Water treatment plant of the city of Hortolândia

The Boa Esperança water treatment site, in Hortolândia, is a 45,000 m2 area craved in one of the most underprivileged areas of the 200-thousand-inhabitants city (click here for a glimpse on Google Earth). Until a few years ago, the construction was seeing as an intruder by the surrounding community, and as any not-welcomed stranger, it was frequently rejected and the employees who worked there suffered with invasions and threats.

Among the problems the managers of the water treatment plant had to deal with was the vandalism on its walls, reason why they had to paint them over and over. Also, in order to prevent new invasions, hundreds of meters of barbwire were installed, but it was constantly cut and stolen. Looking for a change in this scenario, in 2013 I proposed a new approach for the relationship between the Boa Esperança neighborhood and that important construction for the city of Hortolândia. After all, Boa Esperança means Good Hope, in a free translation.

Establishing a partnership with a well-known graffiti artist born in the city, a group of 60 artists were invited to use their art on the external side of the water station walls, for it to become something appraisable and desired for the community it belongs to. Each one of the artists was given a graffiti kit, with self-protection equipment such as masks and safe glasses, and several types of color sprays.

However, having the walls painted were not enough to create a watershed on the relationship between that huge construction and its neighbors. So, me and my teame organized a big event for the April 24th of 2013, a sunny and pleasant Saturday. We then provided a new experience for the people of that community, with a disk jockey playing graffiti-style songs, iced water for everybody and a stand serving popcorn and cotton candy for children (although I testified lots of adults over there).

On that very day we also accepted applications from children who wanted to participate in a graffiti workshop that would take place in the Boa Esperança water treatment station on the following week. Those children would be able not only to learn from some of the artists they saw during the event, but also they would paint a wall specially reserved for them to practice what they have learned.

From then on, both the image of the treatment site (click here for a glimpse on Google Earth), and its interaction with the community became quite different. Today, a revitalization of the Color, Life and Hope event has been studied to happen yearly.