City of a thousand peoples.

• Author: Mamoser, Alan P.
• Position: Americas !Ojo!

ON JANUARY 25, Sao Paulo, Brazil, kicks off a year's worth of special events to celebrate the 450th anniversary of its founding. Lights and fireworks displays in four locations will illuminate fountains in the lake of Ibirapuera Park--Latin America's largest city park--and outdoor masses and theatrical performances will commemorate the city's founder, Jesuit Jose de Anchieta.

A commemorative parade is also planned to fill the principal avenues of this metropolis of ten million residents, symbolically linking two icons of the city, from the Pateo do Colegio, the city's founding site, to Ibirapuera Park.

"The history of Sao Paulo is a story about its many communities," says Regina Queiroz, general coordinator of the city's office of international relations and member of the special Comite Municipal dos 450 anos da Cidade de Sao Paulo (Municipal Committee for 450 Years), "those of foreign origin--more than seventy countries--and those who have come from all parts of Brazil. On January 25 we will celebrate a 'city of a thousand peoples.'"

Sao Paulo's mayor, Marta Suplicy, is determined to make 2004 a year to unveil popular art throughout the city. Her Workers' Party government--calling itself the "government of reconstruction"--is seeking to provide a populist, neighborhood-based aspect to all events and exhibitions. The Municipal Committee for 450 Years accepted dozens of contributions from local writers and artists, marking them with a special logo, a heart shaped by the letters SP around the number "450."

Keeping with the city government's neighborhood-based approach, many artistic efforts will occur in public places. The famous Sao Paulo Fashion Week will move into city neighborhoods and shopping centers, and one project, Pintando Sao Paulo, will become an interactive popular artwork. Six large blank canvasses will go up in different neighborhoods, with painting materials left out to encourage anyone's artistic contribution. When full, these canvasses will be collected out judged, with the best pieces of each cut out and combined in a special installation: Ideograms of Daily Life.

Among many photographic homages planned throughout the year, the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) plans to exhibit the work of Carlos Goldgrub, the well-known chronicler of Brazilian urban life...