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Dionisio González

Arquitetura da sobra: A cidade subexposta

Nov 11 - Dec 11, 2004

On November 11, for the first time at Max Estrella Gallery, Dionisio González opens a a show. González is an artist who has received various awards, including the Pilar Juncosa Sotheby's Award from Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation. The project ‘Arquitetura: A cidade subexposta’ is the result of two years of work traveling to the inner world of the favelas in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
After a rigorous and exhaustive study of these massive irregular settlements, the artist proposes a partial intervention of these chaotic spaces.

The most important re-urbanisation and verticalisation project for shanty-towns (favelas) in Brazil.  Planned by the Sao Paulo city council, the project has been implemented in several areas of the city (with a total, constructed area of 34,394 square metres and more than 3000 apartments).

The elimination of the favelas and the verticalisation of these run-down areas also signifies the rupture of group identities and the social and symbolic reclassification of their “inhabitants” in working-class estates and housing.

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Cultural uprooting underlies these Faustian interventionist projects, which are based on “functional” notions of readjustment and re-education of shanty-town dwellers in order to create “classifiable” citizens.

On the other hand there also exists a loss of the “urban warmth” values established over the decades, typical of their inhabitants-architects:  values that may be recuperated by means of constructive policies which include said theories and do not merely involve a “customer” type approach by the city council.

These projects should deal in a sensitive manner with communities established in the megalopolis which come from inland areas and whose homeland is none other than this unnatural Diaspora.