Worlding Rio de Janeiro’s favelas Relations and representations of socio-spatial inequality in visual art

This thesis examines the representation of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas in modern and contemporary visual art, as well as the social contexts in which these art practices are produced, disseminated and received in Rio de Janeiro and abroad. This process is described as the “worlding” of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. To study this process, the thesis employs an interdisciplinary approach, looking at the frameworks of thought and the aesthetic repertoires through which favelas have been depicted by visual artists since the early twentieth century, and highlighting the national and international reception of these works. In addition, links with other representational contexts in which favela images and narratives reach global audiences (e.g. film, tourism, and academia) are explored. Building on this, it is shown that favelas came to be used as a symbol within broader debates on Brazilian nationality and urban informality. For this reason, I argue that ethical and epistemological questions should be fundamentally intertwined when considering the representation of favelas in artistic practices. The lines between resisting and reinforcing local and global inequalities in artistic practices are not always easily drawn – and artistic projects or representations often shift between the two when traveling across different spatial and temporal contexts.