Art will out

Entry to Estevao's home in the favela: Photo Tuco Reines

Estevão Silva da Conceição at work

Estevao's Garden

Miss Eagle watched again this morning the wonderful documentary, Gaudi in the Favela. The blogosphere has a large slice of it dedicated to home making, home decorating, home renovation. A lot of this has a significant consumerist element. In other words, one of the hallmarks of a major proportion of such blogs is consumption whether it is the furniture, the appliances, or the DIY stuff from the hardware shop.

Estevão Silva da Conceição's home in a favela (shanty town) in the centre of Sao Paulo, Brazil is quite a different and brilliant twist on making a place home and decorating it. The favelas of Sao Paulo are the domicile of the poor: the very, very, very poor. In a nation with huge demarcations between rich and poor, the favelas are a testimony to economic isolation.

At some stage in his life, Estevao started doing things to his place. Estevao's home, in the favela of Paraisopolis, has a small footprint so, at times, Estevao has gone up. He has mosaic-ed everything. A lot of Estevao's materials are found not purchased. They are then covered in concrete and whatever goes into making a colourful, interesting and artistic mosaic. His work is reminiscent of the work, in Barcelona, of the great Spanish architect, artist and designer, Antonio Gaudi.

The film, Gaudi in the Favela, depicts a man, without schooling or knowledge of Gaudi, who has built a Gaudinian castle with next to no resources. One day a young architectural student walks through the favela and discovers Estevao's home. She cannot believe that Estevao has never heard of Gaudi; that he is not consciously attempting to imitate Gaudi.

This meeting, in time, results on a trip for Estevao to Gaudi's city, Barcelona. Here Estevao comes face to face with the work of the master - from the great mosaics of Park Guell to his great unfinished Sagrada Familia.

Gaudi in the Favela is about the triumph of the human spirit. In the darkness of the slums, the glowing light of creativity can transform, console, encourage.

Finally, Miss Eagle has to say that well-executed and innovative mosaic has a penetrating and uplifting quality. It relies on colour - usually bright and exuberant. Its pattern rewards exploration. It makes one's spirit sing and soar. Melbourne, at the bottom end of this island-continent, is a long way from Park Guell and Paraisopolis but there is a lovely work in Bairnsdale, Victoria which, for Miss E, is evocative of Gaudi and Estevao. It is around the perimeter of a roundabout in a busy street. It is public art full of colour and joy.