Favela Painting Project, Cultural Invasion or Cultural Synthesis When Art Decontextualizes Community

Abstract

Places are not neutral and oftentimes turn themselves into a powerful ideological tool. When art is installed in public spaces, such as squares, it leaves a huge impact on the local community, being integrated with its identity. The community-based arts can be exercised by the local people; oftentimes it also can be done by outsiders, who do not belong to the place originally. Albeit the outsiders enter the community, the power relation naturally takes two forms, one of cultural synthesis and one of cultural invasion. Borrowing definitions from a social revolutionary perspective, I examine the dynamic reciprocal action between arts, places, and power relations in this article. I take a theoretical approach to the Favela Painting Project in Rio favelas as a case study, with special attention to two essential aspects: the presence of dialogue and the role of residents in the project. Moreover, in the expansion of my analysis on the Favela Painting Project as cultural action, I examine the premise that community-based art projects hold and the danger it imposes.