Step Up

In case you didn’t know already, there are a lot of very steep hills in Rio. The thing about building on steep hills is people need a way of getting up and down. I suppose the default solution to this age-old problem is simply to do nothing – walk up and down the steep hill. At the other end of the scale you have trams, elevators and cable cars.

But cable cars and elevators are expensive, so for the most part the people of Rio make do with steps. Living in Santa Teresa I know all about these as I have three routes up/down the hill I live on and two of them involve long, steep steps.

7 banks of 11 steps – I think even Rocky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NubH5BDOaD8&t=1m55s) would find that hard going. For some reason the little girl on the right decided she’d prefer to use the storm drain. Kids are weird sometimes aren’t they?

I suppose steps aren’t as fancy as a cable car, but they don’t break down or require maintenance and for me they also serve the purpose of free gym! I really like the look of these steep banks of steps. Admittedly the steps in the photo above are a little dirty and drab, but as artist Jorge Selarón has demonstrated, they don’t have to be like that.

The spectacular Escadaria Selarón. A massive work of art that gained the ultimate stamp of approval – appearing in a Snoop Dogg video (Image).

Way back in 1990 Selarón decided to spruce up the steps outside his house in the neighbourhood of Lapa. Although Chilean, Selarón had lived in countries all over the world before deciding to settle in Rio. His love of his adopted city and country is clearly evident in his work:

Brazil, I love you – Selaron.

Selarón has had to suffer for this labour of love – he struggled financially for many years and reckons he sold over 25,000 portraits to finance his work. What kind of guy does this? To start a massive artistic project without any funding (or permission), going broke and having to scrape together money just to pay the bills and continue his work – he must be a little unconventional, right? Well, yes, I think you could say that:

Jorge Selarón – a proper oddball of the best kind. He spends a lot of his time on or around his steps, so if you visit you’ll have a good chance of seeing this crazy, cheerful, talented guy.

It’s an amazing thing he’s done. The only problem I have is that it makes my plain steps look rather dull. If only there were more Selaróns, preferably living in the Santa Teresa/Glória area!

To finish off I thought I’d show you an unconventional way of getting down some steep steps – this time in the Dona Marta favela near my work. Hold tight…