Rio sidewalks, urban tattoos

Regarded among the city's major landmarks, the sidewalks of Rio de Janeiro provide the theme of an exhibit entitled “Tatuagens Urbanas e o Imaginário Carioca” (Urban Tattoos and the Imagination of Cariocas), at the National Historical Museum. The show is held as part of the city's 460th anniversary celebrations.

Rio's Portuguese-paved sidewalks amount to an area of 1,218km², one of the world's most remarkable specimens of the art of limestone pavement. The tradition was introduced by the Portuguese, who spread the technique across major European cities as well as every country they colonized.

The world-famous promenade on Copacabana Beach and the median strip alongside it, designed by landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, are the most quintessential among the city's sidewalks. They're part of the imagery displayed at the exhibit, along with pictures showing other striking ways of paving a sidewalk with stones.

To make the exhibit a reality, researcher and cultural producer Renata Lima had the collaboration of the Chamber of Lisbon. “This partnership enabled us to borrow original works, a veritable treasure trove of the urban heritage,” she says. “Through the archives of institutions in Portugal and Brazil, we're displaying canvases, drawings, and molds that form an important set of objects for those interested in Portuguese sidewalks,” Lima adds.

The idea for the exhibit came from the book Stone Carpets, edited by Renata Lima in 2010, which gathers data collected in her research on the different pavement forms and drawing created specially for the sidewalks. At the show, with scenography by Daniela Thomas and Felipe Tassara, the topic is divided into three modules: history, with the archives of several institutions and registers of promenades in Copacabana and Ipanema; calceteiro (as the craftsmen are called), with the archive of the Lisbon Museum of Molds, historical photographs and films; and the Imagination of Cariocas.

At the last module, visitors can see how the people in Rio have adapted this landmark for use in other objects. Drawings imitating the patterns from the pavement can be found on jewelery, furniture, works of art, and fashion designs, thanks to the work of architects, plastic artists, and designers such as Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer.

A seminar and a workshop for calceteiros serve to crown the exhibit. The initiative represents the City Council's attempt to update the skills of professionals responsible for this kind of work and guarantee the quality of Portuguese-paved sidewalks in the city. After the course, the new calceteiros will be in charge of building new sidewalks with patterns from a contest held by the Visual Arts School, at Parque Lage, southern Rio.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira