{"id":29205,"date":"2016-06-01T16:27:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T19:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29205"},"modified":"2016-06-02T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T17:44:13","slug":"popular-vidigal-artist-wilson-alexandre-evicted-due-to-real-estate-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29205","title":{"rendered":"Popular Vidigal Artist Wilson Alexandre Evicted Due to Real Estate Speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, May 28, residents of Vidigal<\/a>\u00a0favela in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s South Zone<\/a>\u00a0gathered to bid farewell to local artist Wilson Alexandre<\/a>. After ten years of transforming a 600 square meter overgrown abandoned site\u00a0into a vibrant space full of recycled art, Wilson and his partner Sarah Milsom are scheduled to leave at the end of June as\u00a0the landowner of their studio-gallery home has sold the land and is evicting them. Though a difficult battle, Vidigal has worked to resist<\/a>\u00a0pressures of\u00a0real estate speculation<\/a>\u00a0and gentrification<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s farewell was reflective of his art in a number ways: interactive; community friendly; and colorful. The day commenced at 10am with a workshop on recycled material art for children, explaining the materials and techniques that transformed his home from top to bottom using wood, plastic containers, aluminum cans and old kitchen utilities.<\/p>\n

\"Kids<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the workshop,\u00a0members of the local theater group\u00a0N\u00f3s do Morro<\/a>\u00a0performed a skit paying homage to Wilson and his work, telling the story of\u00a0Wilson as a king who collected rubbish for his castle and transformed it into \u201ca very powerful kingdom.\u201d Members of the theater\u00a0group affirmed that Wilson\u2019s art is \u201cinvaluable,\u201d \u201cabsurdly creative\u201d and \u201cseriously incredible\u201d and he will be missed by the community. \u201cThere will be a real emptiness to the place,\u201d one group member\u00a0confirmed.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s work<\/a> is very unique and he loves the way children engage and react to it. Residents told of how\u00a0they go out of their way to pass his house just so they can see his art that day. Wilson affirms: \u201cArt does amazing things for individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Performance<\/a><\/p>\n

On Saturday, when the children were asked about Wilson\u2019s work,\u00a0they smiled\u00a0and shared their feelings of happiness and creativity. One 12-year-old\u00a0girl said she would get so inspired she would run home to draw and paint. Another resident, a mother and employee at the community creche, said:\u00a0\u201cThe children in the creche who pass by [Wilson\u2019s house] with their mothers will be affected a great deal by the loss.\u201d The local creche is expected to receive a number of Wilson\u2019s robot sculptures to continue serving the children\u2019s imaginations.<\/p>\n

Wilson wants to ensure his work continues to benefit the children of the community. As well as donations to the creche, he plans to leave his tin robot sculptures and plastic container bottle spiders around Vidigal, in visible places to make it fun for the kids. He hopes some of the streets can maintain his work and uphold memories.<\/p>\n

\"Robot<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson has lived in a number of places throughout Vidigal over the past 20 years, getting to know residents well. Before he moved to his most recent space ten years ago, which is built on top of 300 tires because it was more economical than concrete foundations, he worked with skimboards and gave classes to kids on the beach. He attached his artwork to the boards and started getting known around the area. This year the local samba school\u00a0Acad\u00eamicos do Vidigal<\/a>\u00a0used Wilson\u2019s spiders for their float in the carnival parade. Two months ago he did a project with the Caminhos Language Centre<\/a>\u00a0teaching\u00a015 children how to use recyclable materials.<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Gentrification in Vidigal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wilson\u2019s departure from the community is due to a worrying trend of local residents being priced out of Vidigal<\/a>, famous for its views over the Atlantic\u00a0Ocean and next door to Leblon,\u00a0Rio’s most expensive beach neighborhood.\u00a0In January 2012<\/a> the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP)<\/a>\u00a0was installed in Vidigal. Before the UPP, Wilson paid monthly rent of R$100 for his land. After the UPP was introduced he was asked to pay R$1,000 rent. With the presence of the UPP, outsiders\u00a0became more comfortable entering the community and real estate values rose. Hotel developments have opened at the top the hill. Many residents\u00a0are selling because of the rise in offers for houses, while renters are suffering with the soaring rents<\/a> now charged for the foreign and middle class people coming into the community.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as local artists are being forced out of the community, the international media\u00a0has brought attention<\/a> to a famous Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz<\/a>‘s project to open\u00a0an art school in Vidigal towards the end of the year. According to the Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a> this is a way Muniz can \u201creconnect with the poor boy that [he] left here.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Vidigal\u00a0residents report that\u00a0Muniz has owned an empty two-building studio on top of the hill for over a year which is all closed up, having \u201cno personality.\u201d Wilson protests the situation, saying: \u201c[Local artists] can\u2019t just leave and there be\u00a0one famous artist who enters the community and be the only one to have a space.\u201d Vidigal has a strong artistic history. Some artists have been working in the community for 40 years but\u00a0don\u2019t have space to showcase their work due to the increasing real estate costs.<\/p>\n

Wilson is critical of the way some art projects are conducted by outsiders in the community without recognition of local artists. He says:\u00a0\u201cPeople come into Vidigal to create a project and [it feels as though] they don\u2019t want to know that\u00a0local artists exist. They just enter and do their own thing, without consulting residents or other artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the recent transformations in Vidigal due to gentrification<\/a>, increasing tourism and new business, he says:\u00a0“This change was very sudden. And now with the Olympics<\/a>, a lot [more] foreigners are going to arrive. They’re going to get to know Vidigal<\/a> and want to return and live here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, the artist is busy using remaining materials to finish some final projects. He says with some sadness that\u00a0he would have much more to offer the space and the community as a whole. For the most part Wilson is optimistic. After ten years living in a rented place, he hopes in the near future he can buy his own land or house and is looking for a place within the community but fears they will not be able to afford to stay.<\/p>\n

Wilson’s farewell event on Saturday evening\u00a0concluded with performances from several rappers organized by Thiago Oliveira from the rap group Poesia da Pista<\/a>\u00a0and a DJ set, all residents\u00a0of Vidigal.<\/p>\n

\"Robot<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, May 28, residents of Vidigal\u00a0favela in Rio de Janeiro\u2019s South Zone\u00a0gathered to bid farewell to local artist Wilson Alexandre. After ten years of transforming a 600 square meter overgrown abandoned site\u00a0into a vibrant […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":29316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1267,1854,1736,1277,1288,1329],"tags":[396,504,221,65,282,5,15,10,12,156,363],"writer":[1807],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gentrificationwatch","8":"category-housingwatch","9":"category-1736","10":"category-uppwatch","11":"category-highlight","12":"category-by-international-observers","13":"tag-art","14":"tag-culture","15":"tag-favela-culture","16":"tag-gentrification","17":"tag-housing","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","20":"tag-real-estate-speculation","21":"tag-rocinha","22":"tag-south-zone","23":"tag-vidigal","24":"writer-clare-huggins"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29205"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29205"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29205"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29205"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}