City as Canvas Sao Paulo

Sao Paulo -  The very first thing you notice as a foreigner are the murals and other expressions in paint and/or sculpture everywhere in the city. As large scale ads are forbidden in this city it looks like the people took over and painted every single empty wall. And there are many as most flatbuildings are either surrounded by fences or by walls. It is not always clear if it was done in commission, as free expression,as hidden advertisement, to get a message across or simply to leave a signatureThere are the international signs in Public Space as well like zebra-crossings, profile tiles for the blind and the yellow lines. Yellow lines to keep people from parking their car or to keep people smoking their sigarettes outside the pub and drop their butts in a yellow crate. What the murals are for Sao Paulo (and more South American cities) are the rikshaws for Bangladesh and the painted trucks for Nigeria. A mixture of art, advertisement, religion and other good aims, but most of all a cultural determined, personal expression
Lino Hellings – Sao Paulo Lab