They transformed a violent favela into an open-air art gallery

By Austin Andru

All photos by Austin Audru

On the east side of São Paulo is a neighborhood which was once rife with trouble. São Mateus lacked funding from the government and had absolutely no cultural centers, cinemas, of any kind of gallery, according to the city’s ‘Map of Inequality’ – a study elaborated by NGO Nossa São Paulo. That was until the...