The Colors of Brazil Project will be concluded in Rio on the 13th

It is the largest urban art corridor in Latin America

The Cores da Brasil project, considered the largest urban art corridor in Latin America, which encompasses 18 BRT Transbrasil stations, will be completed by the 13th. The information was given this Friday (5) to Agência Brasil by Caique Torrezão , director of Visionartz, an urban requalification agency that has been operating in the port region of Rio de Janeiro since the start of work on Porto Maravilha.

The Rio city hall program is part of the delivery of the new BRT corridor and the Gentileza Intermodal Terminal. The work is the result of a partnership between the city hall, the Rio VLT concessionaire, the CCR Institute and Visionartz. It is an open-air urban art gallery.

From now on, the graffiti that already appears in Porto Maravilha will reach the BRT Transbrasil corridor. Along the 26 km long Avenida Brasil, viaducts, terminals and walkways will receive new colors, shapes and meanings inspired by the works of Prophet Gentileza, whose name was José Datrino (1917-1996).

The Colors of Brazil project will bring paintings to four terminals, 18 stations and 18 walkways of the BRT Transbrasil, 30 viaducts and 300 support pillars. For this, more than 30 thousand liters of paint and more than 10 thousand spray cans will be used.

For the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, “with all this urban art”, Avenida Brasil will transform from a deteriorated and degraded place to a place of hope. “This is the main objective of this project. It will be a point of transformation in the city’s history,” he maintained.

Colorful
Anyone passing through Avenida Brasil – one of the busiest in Rio – can see the colors and messages of Kindness at some BRT stations. In the first phase, ten stations were delivered: Into/Caju, Caju Igrejinha, Vasco da Gama, Benfica, Fiocruz, Bonsucesso, Rubens Vaz, Lobo Jr, Cidade Alta and Mercado São Sebastião.

The Deodoro station has also been completed, where 30 artists worked on painting 14 panels, including internal and external murals and staircases and 15 viaduct pillars, in addition to painting the facade, to be signed by the artist Igor Izy, responsible for several projects in municipal schools in Rio and Deodoro's offspring.

For Izy, it is magical to participate in this project and return to the neighborhood where she lived. “I am very happy when several friends from the neighborhood pass by and say hello to me. And the children who were my students at the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), seeing this makes me feel fulfilled for being a positive reference for them”, said the artist. Now, the viaducts around the station will be built. “We have a big challenge, which is to paint around 30 viaducts on Avenida Brasil and BRT stations”, summarized Torrezão.

He said that 131 artists participate in the project, selected via public notice, of which 90% are Cariocas from different neighborhoods in Rio with an equal gender division.

“We always think about bringing equal numbers of men and women,” he said. He estimates that - at the end of the project - it will be somewhere between 50% female and 50% male.

Walls Street
Graduated in graphic design, Caique Torrezão became, in 2014, director of the largest urban art festival in Latin America, Art Rua and, since then, he has dedicated himself to urban revitalization through art with the Rua Walls project, present in the region port of Rio since 2009 through Visionartz, which also revitalized the facade of the Parque Library, among other initiatives.

“We have been in the port region since 2009. We followed and were part of this entire process of changing the region's conception. Art was fundamental in giving voice to these regions that are very rich in history and culture, but that sometimes do not receive due attention. It brought more and more power to the region and, today, we see a completely different port, becoming a mixed neighborhood not only commercial, but also with residential developments. We managed to raise the port’s flag well”, concluded Torrezão.