Research Project Paraíso Ocupado

Central de Cultura supports an visual arts research project of Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis. The project focusses on what used to be called ‘Athaydeville’ an area in Barra da Tijuca that nowadays is called Centro da Barra. Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro is known as an area for the rich, the fortress of the ‘nouveau riche’, providing a way to escape from the violence and unsafety in the city. Barra is often characterized as the ‘new Miami’, with distances requiring the use of cars and a landscape defined by its shoppingmalls, condominiums and gated communities. Barra da Tijuca represents the mentality of a city in which people, if they are able to afford, prefer to withdraw themselves behind the walls of gated communities. Osterholt and Uitentuis believe that these places create a bigger segregation and therefor a greater social injustice.

The stories related to the failure of Torre Abraham Lincoln should not be forgotten. In 2004 the name ‘Athaydeville’ officially changed. Many people agreed with the name-change and interpreted this as an indication of a better future for Centro da Barra. Some were more critical they may agreed with the necessity of changing the name of the area but they warned for the negative consequence of erasing the past too suddenly. According to the critics changing the name is an example of how the country deals with the remembrance of the years of the repression and the golden age of the corruption scams.

Osterholt and Uitentuis are developing a project that will turn into a theaterplay on the Athaydeville, to be preformed later this year.