Abstract
Waste pickers have, historically and across the globe, been one of the most marginalized urban subjects. Fortunately, in the last decades, we’ve witnessed their growing mobilization. This chapter explores the ways in which a collaborative project of urban intervention forged between graffiti artists and waste pickers, has, thanks to crowdfunding, expanded across Brazil and its borders, taking on the status of a ‘movement.’ I examine the ways in which the viral effect of this project has effectively helped to destigmatize the image of the catador in the city of São Paulo while re-signifying graffiti art. More specifically, at the core of my inquiry lies the question: What are the various cultural, political, and material factors that have allowed ‘Pimp My Carroça’ (Pimp My Cart) its longevity, expansion, and popularity? And what is the role of the catador in sustaining the ‘movement’?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Sonia Maria Dias, ‘Gestão de resíduos sólidos, catadores, participação e didadania—novas articulações?’ Políticas Urbanas 18 (July 2010): 2. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Dias_WIEGO_WP18_Portugues.pdf.
- 2.
Ibid., 6.
- 3.
Jutta Gutberlet, Urban Recycling Cooperatives: Building Resilient Communities (London: Routledge, 2016), 6.
- 4.
Mari Aparecida Bortoli, ‘Processos de organização de catadores de materiais recicláveis: lutas e conformações,’ Revista Katálysis 16, no. 2 (July 2013): 250. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1414-49802013000200011.
- 5.
Ann M. Simmons, ‘The World’s Trash Crisis, and Why Many Americans are Oblivious,’ Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-trash-20160422-20160421-snap-htmlstory.html.
- 6.
Sonia Maria Dias, ‘Statistics on Waste Pickers in Brazil,’ WIEGO Statistical Brief 2 (May 2011): 1. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Dias_WIEGO_SB2.pdf.
- 7.
Gutberlet, Urban Recycling, 57.
- 8.
Wasteland, directed by Lucy Walker, performed by Vik Muniz, England/Brazil: Midas Film, 2010, film.
- 9.
Josiane Gothardo, ‘O Olhar Sobre o Outro Descartável: A Representação da Categoria dos Catadores de Materiais Recicláveis na Mídia,’ Razon y Palabra 19, 2_90 (June 2015), 483. http://www.revistarazonypalabra.org/index.php/ryp/article/view/333.
- 10.
Frederick Bernas and Enrique Castillo, ‘Pimp My Carroça: One Artist’s Campaign to Clean up Sao Paulo,’ BBC Brasil, July 10, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28203419.
- 11.
It’s important to note that MTV’s version (2004–2007) was reproduced in the country as Pimp My Ride Brasil.
- 12.
Mundano, TEDGlobal.
- 13.
‘Pimp My Carroça—São Paulo + Rio de Janeiro,’ posted by ‘Parede Viva’ in 2013, Vimeo video 15:50. https://vimeo.com/45878176.
- 14.
Aline Silva (Pimp My Carroça team), e-mail message to author, January 26, 2017.
- 15.
Rodrigo Davies, ‘Case Study: Crowdfunding Civic Action—Pimp My Carroça,’ in Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice, ed. Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016), 609.
- 16.
Quoted from their Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/pimpmycarroca/.
- 17.
Term deployed by Davies and the PMC group.
- 18.
Gabriela Roberto Alves dos Santos, ‘Micropolítica da arte pública: Pimp My Carroça e a remodelagem da realidade,’ in Pasados presentes: Debates por las memorias en el arte público en América Latina, ed. Teresa Espantoso Rodríguez and Carolina Vanegas Carrasco, vol. V (Cali: Editorial Universidad del Valle, 2016).
- 19.
Davies, ‘Case Study,’ 2016.
- 20.
Luciana Stefaniu and Luciana Di Raimo, ‘O espaço urbano, o grafite e a identidade do sujeito catador,’ Revista Rua 1, no. 22 (June 2016).
- 21.
In various sources, Mundano has stated that he wishes to give voice and dignity to catadores , although he has also spoken on how much he has learned from them.
- 22.
Bruno Abbud, ‘Mundano: como um grafiteiro se tornou símbolo da arte que muda o mundo,’ GQ Brasil, September 30, 2013. http://gq.globo.com/Cultura/noticia/2013/09/mundano-como-um-grafiteiro-se-tornou-simbolo-da-arte-que-muda-o-mundo.html.
- 23.
Andre Caramante, ‘Empresário atropela, mata, foge e é preso,’ Folha de São Paulo, August 31, 2009. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/cotidian/ff3108200911.htm.
- 24.
‘Doria veste uniforme de gari e faz varrição simbólica em São Paulo,’ Estado de Minas, January 2, 2017. http://www.em.com.br/app/noticia/politica/2017/01/02/interna_politica,836571/doria-recolhe-algumas-folhas-e-varricao-fica-so-no-gesto.shtml.
- 25.
Eduardo Gerarque, ‘Doria se veste de gari e diz que vai limpar as ruas de SP todas as semanas,’ Folha de São Paulo, January 2, 2017. http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2017/01/1846329-doria-promete-se-vestir-de-gari-e-limpar-as-ruas-todas-as-semanas.shtml.
- 26.
‘Catadores de São Paulo desafiam João Doria a ser #CATADORpor1dia no primeiro dia de mandato,’ Estadão, January 2, 2017. http://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/releases-ae,catadores-de-sao-paulo-desafiam-joao-doria-a-ser-catadorpor1dia-no-primeiro-dia-de-mandato,10000097805.
- 27.
Found in the project’s website: http://pimpmycarroca.com/o-manifesto-de-sp/.
- 28.
For more on this ‘war,’ see the documentary Cidade Cinza (2013), directed by Marcelo Mesquita and Guilherme Valiengo.
- 29.
No record of his sentencing has been found.
- 30.
Aline Silva (Pimp My Carroça team), e-mail message to author, January 26, 2017.
- 31.
‘Doria manda apagar grafites dos Arcos do Jânio e da av. 23 de Maio,’ UOL Notícias, January 14, 2017. https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2017/01/14/doria-manda-apagar-grafites-dos-arcos-do-janio-e-da-av-23-de-maio.htm.
- 32.
I deploy the Foucaultian notion of biopolitics to foreground the links between the law’s devaluing of the bodies at society’s margins with ‘hygienism ,’ a public policy pervasive in the late nineteenth century Brazil. During that period, the threat of contagious diseases served as an excuse to evict unwanted populations from the cities. The war against graffiti, waged under the guise of ‘cleaning’ and embellishing the city (as the policies of ‘Cidade Limpa’ and ‘Cidade Linda’ convey) not only brings forth echoes of an ideology of segregation, but also indirectly controls the performative bodies of graffiti artists.
- 33.
Bortoli, ‘Processos de organização de catadores,’ 251.
- 34.
Sandro Pereira Silva, Fernanda Lira Goes and Albino Rodrigues Alvarez, ‘Situação Social das Catadoras e dos Catadores de Material Reciclável e Reutilizável: Brasil,’ Federal Report from the IPEA: Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, 2013. http://www.ipea.gov.br/agencia/images/stories/PDFs/situacao_social/131219_relatorio_situacaosocial_mat_reciclavel_brasil.pdf.
- 35.
Pereira Silva, et al., ‘Situação Social das Catadoras,’ 31.
- 36.
Gutberlet, Urban Recycling, 75.
- 37.
Silva, IPEA report, 20.
- 38.
Ibid. Numbers vary according to sources and are difficult to access due to the stigma around the occupation.
- 39.
Bortoli, ‘Processos de organização de catadores,’ 254.
- 40.
Larissa de Brito Feitosa, ‘Sentidos atribuidos às políticas públicas de inclusão dos catadores,’ Master’s thesis, Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2011, 27. http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/2119.
- 41.
Mundano, ‘Arte como instrument de revolução social,’ filmed August 27, 2011, YouTube video, 11:07, posted by TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXwstjBc2sw.
- 42.
Silva, e-mail message to author, January 26, 2017.
- 43.
MNCR and Pimp My Carroça have been partners in a few actions, from protesting confiscation of carts to promoting events. More details here: http://www.mncr.org.br/artigos/inclusao-social-na-formula-indy?searchterm=pimp.
- 44.
Gathered from the project’s website: http://pimpmycarroca.com/o-pimp-my-carroca/.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
‘Vale do Anhangabaú.’
- 47.
Project’s website.
- 48.
‘Pimp My Carroça,’ Vimeo video, 2013.
- 49.
An important parallel can be traced to the Québécois urban interventionist non-profit organization, known as ATSA, who have staged similar events (known as ‘Etat d’urgence’), which brought politics, public awareness, and celebration together. Like Pimp My Carroça, these events consisted of street marches and parades and involved the participation of public health and social justice groups, as well as high profile political figures, including Montreal’s mayor. See their project page, Le Temps d’une Soupe in this volume.
- 50.
Ibid.
- 51.
Project’s website.
- 52.
Numbers drawn from examining the projects at their channel in the crowdfunding website, Catarse. https://canalpimp.catarse.me/#created.
- 53.
One such project was titled ‘Projeto Catadores Saudáveis,’ produced by the City council in partnership with various non-profits: http://www.mncr.org.br/noticias/blog-sudeste/mncr-participa-de-evento-em-prol-da-saude-e-inclusao-do-catador.
- 54.
Project’s website.
- 55.
‘Ativistas fazem intervenção para pedir liberação de carroças de catadores em ciclovias paulistanas,’ Radar Nacional, June 3, 2015. http://www.radarnacional.com.br/ativistas-fazem-intervencao-para-pedir-liberacao-de-carrocas-de-catadores-em-ciclovias-paulistanas/.
- 56.
Education for Critical Consciousness (New York: The Seabury Press, 1973), 15.
- 57.
Ruth Cardoso, ‘Sustentabilidade, o desafio das políticas sociais no século 21,’ São Paulo em Perspectiva 18, no. 2 (2004): 43. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-88392004000200005.
- 58.
Project’s website.
- 59.
‘Projeto ‘turbina’ mais de 160 carrinhos de catadores,’ BBC Brasil, July 28, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/portuguese/videos_e_fotos/2014/07/140725_galeria_pimpmycarroca_pai.
- 60.
Project’s website.
- 61.
Rafael do Santos, ‘Catadores e a invisibilidade social,’ filmed in August 2015, posted by TEDx, YouTube video, 18:15. http://www.tedxdantealighierischool.com.br/catadores-e-a-invisibilidade-social-rafael-dos-santos-bahia-tedxdantealighierischool/.
- 62.
do Santos, ‘Catadores e a invisibilidade social.’
- 63.
Silva, e-mail communication with author, January 2017.
- 64.
PMC’s Instagram page.
- 65.
Stefaniu and Di Raimo, ‘O espaço urbano,’ 23–24.
- 66.
Holly Eva Ryan, Political Street Art in Latin America (London: Routledge, 2017), 32.
- 67.
Ana Christina DaSilva Iddings, Steven McCafferty and Maria Lucia Teixeira da Silva, ‘Conscientização Through Graffiti Literacies in the Streets of a São Paulo Neighborhood: An Ecosocial Semiotic Perspective,’ Reading Research Quarterly 46, no. 1 (2011): 5–6. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.46.1.1.
- 68.
Daniel Drummond Ribeiro, ‘Cidade cinza: a guerra entre o graffiti e a prefeitura de São Paulo,’ Cinéfilos, January 22, 2014. http://cinefilos.jornalismojunior.com.br/cidade-cinza-a-guerra-entre-o-graffiti-e-a-prefeitura-de-sao-paulo/.
- 69.
Lucrécia D’Alessio Ferrara, Cidade, entre mediações e interações (São Paulo: Paulus, 2016), 23.
- 70.
D’Alessio Ferrara, Cidade, 32–33.
- 71.
Jeff Ferrell, ‘Graffiti, Street Art and the Dialectics of the City,’ in Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, ed. Konstantinos Avramidis and Myrtle Tsilimpounidi (London: Routledge, 2016), 30.
- 72.
Ryan, Political Street Art, 55.
- 73.
Ahmed, quoted in Ibid., 55.
- 74.
Iddings, ‘Conscientização Through Graffiti.’
- 75.
One of these partnerships resulted in an interactive exhibit with renowned street art photographer Martha Cooper that depicted waste pickers from around the world, titled #VivaOsCatadores (São Paulo, December–January, 2016)
- 76.
Shannon Jackson, Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics (New York: Routledge, 2011), 14.
- 77.
Stefaniu and Di Raimo, ‘O espaço urbano,’ 23.
References
Bortoli, Mari Aparecida. ‘Processos de organização de catadores de materiais recicláveis: lutas e conformações.’ Revista Katálysis 16, no. 2 (July 2013): 248–57. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1414-49802013000200011.
Cardoso, Ruth. ‘Sustentabilidade, o desafio das políticas sociais no século 21.’ São Paulo em Perspectiva 18, no. 2 (2004): 42–48. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-88392004000200005.
Davies, Rodrigo. ‘Case Study: Crowdfunding Civic Action—Pimp My Carroça.’ In Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice, edited by Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis, 609–612. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2016.
Dias, Sonia Maria. ‘Gestão de resíduos sólidos, catadores, participação e didadania—novas articulações?’ Políticas Urbanas 18 (July 2010): 2–22. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Dias_WIEGO_WP18_Portugues.pdf.
———. ‘Statistics on Waste Pickers in Brazil.’ WIEGO Statistical Brief 2 (May 2011): 1–3. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Dias_WIEGO_SB2.pdf.
Dos Santos, Gabriela Roberto Alves. ‘Micropolítica da arte pública: Pimp My Carroça e a remodelagem da realidade.’ In Pasados presentes: Debates por las memorias en el arte público en América Latina, edited by Teresa Espantoso Rodríguez and Carolina Vanegas Carrasco, vol. V. Cali: Editorial Universidad del Valle, 2016.
Dos Santos, Rafael. ‘Catadores e a Invisibilidade Social.’ Filmed in August 2015 at TEDx, YouTube video, 18:15. http://www.tedxdantealighierischool.com.br/catadores-e-a-invisibilidade-social-rafael-dos-santos-bahia-tedxdantealighierischool/.
Feitosa, Larissa de Brito, ‘Sentidos atribuidos às políticas públicas de inclusão dos catadores.’ Master’s thesis, Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2011. http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/2119.
Ferrara, Lucrécia D’Alessio. Cidade, entre mediações e interações. São Paulo: Paulus, 2016.
Ferrell, Jeff. ‘Graffiti, Street Art and the Dialectics of the City.’ In Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing and Representing the City, edited by Konstantinos Avramidis and Myrtle Tsilimpounidi. London: Routledge, 2016.
Freire, Paulo. Education for Critical Consciousness. New York: The Seabury Press, 1973.
Gothardo, Josiane. ‘O Olhar Sobre o Outro Descartável: A Representação da Categoria dos Catadores de Materiais Recicláveis na Mídia.’ Razon y Palabra 19, 2_90 (June 2015): 473–487. http://www.revistarazonypalabra.org/index.php/ryp/article/view/333.
Gutberlet, Jutta. Urban Recycling Cooperatives: Building Resilient Communities. London: Routledge, 2016.
Iddings, Ana Christina DaSilva, Steven McCafferty and Maria Lucia Teixeira da Silva, ‘Conscientização Through Graffiti Literacies in the Streets of a São Paulo Neighborhood: An Ecosocial Semiotic Perspective.’ Reading Research Quarterly 46, no. 1 (2011): 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.46.1.1.
Jackson, Shannon Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Mundano. ‘Pimp My …Trash Cart?’ Filmed October 2014, TEDGlobal video, 5:22. https://www.ted.com/talks/mundano_pimp_my_trash_cart#t-9178.
‘Pimp My Carroça—São Paulo + Rio de Janeiro.’ Posted by ‘Parede Viva’ in 2013, Vimeo video, 15:50. https://vimeo.com/45878176.
Ribeiro, Daniel Drummond. ‘Cidade cinza: a guerra entre o graffiti e a prefeitura de São Paulo.’ Cinéfilos, January 22, 2014. http://cinefilos.jornalismojunior.com.br/cidade-cinza-a-guerra-entre-o-graffiti-e-a-prefeitura-de-sao-paulo/.
Ryan, Holly Eva. Political Street Art in Latin America. London: Routledge, 2017.
Silva, Sandro Pereira, Fernanda Lira Goes and Albino Rodrigues Alvarez. ‘Situação Social das Catadoras e dos Catadores de Material Reciclável e Reutilizável: Brasil.’ Federal Report: IPEA (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada), 2013. http://www.ipea.gov.br/agencia/images/stories/PDFs/situacao_social/131219_relatorio_situacaosocial_mat_reciclavel_brasil.pdf.
Stefaniu, Luciana, and Luciana Di Raimo. ‘O espaço urbano, o grafite e a identidade do sujeito catador.’ Revista Rua 1, no. 22 (June 2016): 18–32.
Walker, Lucy, dir. Wasteland. Performed by Vik Muniz; England/Brazil: Midas Film, 2010, film.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Melo, C. (2019). Your Trash Is My Sustenance: Recycling the Image of ‘Waste Pickers’. In: Alvarez, N., Lauzon, C., Zaiontz, K. (eds) Sustainable Tools for Precarious Times. Contemporary Performance InterActions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11557-9_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11557-9_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11556-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11557-9
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)