São Paulo

São Paulo,
Brasil

Sao Paulo mural artists posing in front of their work

The Artists

Rimon Guimarães is a self-taught and multidisciplinary artist from Curitiba, Brazil. He has painted murals in 27 countries and is currently engaged in several social projects that seek to integrate marginalized groups into society through art – like the 260m² mural in Damascus, Syria, that was painted with the help of children refugees.

His work is greatly inspired by the indigenous people that originally lived in Brazil and to celebrate and highlight the importance of cultural roots, he collaborated with Nazura, another multidisciplinary artist from the East side of Sao Paulo, who has made art since she was 5. After graduating with a degree in visual arts in 2018, she started a research on Afrofuturism. In her studies, she treats the Black Brazilian culture agnostic of time or place to understand the spiritual ancestry of Black people as a recurring theme in art. She is also part of Converse All Stars, a community that provides opportunities and mentorship for youth around the globe that are driving progress.

“’Meu povo’, or ‘my people’, for me is that sense of connectivity, that there is only one Earth and all living beings are somehow bonded,” says Rimon. “We must take care of it so that future generations can also enjoy the great things the planet has to give”.

“Working with an artist that is able to create a mural of this magnitude and understanding the meaning and symbolism of his art has definitely helped me not only with my research, but also with my creative work,” says Nazura. And she goes on, “people that don’t know their past get stuck in time. Despite our society has created a system that silences the history of an entire group of people, I believe that art is an extremely important movement to maintain and foment its culture.”

See Rimon’s Instagram

See Nazura’s Instagram

The Art

This is the largest mural Rimon has painted, and he named it “Pindorama”, which was how the original people in the country called the land before the Europeans arrived. It showcases earth, wind, water, and fire, the four elements the Indians worshipped, as well as the snake, the bird and the leopard, considered to be animals of power. Rimon says, “the bird represents the air; the leopard symbolizes the earth and its tail morphs into a snake, representing the underworld that we can’t see.” The female Indian figure had its raiment inspired by the Jurupixuna tribe, who lived in the Amazon region until the 18th Century. “This mural celebrates the diversity of the original Brazilian Indian tribes and our distinct flora and fauna.” He continues, “we can learn so much from those people on how to connect and live in harmony with nature.”

When reflecting on the work, Nazura says, “working with this paint was amazing because it works just like any other paint, but most importantly, the fact that the mural dialogues with the environmental aspect, it favors the development of more materials like that.” She continues, “I had never worked on a mural of this height and I loved it, especially because there was a lot of sentiment involved and it had been a long time since I felt this light and alive, with people getting together to create amazing work.”

Sao Paulo city forest mural artwork shown from a distance

750

Trees and counting.

Local Impact

It took them 11 days, but their commitment made it happen. Through their vision, the mural now calls the public for progress and is bringing new meaning to local street art to create a more sustainable and just future. Their work helped plant the equivalent of 750 trees, or over 15 soccer fields, a symbol of the air-cleaning power of their mural. Converse believes it has an opportunity to renew its impact by creating fresh air in its communities through Converse City Forests.

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São Paulo, Brasil