Street art of lamp post men carrying bins as backpacks

Lamp post men carrying bins as backpacks. It sounds weird but that is the latest street intervention to hit Vila Madalena, São Paulo.

The project was started up by Mentalgassi, a Berlin-based art collective, and Muntano a Brazilian street artist. It has bins being reimagined as rucksacks and a pasted on photo of the carrier going on the lamp post.

It is supposed to be a tribute to the catadores of São Paulo, unofficial wastecollectors who scour the streets for recyclable rubbish in order to earn a few cents per kilo through the recycling centres. The message is indirect but it is supposed to "increase the visibility" of catadores, as well as call "attention to purchases and donation bins for recyclable materials"

Here are a few photos of the new bins. It will most likely be a very ephemeral intervention so enjoy the while you can:

VIDEO: Gustavo Abreu's Little Secrets of São Paulo

KLM's magazine iFly TV has just launched a short video on São Paulo's hidden gems.

In fact most of them are not that secret to anybody who lives in São Paulo but it still gives a good visual insight to those who have yet to discover the city.

In the video Brazilian journalist and editor Gustavo Abreu walks us through the Minhocão, the Mercadão, Hotel Unique, Vila Madalena and Praça Por do Sol.

VIDEO: Gustavo Abreu's Little Secrets of São Paulo

VIDEO: King Cap, new graffiti shop and gallery in SP

Here's the teaser video to the new graffiti shop and gallery King Cap, opening imminently in the pseudo-hipster neighbourhood of Vila Madalena:

KINGCAP #SP Teaser Expo SLIKS from SINLOGO on Vimeo.

The place opens with an exhibition from prolific São Paulo street artist SLIKS. Here are a couple of examples of his work for those of you unfamiliar with him:

Seen on the streets of São Paulo: surfing the summer floods in Vila Madalena

Sometimes surfing is the only way to travel in São Paulo ;)

I should say upfront that I can't certify the authenticity of this photo but having witnessed the torential rainfall a couple of afternoons ago and knowing the hilly terrain of Vila Madalena I can quite believe that this is a genuine photo!

The alley above is called the "Beco de Batman" or simply "O Beco" and is a grafitti filed alleyway near Inacio Pereira Rocha and Fradique Countinho streets. The area is very hilly and when it rains hard, temporary urban rivers are formed.

Street Art in São Paulo Part 6 - Pinheiros

Somewhat overshadaowed by the grafitti heavy Vila Madalena, Pinheiros still has some nice street art if you look carefully. A few weeks ago I saw this one headinga long Faria lima towards Alto de Pinheiros area:

Clothes left behind on Avenida Faria Lima

And slightly further on, this friendly elephant was walking down the street:

A runaway elephant cooling down a passerby

More São Paulo street art here

Seen on the streets of São Paulo: Pro-caffeine graffiti

I saw this on the wall of my new favourite coffee hang out the wonderful Coffee Lab in Vila Madalena.

A great place for purists. If you ask them for Decaf they actually won't serve you! :)

Dual-function tooth pick discovered in São Paulo's best "pastel" café

“Pasteis” or “Wind pasties” as the bad ones are called are a sort of pastry envelope with some sort of filling (and air) inside.  Love them or hate them they are a local favourite and believe it or not there are serious  competitions as to who does them best. 

I had heard for a while now that Pastel da Maria on Fradique Coutinho has the best pasteis in town and in the official competitions Maria always seems to make the finals. Here’s her with her certificates in case you don’t believe me:

And here she is with one of her "pasteis":

Anyway, today seemed like a good day to try them…

..And they were good. But the real surprise was the tooth pick on the table. At first it seemed like a normal toothpick. Here it is:

Apparently normal tooth pick

But then! Then I discovered that it had special powers:

Special tooth pick

The green tip is a mint coated spike so that your mouth feels fresh (after picking out stubborn bits of “pasteis”) and as far as I’m concerned that’s the first ever high-tech dual-function tooth pick I’ve seen. For that alone Maria Pasteis is the one for me..

Getting used to car crashes in São Paulo

When I first got here I saw quite a few car crashes and thought it was a coincidence but then I got used to them and realised that the screech + bang combo is part and parcel of daily life in Sampa. Mostly I've seen low speed bumps which have taken off wing mirror, scratched bumpers or dented the bodywork but there are lots of more serious incidents.



According to the 2008 figures published by the University of São Paulo, Department of Transportation there are on average 70,9 fatalities per 100,000 vehicles in Brazil which means more than 35,000 people die in road accidents every year. To put that in context the we are talking 15 fatalities per 100,000 vehicles in the US and 7 per 100,000 in the UK so without exaggerating it's fair to say safe road safety is not exactly the same as back home.

Here are 3 of the high profile ones that the São Paulo media picked up on in the past 30days:

08/08/2011 Lorry that somehow managed to fall from one motorway on to another below it at Raposo Tavares in North West São Paulo

30/07/2011 - Car which overturned and killed a pedestrian close to my house in Vila Madalena

09/07/2011 Porsche being driven at 150km/h in a residential area of Itaim Bibi hits car that drove through a red light at night (a common and accepted practice to avoid theft and carjacking)

I won't go into the details but all 3 drivers responsible for each incident were able to walk away from their vehicles unharmed. Unfortunately the same can't be said of the people they hit.

I have a driving license but I've never owned a vehicle and something tells me this is not the best city to get back into driving...

São Paulo Knit Café advertises via knitted lamp posts

Readers of Discovering São Paulo will remember the post about painted lamp posts (link) scattered around the city. I still don’t know whether this is spontaneous creativity by a handful of individuals or whether there is a reason behind it but a few days ago I found the next level of painted lamp posts. These are knitted lamp posts. Yes, knitted. The street name for this is Yarn Bombing” (bombardeio de novelos in portuguese) or grandma grafitti (grafite da vovó in portuguese).

 

Here’s a couple of pictures of the lamp posts on Mourato Coleho 678 in Vila Madalena. 

Close up of a knitted lamp post

This tree is knitted too

In this case this is street marketing for the new Knit Café Novelaria. And before you ask what a Knit café is here are some pictures.

Knit with friends on the sofas

Choose your wool and knit away

The idea is you come in, buy some wool, order a coffee and sit down to knit with other members of the local knitting community. I don’t think I’m personally taking up knitting anytime soon but it’s a novel concept :)

Street Art in São Paulo Part 3

Here are some snaps taken in and around Vila Madalena, a neighbourhood known amongst other things for its street art scene:

Street Art in São Paulo Part 2

Nobody has been able to explain why but there is a custom of painting lamp posts in many parts of the city. Here are some examples:

Pinheiros region

Faria Lima

Alto Pinheiros

Vila Madalena

If you know why lamp posts are painted like this please leave a comment!