Street art in Rio

Luiz and I recently took a guided tour of (part) of the newly refurbished National History Museum in Rio. It is a fantastic building and the collection (the part that we saw) is impressive. Some of the object descriptions are even in English.

Then the guide took us out onto the street for a neighborhood tour. The museum is located in one of the oldest sections of the city - perhaps the oldest.


It was a very interesting tour (and free for us because Luiz is now a certified city guide), getting information about the earliest days and activities in Rio.

Then I noticed sculptures of men (presumably men) standing on the tops of buildings. While this part of town (around Praça XV) is historic, it is also crowded with highrise office buildings. It is a center of business activity. Office buildings are 20, 30, maybe even 40 stories high.

And there were these guys perched at the edge of the roofs.

Apparently the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center is hosting an installation by an artist who also took his art into the neighborhood. I think we saw 8 or 10 of the sculptures standing atop tall buildings. It was a gas looking around, our necks cocked upward, to see if we could discover another one.

Another fun day in Rio...