Pixação – Brazil’s Graffiti

Art and crime are often found together as expressing oneself often doesn’t align with the law, and sometimes defying the law furthers the meaning of the work, in this case it is a bit of both. In São Paulo (Brazil), you will find that entire sections of the city have been covered with a unique style of graffiti – Pixação. A style that’s uniquely Brazilian, it features bold and imperfect lettering often posing a political question. Like a lot of graffiti, what also makes it stand apart from other art is the dangerous places such as the top of skyscrapers being used as canvas . This article will discuss the art of Pixação, where the expression is deemed criminal and the criminality is part of the defiant expression.

Pixação should not be confused with graffiti, as it is not meant to be a beautiful artwork but instead a critique of society coming from deeply marginalized groups. The Pixadores are often people who have been forgotten by the system, ignored and left to rot, their art forces the city to take notice. The more the city tries to silence them the more creative they get, no matter how much the city tries to block them, they always have clever solutions such as rope systems and homemade harnesses. The Art is always illegal, but the more the city fights back the stronger their message is.

One event that really put the Pixadores on the map was when they crashed the 2008 São Paulo Biennial. An organized group of Pixadores broke into the Biennial immediately spraying all of the carefully curated art, some would even call this an act of detournement. The Biennial was an elitist space so inserting themselves pushed a strong message. By invading and painting the venue, they turned their actions into a bold political statement, questioning who gets to define what art is and who has the right to create it. Sure, what they did was illegal, but the Biennial itself is unethical only favoring the rich, shouldn’t laws align with ethics?
Brazilian authorities see Pixação as a crime so often the city will fight back through arrests and blockages . For the Pixadores it is the only way to be seen in a society that has pushed them to the side. It’s also about building a sense of community and these Pixadores are often organized in groups with shared hardships. They take enormous risks together by scaling buildings without any safety gear, all to leave their mark on a city that prefers to ignore them, this builds camaraderie. The very danger of their actions adds weight to their message, the more danger they take on the louder the message is that they will not be stopped and their message will be seen.

Pixação is all about challenging the status quo. It’s a pure form of art that highlights the wealth inequalities in Brazil, the Pixadores are genuinely producing art to cope with their struggles in hopes to bring light to what is making them struggle. Like other forms of protest art, it pushes us to question who the rules are really serving and who’s getting left out in the cold. The Pixadores refuse to stay invisible and breaking the rules that were not made for them is a way of showing that new rules need to be made. People who don’t have economic power often don’t have a way of being heard, Pixadores have found a way to with little cost be heard by millions of people in the city and even by an ArtCrime-Archive.