CIEPS: Rio de Janeiro

So for the past few weeks, when I am traveling around the citie..in various forms of transportation I have noticed these odd buildings that I thought didn't really fit with the rest of the landscape of Rio. They were built with a very modern design and consistently were full of bright PoPpy colors. While I was away this weekend I started drawing some of them in my sketchbook and upon my return to Rio, focused on spotting some out the window of my bus so I could take a few reference photos. I then spoke to my cousin Nalita about it this evening and was told their history which I found rather interesting and decided to share it with you!

FYI: The pictures below I found on the internet with the expection of the last one..I took that this afternoon.





Blog about schools (em portugues)

Taken from the book: Effective Schools in Developing Countries By Henry M. Levin, Marlaine E. Lockheed

During the first democratically elected State administration of Rio de Janeiro from 1982-86, the Integrated Centers of Public Education (CIEPS) were created to bring about much needed change in public elementary education. The project was devised and made possible by Darcy Ribeiro as well as with the help of the Governor Leonel Brizola. These new elementary public schools were built throughout the state and the capital of Rio de Janeiro and were specifically aimed at enrolling economically disadvantaged children. They were identifiable by their standardized architecture of prefabricated cement modules, conceived by Niemeyer, the famous Brazilian architecture who conceived the capital, Brasilia, as well as their strategic and visible location along freeways, highways, in the middle of city squares or in elevated positions such as mountainsides.

Large, visible, and distinctive in construction, the CIEP schools immediately became widely popular but also the target of much criticism. Their construction exhausted the education budget of the State. The project was intended to built new facilities as well as renovated and improve older schools but because the budget was blown, only construction of new facilities was full filled.

Here is the rest if you care to read...Google Books

Adam Hilton

I found this artist while searching through StumbleUpon. These are some images by a photographer named Adam Hilton. It appears that he has done several photo studies in foreign countries such as China, Africa, and Cuba to name a few.

I choose a few of my favorite images from a series that focused around a favela in Rio. I love the colors in photographs. They are so rich and vibrant and the night shots complete the picture of the lighting you find in different parts of the city. When I was staying with my cousin Katie in Barra de Tijuca, we would drive by Rochina which is the largest favela in Rio. During the day you see all the hustle and bustle of people commuting from work and home as well as markets and people in their homes hanging out their windows to escape from the heat. It was kind of hard to focus on one because the drive by is so quick. You past by the favela while on a highway that takes you from one part of the city to the next and there is so much to see in such a short amount of time.

When you drive by at night, it transforms into the haven of millions that are captured only by tiny specs that light each area. I couldn't really wrap my head around the situation, how it possibly could be inhabited by over 2 million people in such a confined area?

I wanted to share these photos because it is nice to have a new perspective and be able to look inside and see their view to the rest of the city that is much different than mine.

Adam spoke of his work as follows: These are a collection of images taken from 2001-2004 in the favelas of Rio. The colour work is from the Tavares Bastos favela and forms the main focus of the project. I documented the lives of the majority of favela inhabitants away from the stereotypes of guns and drugs. He says his work is about the relationships between people and how they construct their lives under harsh social conditions.

JR Art

I recently received an email from my friend Steph and was happy that she shared an artist, a French Photographer, she found who created some work in Rio. The project was apart of a series of photographs he took in Favela da Providencia-the first favela in Rio de Janeiro. The project consisted images in which the photographer captured the facial expressions of women whose lives are infested with crime, a violent loss of loved ones and arbitary repression as apart of everyday life.

I am most impressed with the artist's intent to create work that engages the community and becomes apart of the space rather than exploiting the community which I think sometimes happens with photography. Why simply just take a photograph when you could use it in such a way those around you are involved? It makes so much more sense. The amazing thing is these structures his photographs are placed on become small components included in the "grand picture" which is inevitably the homes inside this community ad things going on around them. The colors and textures just add to it making it cohesive and creating a face to the favela.

His website has lots of great photos from the project as well as an impressive list of other pieces he worked on, all of which were not funded by anyone but created simply for his own desire.

When I was visiting Rio, I had really wanted to visit one of the favelas and actually didn't live too far from Rochina which is one of the largest in Rio. I drove by it every time I took the bus or a cab from Barra into the city and every time it was mesmorizing to just drive by this hill side that was just full of all these bright colors and seemed almost impossible that people lived in these stacked shacks and at night they like stars in the night sky, any many ways I found it beautiful. I just loved it and in some ways feel the same way about buildings throughout Baltimore. I was at a discussion group about Baltimore vacant lots a few months ago and someone brought up the fact that these spaces are often times bitter sweet because we are drawn to these decaying structures and how there is something about them that is asthetically pleasing but at the same times they aren't always benifiting the community. I guess this applies more to spaces in Baltimore more so than the favelas in Rio but either way, when he said that I had an "AH HA" moment because that was exactly my own thoughts. I think there are solutions to these vacant spaces that could prevent them from being demolished but instead refurbished into something new. That seems like the solution to me.

But back to the favelas...

They offer these tours where you can ride in jeeps like your on a safari in this "other place" and unfortunately people do it. I had wanted to visit a favela with a walking tour group where you meet people from the community and they have markets where they sell hand made things so you are actually supporting the community but unfortunately wasn't able to. My cousin Nalita was so confused as to why I would want to go visit the place and I didn't really know how to explain it because in some ways you are exploiting these people's community and lives. I think some of it was for asthetic reasons such as those I mentioned earlier. I think I was more fascinated by the means in which people are able to live and survive in relation to our culture which to some is considered decadent. I guess it all comes back to our consumption and how much less we could consume if we were just more concious of our actions.


On a separate note I had a wonderful time at the Carnaval party hosted by the Creative Alliance. Pictures and a post soon to come!!