Rio: A city made of sand

Rio: A city made of sand. Every city is a riddle. Even more so when it is made from a mix of distinctive differences. From the prestigious Leblon and Ipanema neighborhoods to the surrounding Favelas this mix is the city of Rio de Janeiro. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator and social instigator that came to be known for his “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is a key piece in our proposal. Due to the lack of space we will just state that we are mainly interested in his theory of the “empty vessels”. One of the things Freire put his heart and mind against, was the treatment of the pupils- of every age- as empty vessels that needed their teachers to fill them with information, as if they were lacking the skills or the capacity to choose for themselves what would be necessary for their education. Having this in mind, we contest the idea of the god sent urban planner/ architect who treats the local population as empty vessels ready to be filled with whatever he would wish to put in their heads or better yet in their everyday lives. As the self organization of the Favelas has proven, the local populace is extremely capable in understanding and acting on their issues and problems. What we were looking for is the unifying element that could bring together the different classes in order to allow them to fight in unity for their own city. Looking for examples of this unification process we stumbled upon Augusto Boal. He was the inventor and chief activist of the “The Theater of the Oppressed”. He used theater as means to approach the local populations on the issues they were facing. The actors would be directly involved on issues that were troubling the community, in an effort to make the spectators – the actual people that were suffering from the issues- think about their response. We quickly realized that self organization and direct involvement are elements extremely well routed in the soul of the Cariocas. Our goal was to provide the frame work to allow them to activate themselves. There is only one place where the equilibrium is reached, where class, money or any other differences don’t matter. The beach. As if the notion of the sand, itself comprised of millions different pieces, makes its way into the minds of the people. Were the only goal is to enjoy the unique location and prosperity that it offers to all. The proposal is all about introducing this unique situation all over the city while breaking the barrier of the containing pavements of the beach that keep it at bay. We say, bring the beach in to the city, let this classless formation intrude their thoughts. Let them self organize as if A. Boal was dreaming about and deal critically with their reality. Let them discover how to participate in the transformation of their world, under P. Freire’s influence.