Revista Néon

Gerson Sousa, journalist

August 2004

A different form of doing art

The year was 1968. The city, Paris. At each corner, one could see revolutionary messages. The walls were full of them. They were the first graffito. More than simple lines, it was a different form of visual communication, a decision made. It was also a form of protest. Now, the city was New York, youngsters from Bronx started to sign their pseudonyms on the walls, creating a public identity for these interventions, this time using as scenery trains and undergrounds. From then on, the movement acquired strength, spreading around the whole world. Young artists aimed at a new language, more direct and democratic. Then emerged the hip hop culture, formed by three elements: rap (musical), break (dance) and graffiti (artistic expression).

In Brazil, at the end of 70's, with the political opening, graffiti started to flow. It has also gone through three phases: "poetic graffito" was painted on the walls, with metaphoric and enigmatic phrases, full of political protests and irony. Then, the words turned into drawings, made with masks. Afterwards came the illustrations, which gained technical quality, until a simple urban intervention became art definitively. Graffiti then arrived at galleries and museums.

New language

Graffiti served as a protest against the Iraq war in Bahia. This was the way found by children and adolescents from the communities of Salvador. Through graffiti, youngsters expressed their disapproval of the war in Iraq and their dissatisfaction with the social inequity in Brazil. The "battle field" had as one of its scenes the walls of the State University of Bahia (UNEB). The drawings represented hunger, violence, unemployment, lack of health and education, as well as the draught in the Northeast. "For the young artists, it is important to highlight the different between graffiti and tagging. The graffitists, they explain, are concerned about sending social messages. Taggers are not. They compete just for territory, the right to occupy even more space with their marks", explains Paranaguá.

Form and color

In the 80's, emerged the first traces of graffiti in Salvador. The traces were not colored; they were drawn on the walls most times in the form of effect phrases, expressing some type of protest. In this period, emerged messages signed by "Faustino", "BL", "Clímax", "Formiga Atômica", "Dr. Chad", "Afoxés do Carnaval", among others.

A careful Observer

The Public Relations Manager José Francisco Paranaguá Guimarães, who likes to be called simply Paranaguá, also a careful observer of the transformations that graffiti has passed in Salvador, in the 80's, did more: registered the whole collection in photographs. With his camera on hands, he goes around the town registering every manifestation he finds fixed in walls, slopes and outdoors. "Photography for me has always been a hobby. Until today I keep the habit of leaving the camera in my car. If anything calls my attention, I photograph. This was how it happened with the messages in the form of art", he tells.

The registers started to be made from 1985. He confesses that, countless times, he tried to catch the artists with their hands on. It was with great satisfaction that he also registered the new pathway Bel Borba has given to this type of work. He complimented the forms defined by the artist and the grandiosity with which he does his work. Paranaguá explains that some of the works registered, either from 1985 or more recent, do not exist anymore, due to the occupation of those places, demolishing or other factors. "Definitely, it was a new concept of art in Salvador. The figures imagined by Bel and put in strategic places of the city made the population see the art from a different perspective. It made them participate, involved in details as if it was part of the creation", says Paranaguá.

The artist

Bel Borba, an artist, reflexive and agitated, has always made clear that he would not mold to what was established. His creative spirit has always taken him to work free. This way, he contested all that was in the conventional context, showing complete freedom on the regional art. He looked with curious eyes the panels that appeared and decided to also occupy some space. He then searched a particular form of expressing himself. He did not limit himself to repeat old things, he wanted to innovate. He then created new concepts and let flow whatever came to his imagination. The artist feels very comfortable on the streets. "It is as if Salvador was the extension of my house. Every time I think of work, I think on the street. It is a work that asks nothing, only the authorization, and sees who wants to see".

Pioneeiring on mosaic art

"Bel Borba was pioneer on the occupation of public spaces using the technique of ceramic fragments and oil painting in tiles, in the most varied way. Following him, came other artists such as Gilson Maciel, César Carvalho, Leonel Matos and Inha, using the same technique".

The initial Idea, says Paranaguá, is to make an exhibition of this collection. "The friend and journalist Augusto Queiróz has offered to show the work, but it has only been a project. I then decided to insist on the idea of the exhibition, today a reality, and I intend to, don't know when, publish a book about the subject as a way of preserving a period that few people were aware of".

He returned to registering, this time in color, when emerged the first Works with pieces of ceramic or multicolored tiles, besides other techniques, spread around the slopes, walls, railings, etc. "Nowadays the artists are others. Instead of pseudonyms, they sign their real names", he finishes.