34 houses, schools and other buildings, in a rainbow of rays in traditional colors. And, fittingly, most of the design’s artists come from and live in the favela.