Favela painting: building community, social change and emancipation through an OrgansparkZ/Art installation

For some time now, Brazilian favela dwellers have been constructing representations of joy, resourcefulness and creativity that the wider public sphere now associates with favela life. Through multiple bottom-up projects, they have managed to challenge deep-seated negative understandings of favela dwellers as inherently poor and violent. In this post, J. Miguel Imas discusses how the Favela Painting project has contributed to this endeavour through an OrgansparkZ/Art intervention, a collective art installation that acts as a vehicle for social change.