Magical Urbanism, a website about urbanization, design and social change, is maintained by Mike Ernst. I'm an urban planner and designer based in San Francisco. I am a graduate of the A Sampling of Sao Paulo’s Street Art Scene
I’ve been in Sao Pualo, Brazil for the past month and have been captivated by the street art here.
My Portuguese is non-existent, so if any readers out there could help me with translating some of these phrases — or explaining the context of some of the images, I’d appreciate it!
Update: Thanks to ana australiana for the translation help!
Why don’t you just shut up?
(a reference to this event)
Sadness Doesn’t Pay Debt.
Will work for a touchscreen cell phone with an MP3 player
Folks might be interested in a similar article I wrote when I was in Buenos Aires, Argentina a few years back.
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7 Responses to “A Sampling of Sao Paulo’s Street Art Scene”
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I like the space invader tile graffiti. I went to Paris right after I graduated college and started seeing those space invaders around. And then I moved to New York City and so them there. That was probably my first impression of any kind of “global” activity.
Thanks for the comment, Michael. I spotted the space invaders elsewhere in Sao Paulo. I’ve seen them in other cities in the US, too.
Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious here…
Tristeza não Pagam Dívida - Sadness don’t pay debt. Another well-known saying, though much older and with less Chavez. ;)
Thanks for the wonderful images and the much-needed language practice! When I was in SP in 2005 I was told by a priest in great earnestness that the tall, angular lettering you often see graf’d on buildings (eg in the first image above) are coded messages used by gang members to communicate with each other….
*Paga* dívida. Told you I needed the practice!
Thanks so much for your translation help, ana! Much, much appreciated.
Teresa Caldeira, a professor at UC Berkeley wrote about that exact phenomenon about graffiti on the outside of buildings in “City of Walls.” It’s amazing some of the spots where the graffiti turns up….. 10, 15 stories up, outside windows. Crazy.
[...] 2. An awesome post on Detroit from Magical Urbanism (and a followup post on street art in Sao Paolo) [...]
:D
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I like the space invader tile graffiti. I went to Paris right after I graduated college and started seeing those space invaders around. And then I moved to New York City and so them there. That was probably my first impression of any kind of “global” activity.
http://www.space-invaders.com/
Thanks for the comment, Michael. I spotted the space invaders elsewhere in Sao Paulo. I’ve seen them in other cities in the US, too.
Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious here…
Por qué no te callas?
Tristeza não Pagam Dívida - Sadness don’t pay debt. Another well-known saying, though much older and with less Chavez. ;)
Thanks for the wonderful images and the much-needed language practice! When I was in SP in 2005 I was told by a priest in great earnestness that the tall, angular lettering you often see graf’d on buildings (eg in the first image above) are coded messages used by gang members to communicate with each other….
*Paga* dívida. Told you I needed the practice!
Thanks so much for your translation help, ana! Much, much appreciated.
Teresa Caldeira, a professor at UC Berkeley wrote about that exact phenomenon about graffiti on the outside of buildings in “City of Walls.” It’s amazing some of the spots where the graffiti turns up….. 10, 15 stories up, outside windows. Crazy.
[...] 2. An awesome post on Detroit from Magical Urbanism (and a followup post on street art in Sao Paolo) [...]
:D