FORTALEZA, TERESINA, SÃO LUÍS & BELÉM

Our friend Holger from Bungalow Sao Paulo invited me to take part in the last chapter of a project called Kulturtour. KulturTour is a ‘traveling cultural space’, which functions within the framework of a German-Brazilian cultural exchange.

The KulturTour Truck was painted by two incredible artists: Jim Avignon and Carlos Dias. It has been traversing a stretch of 15 cities scattered throughout Brazil, since May of 2013.

The first destination on my tour was Fortaleza, which is the capital of the Brazilian state Ceará. After that I took a plane to Teresina, the capital of Piauí, after that I traveled to São Luís, the capital of Maranhão, and finally I arrived in the capital of the Brazilian state Pará, the city of Belém.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

I started to paint in the morning. Guess I forgot to take a break during the critically hot part of the day, and the sun put me out of order for a second. I looked like a lobster and it took 12 hours of sleep and a huge dose of Paracetamol to get me back on my feet!

I have to say that I got the Fortaleza-Brazil feeling quite quickly and having a well organized team with me allowed me to paint in a small ciudade/favela close to the old city centre. The first time we walked into this beautiful place, we looked like an official delegation, which in fact we were. We had to do this for safety reasons – this was a formal introduction to key people in the community. Once I started painting, a whole bunch of kids and teenagers showed up and they were all extremely friendly, big smiles smack across their faces. I guess, in a strange way they were my personal security team.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

After finishing the two heads next to the truck in the old centre of Fortaleza on the building of a place called Café d’aviao, we left for Teresina. The night before leaving I went back to the Ciudade, where I have been painting earlier, just to say good bye to Mara, the woman who cooked under an umbrella on the main corner of the hood. I also needed to thank Fabio and Flavio and their friend Junior – they were great company and helped me fill in a piece on a wall two days before.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

There’s this thumb up thing going on in Brazil!

At first I thought, that it was this local meets gringo thing, but then it became quite clear, that it’s everywhere and a good way to communicate, especially if you don’t speak a single word of portuguese. ;)

Teresina is definitely smaller compared to Fortaleza. When I arrived there, I was already in my 44 Brazil-Mode and really enjoyed everything from the get go. You need to take time to get a feeling for the place, to really feel at home – and I had arrived. Call it serendipity – right next to the praca where the Truck was located, we found one of the best places to get an orignal pão de queijo. The spot has existed for over 40 years now and is still run by a very famous personality, Sr. Cornélio! He is over 90 years old and operates the business with his daughter. Good food led to a good conversation and somehow in the midst of it all the owner’s daughter gave me the permission to paint their wall. I organized a ladder and started instantly. The following day I convinced the owner of the store on the other side of the street as well… Everything started to flow. I had to stop working due to heavy rain, so instead, we went to party on the truck with a bunch of beautiful people. Our boy DJ Sammy from Analog Africa was spinning and he even organized a local Band to play for us later that night. Vibes!

All photos by 44 Flavours.

Our next stop was Sao Luis. At this point it really felt as if I had been traveling for at least 2 months. I had seen so many things and met so many generous, soulful people. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but I guess it’s a bit like the surge of enthusiasm that you get when you meet a lot of new people and see a lot new things, especially when you’re a teenager. It’s been a while since I’ve had this feeling.

Pixacao was one of my greatest discoveries on this trip. In a way it’s nothing new for Graff nerds back in Europe, but when you see the force of this art form with your very own eyes – you’re smashed. Before this trip I only saw Pixa from Sao Paulo and Rio, which are definitely the most active scenes, but it was great to see the richness of the different styles in the different cities, the vastness of this language and the tradition.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

Sao Luis was a bit complicated. The city is really beautiful and one of the most coveted after tourist destinations. So why complicated? Because every single building there (at least in the old centre, the area where I stayed) was under the protection of UNESCO. And that’s a good thing, of course! But not if you want to paint somewhere. Eventually I was sent to a favela called Sao Fransisco. Everyone I met had said that this was the perfect place to paint.

This hood is supposed to be one of the most dangerous hoods in the city but, once again, we were given a proper intro by the good people from the community who put us on to all the right people. When we started to paint all the kids and neighbors showed up to watch and even held umbrellas for us, to protect us from the strong midday sun. Now that’s love.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

A lot of people in Brazil are really scared of violence and quite accustomed to robberies, luckily I haven’t been in a single dangerous situation during my entire stay there. I guess it’s always a bit of luck, but I also believe in the power of the intension. What you bring to a situation is as important, as the way you act: So if you have something to share you’ll be okay. We had all this color that we brought to these places and we were also really open to talking with everyone – I guess that’s the golden formula.

All photos by 44 Flavours.

The next day we went painting again in all kinds of different spots: close to the beach, in an abandoned area, on Niemeyer type architecture. The day ended with us imitating Pixa brush strokes while dancing to some classic Brazilian music. ;)

All photos by 44 Flavours.

Muito boom! With all these great memories running through my mind, of all theses beautiful people who I had met in Sao Luis and along the way, I arrived at the final destination. The last stop of the tour was Bélem! One of the things that I had heard about this place, from everybody I met along the way was: »Bélem is very special, if you want to meet up with someone, you better see them either before or after the rain.«

It didn’t rain in Bélem! It was more like a flood. The heavens opened up with waterfalls. I was still able to paint some walls, build some sculptures, and of course walk around the city. At the market by the harbor I tried all types of tropical fruits and juices – some I’ve never heard of in my life. I also tried what they call Cachaca de Jambu, and I can say from experience that it will numb your entire mouth. The next day Drika picked me up at the hotel and we went to paint another wall, this was a piece in honor of the whole Kulturtour. I had to finish it in the rain with an umbrella over my head. Bang!

All photos by 44 Flavours.

In Brazil everybody talks to each other. It’s amazing how warm and open minded most of the people, who I had met personally, were! I took my flight to Brasilia to catch my final flight out, but I had to wait for a whole day, so I decided to take a bus to the centre and check out some of the Niemeyer architecture! It was stunning! Pure inspiration. With all these impressions haunting me, with a big smile on my face, a pleasing feeling in my stomach, and the feeling the locals would call saudade permeating my heart, doused with new ideas, with my sketchbook in my lap – I went back to europe.

– Julio Rölle / 44flavours.

All photos by 44 Flavours.