Streetnotes

This paper discusses the social experience of resistance to urban interventions in Morro da Providência (Providence Hill)—one of the oldest neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro—where the project Porto Maravilha was launched in 2009. According to this project, the port area of the City of Rio would be renovated. That would result in the displacement of 832 families from their homes. Without prior warning, their homes were marked for removal. A series of rights violations took place, triggering a strong public reaction, which resulted in a legal action that stopped the removal process. Some collective resistance movements in Providência worked in partnership with foreign artists to use art in the struggle for space. Chief among them was the Favelarte Institute. Founded by Maurício Hora, photographer and resident of Providência, the Institute has been developing artistic, cultural, and socio-educative activities since the 2000s. The results were critical and mobilizing interventions that gained high international exposure, thus taking resistance to a different level and becoming instrumental for the public struggle in Morro da Providência.