Brazil: World's Largest Graffiti Inaugurated

Graffiti at Foz do Iguazu

Brazil's President Lula da Silva inaugurated the world's largest graffiti at over 37 000 square feet in the area of Foz do Iguaçu. This area; famous for the Iguaçu falls and the triple border where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet, will now be home to a decorated highway honouring children and teenager's rights.

ClickFoz, a regional online news portal for the waterfall region had special coverage of this artistic effort meant to de-stigmatize graffiti, improve the city and raise awareness of children's and teens’ rights.  The  following video shows the unveiling, with  President Lula inaugurating the project with a spray painted signature and artists discussing their work with the brightly painted highway as background:

Odee.com has the story and pictures of this tri-national endeavor:

Graffiti artist from Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay have been working on the highway for 10 days nonstop getting ready for the event. From Paraguay, graffiti artists involved in the project include Eddy, Ataq, Oz, and Priz which belong to Paraguayan colective “Jopara”. On the Argentinian side there’s the Grupo We! collective and from the Brazilian side there’s Pontello, the Infames Crew and the Ya Basta collective made up by Sica, Lalan, Michel and others.

Priscila Benitez (Priz) from Paraguay made a video of the graffiti work in process. Please note the skateboards: they were vital for paint and artist transportation along the length of the highway or viaducto:

In her blog Punkgodangell Priz tells all about her experience as the only girl in this international crew of graffiti artists, of undertaking the titanic endeavor of painting this enormous mural with the clock ticking, the grueling schedule, how she learned new skills (including riding a skateboard) and how they all dealt with working in a multi-cultural environment:

Es todo un tema trabajar en equipo con gente que conoces por primera vez. Las relaciones humanas son complicadas y mas todavia cuando se trata de una triple frontera; cada artista tiene un estilo distinto, una manera de trabajar distinta y un lenguaje distinto. Conseguir que todo eso llegue a un acuerdo no es fácil, pero lo conseguimos. El objetivo final era uno en común y unimos fuerzas.

Working as a team with people you've just met is a whole different game. Human relations are complicated and more so when you are talking about a triple border; each artist has a different style, a different way to work and a different language. Bringing all of this together into agreement wasn't easy, but we did it. The final objective was a common one and we joined forces.

You can see more pictures of the finished viaduct in the different artists’ pages: Eddy, Oz, Priz, Pontello and Infames Crew.

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