To celebrate the LGBTQIA+ pride month, Facebook colored Sao Paulo offering the city a hybrid installation resulting from the fusion between analog and digital, installed at one of the city’s most iconic addresses, “Minhocão”.
Release written by Estudio Guto Requena
Completion: Facebook App
Conception: Facebook Creative X and Agência Mutato
Post production: Produtora Mutato
Guest Artist: Estudio Guto Requena
Producer: Studio Curva
Live: Freak House
Soundtrack: Satélite
Video and post production: Lady Bird / MaGu
Visual arts: Mynd
Photography and videos: Manuel Sá e Studio Curva
The street, which opens to pedestrians every evening and weekends transforming itself into an urban park, now receives a panel in a facade of one of the neighboring buildings. It was painted with colors of the LGBTQIA+ flag, keeping the pride spirit alive. Estudio Guto Requena was invited to create the installation in association with Mutato Productions and Studio Curva.
How did it work? Facebook App promoted a live and invited the participants to share their stories and to engage in the event with the hashtag #JuntosComOrgulho (#TogetherWithPride). Through a software connected to the Facebook’s API, the number of comments sent by the public were counted and displayed in real time by the “pridemeter”, our special thermometer.
When the number of comments reached 100% on the “pridemeter”, the system discharged the first two flag’s colors, painting the facade in a cascade effect. The Facebook’s live featured a program of great names in Brazilian music like Pabllo Vittar, Gloria Groove and Majur. During the show break, the other four colors were discharged in pairs painting the pride flag collectively.
The urban art is exhibited during a year and during the month of June, it received a projection mapping over the painting every evening. The mapping occured in two moments showing a visual art using a particle effect which behaves individually but which, together, in a dynamic way, shapes the flag, illuminating and animating the physical painting. In addition, a graphic art design displayed the messages from the Facebook community expressing their pride, courage, and resistance.
The design as activism is an essential tool in resisting the retrogression and threat to freedoms and rights in the current Brazilian scene, led by an extreme right-wing government. Brazil is currently one of the countries that kills the most LGBTQIA+ community in the world. The work #JuntosComOrgulho creates a symbolic landmark in the city and makes the voices of this community present on a 40m high facade in a highly visible point. The Elevado João Goulart (“Minhocão”), which is currently in the process to become an urban park, brings together around 30 murals by different artists, in addition to several spontaneous projections, number that increased significantly in the last year, transforming the elevated into an open air art gallery.
