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Published in 21 / March / 2013
FAVELAS: ARCHITECTURE OF SURVIVAL
FAVELAS: ARCHITECTURE OF SURVIVAL
Exhibition with Pedro Lobo's photographs of the architecture of brazilian shantytowns
Please join us for an Opening Reception with a lecture by Pedro Lobo followed by the Fresh Ink Performance Series on March 22, 2013. This event is free and open to the public. The exhibition will run from March 9 – May 30, 2013. In conjunction with the exhibition we will have a panel discussion “Negotiating the Gap” along with response work from our neighbors at Urban Ministry, SoA, and Urban Design students in the front window.
http://centercity.uncc.edu/projective-eye-art-gallery
The exhibition includes 48 large format photographs by Brazilian-born photographer Pedro Lobo, documenting the favelas or shanty towns in Rio de Janeiro, the longest-lived squatter settlements in the world. There are about one billion squatters worldwide, one million of which are in Rio de Janeiro. Lobo’s photographic landscapes document the organized chaos of hillsides overrun with homes. The photographs suggest a progression toward permanence, as people put down roots and build communities within these impromptu urban developments. These beautifully composed images do not shy away from the sprawl, or the hardships of the favelas, yet they are filled with optimism necessary for life in these marginalized urban neighborhoods. These images attempt to show the human dignity of the “favela” dwellers, in spite of all the difficulties faced by those who have no other choice but to live in these excluded communities.
Pedro Lobo is a Fulbright scholar who has studied at the International Center of Photography, NYC, and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Over the 1970s and 1980s, Lobo was a photographer and researcher at Brazil’s National Center for Cultural Reference and at the Monuments and Sites National Institute. He photographed the historical sites of Ouro Preto, Olinda, Salvador, and São Miguel das Missões for their inclusion in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Lobo works to show the viewer aspects overlooked in the landscape where individual expression and social processes mark places for his large format camera. Pedro Lobo lives in Rio de Janeiro and Évora, Portugal. He won 1st prize for the photographs in this exhibition in the TOPS IN International Photo Festival in Shenyang, China.
