Fondation Cartier made available at Dailymotion a 11-minutes video with excerpts from "Pixo", a documentary about Brazilian pixação. The video is in Portuguese with French subtitles, but there are a lot of impressive scenes, including the attack of Belas Artes School, that makes the viewing worth even for only-English speakers. I can't wait to see the whole movie! (I think the old dailymotion link was not working, so I updated it)

http://www.dailymotion.com/fr/featured/video/x9sdzs_pixo-un-film-de-joao-weiner-et-robe_creation?pagination=1:15

      A few days ago, I've posted about the world premiere of "Pixo" at Fondation Cartier. Unfortunately I couldn't find the original post,  so, here it goes again:

"Pixo, a documentary about São Paulo's pixação, directed by João Wainer with art direction from the artist Alexandre Orion, had his word premiere yesterday (July 5th), in Paris. The screening was part of Né dans la rue: Graffiti (Born in streets: Graffiti), the upcoming exhibition of Fondation Cartier, the world famous center for contemporary art. ... Cripta, a pixo writer, and Barry McGee were chosen to cover the building walls. Wainer said on his twitter: "While Cripta was painting, an amount of people came to see. ‘It's gorgeous', said the (exhibition) curator." He also commented that Barry McGee said to Cripta: "what you guys do it's the real street art. You rock. It's the most impressive thing on this exhibition"
It's very ironic, and even funny, that one of the most hated expressions in Brazil now is in the same place of contemporary artists, as Beatriz Milhazes, the most valuable Brazilian contemporary artist alive, and who once did the center walls. "The Fondation Cartier director wants to go to Brasil to understand more about pixação. Why Brazilian galleries take so long to understand?" asks the director. "

And, about a year ago I've written about the pixo attacks (including the one you can see on the video) and some briefly explanation about pixação, but, once again, I couldn't find the original post, so I'll make some parts available again:

"Pixo or pixo-reto (straight pixo) is the result of doing "pixação", a kind of graffiti/tag original from Sao Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, that exists since the early 80's. From a text written by OSGEMEOS in Graffiti Brasil book (Thames & Hudson, 2005), comes the theory that this style of calligraphy is rooted on the heavy metal band logotypes spray painted on the walls at the time. On the other hand, there's the aesthetic connection with the Californian Chicano gang style of letters from the 70's.

Anyway, pixo has a very peculiar style and it's an illegal form of expression, made mostly by people from the marginalized areas that got nothing to loose and very little to expect. Their main goal is the "ibope" (the real IBOPE is the biggest statistics institute in the country, known for its TV audience reports). To achieve the pixo's "ibope", one must have their name written everywhere, in the higher and most difficult public spaces, is the "getting up" from wild style graffiti writer's equivalent. When they're successful, it hurts a society that sees it as a dirty thing, nonsense angry and crime. Very few people see it as a creative outlet, as a calligraphic expression coming, in general, from youngsters who got no study or familiarity with graphic design. Since the 80's pixação has taken a major space on many Brazilian cityscapes, especially in Sao Paulo. Now, it's a worldwide known style and many Brazilian artists with roots on urban subcultures we love, like OSGEMEOS and Vitché, used pixo elements on their works.

In this complex context, on June 2008, a pixo writer called Rafael "Pixobomb" organized an attack to Belas Artes (fine arts) University as his graduation work. Fine art student himself, Pixobomb, and a group with about 50 other pixo writers, invaded the university claiming that art must be related to social issues, using pixação to make his point. It wasn't very clear if Rafael wanted to elevate pixo as an art form, or if was just used as a way of protest.

On September, the same group attacked Choque Cultural gallery, also in Sao Paulo. This time, claiming that the real urban art (the pixo) can't be sold or domesticated, as, at their point of view, the gallery was doing. Choque actually sell works with pixo (and graffiti, tattoo, etc) influences but in this violent attack, British pop artworks which have nothing to do with Brazilian urban art where painted over, together with all the walls and even some Juxtapoz magazines (now highly collectables!).

The next target was the most predictable one. On October, a group of 40 pixo writers, once again organized by Rafael Pixobomb, invaded the Sao Paulo Art Bienal, the most important Brazilian fine arts event, this year known as "Bienal of emptiness", with an entire floor of the building left empty to create a reflection about the meaning of the Bienal. Some people say that the curators knew about the attack and, even more, wanted it. Once again the attacker's speech was that pixo is the real art, mixed with some protest words. Anyway, they were applauded by the public while trying to escape from the police. (....)"