MomentoMonumento

A week after my trip out to Morro da Macumba, I had the opportunity to visit a very different sort of urban revitalization project. MomentoMonumento
 was conceived by two French art and architecture collectives, Coloco and Exyzt, to transform an abandoned 22-story glass office building in Sao Paulo’s decayed downtown into a multi-use, multidisciplinary “event building and cultural laboratory” where artists, social organizations, and the public would collaborate. 

By chance, one of my Portuguese classmates was here in Brazil as one of the producers of the project and invited me for a visit. Since the site is not yet open to the public, this was quite a treat. I was shocked to hear that about 30% of usable building space in Sao Paulo's downtown is empty. Walking to the MomentoMonumento building, Edificio Wilton Paes de Almeida, through downtown Sao Paulo, this emptiness was evident. So many beautiful buildings boarded up or falling down. And despite the many pedestrian streets and plazas and parks, there were few places to sit and take it in. 

The Wilton Paes de Almeida building stood out amongst its early-20th century neighbors for its modernity. The idea of MomentoMonumento was to "activate" this abandoned space, once headquarters for a glass company, then property of the federal police. My friend and I were joined by French photographer Franck Gerard  who was in Sao Paulo for the exhibition Arte Fragil, Resistencias.  The three of us explored each of the building's 22 floors. Some were empty, others contained forgotten office furniture, dust and smog-encrusted type writers, boxes of archives (including some interesting contraband!), even an old dentist chair. It all felt very post-apocalyptic. MomentoMonumento hasn't yet begun to occupy the space, but it will be interesting once they do. 

The best part of the climb up was the view from the roof--a panorama of Sao Paulo's never-ending cityscape.