{ Favela Painting }

The artistic duo Jeroen Koolhaas & Dre Urhahn working under the title Haas & Hahn, has transformed favelas in Rio de Janeiro into works of art. The creative collaboration with local inhabitants has not only created new job opportunities and skill development, but has also seen the rise of optimism and pride within these favelas.

Haas & Hahn’s first art project titled “Boy with kite” involved the local youth of one of Rio’s favelas and depicted one of this community’s favourite pastimes.

Their second mural project “Rio Cruzeiro” took 8 months to complete and stretched an area of 2000m².

The project that Haas & Hahn are currently working on is called “O Morro” meaning “the hill”. This project is the realisation of a dream to complete the world’s largest community artwork, stretching a whole hillside favela in Rio. With the help of locals, phase one of the project saw the completion of 34 houses stretching 7000 m². For the completion of this project more funds need to be raised. Haas & Hahn have therefore created an opportunity for people to make donations and become official members of the “O Morrow” project. To read more about it, and see the development of the project, visit their website here.

Haas & Hahn’s work is absolutely remarkable. I find it so inspiring that the dream of two individuals can bring so much change to an entire community.