Opinion – Helio Beltrão: Street art and the Clean City Law

Municipal authorities turned São Paulo into a somewhat schizophrenic city. On the one hand, it is one of the world’s leading street art centers, with important open-air galleries. On the other hand, it vigorously combats advertising, what I call corporate art, under the allegation of aesthetic ends. At the heart of this paradox is the Clean City Law, which has just turned 15.

At the beginning of this century, the complete negligence of the city hall in inspecting generated an unbridled and illegal proliferation of lambe-lambes on poles, banners on bridges and on sidewalks, as well as irregular posters and signs, including in residential areas. Degrading pollution had been devouring São Paulo and, as the city government was incompetent to curb illegality, it decided to create a bomb.

The creator of the law, then Mayor Kassab, characterized advertising as visual pollution, the villain to be fought. It benefited from the consensus among intellectuals of the time that advertising is “the enemy of culture,” a “neoliberal tool” to dumb down the masses, that the streets needed to be “cleansed of evil capitalism.”

But soon after the law was passed, it was shown that there was no anti-publicity motive; the enemy was just publicity in private space. The idea was: first to nationalize all advertising and, subsequently, to privatize the monopoly with the greatest possible profit. Thus, the city government articulated the banning of private legal advertising (gables of buildings in certain regions and billboards and luminous in lots and parking lots) to organize the granting of its newly obtained monopoly, earning extraordinary income.

Advertising is permitted on bus shelters and on watches awarded to two companies for a period of 25 years. Ideally, advertising should not be intrusive or aggressive, it should be subtle and integrated, but not banned outright. For this reason, the standardization resulting from the concession represented progress, in line with the best global practices. But the model is making water.

It is obvious that we all want a beautiful city, but who defines what is beautiful? Has the city improved substantially since then?

The city government remains very ineffective in monitoring and often pursues traders with fines without prior notification. Our dear São Paulo is a gray stone jungle. It is not among the most beautiful cities in the world. It lost some of its color and identity with the law. And we have one of the highest rates of graffiti vandalism in the world.

So it is promising that the art of graffiti is being accepted by the authorities, not only in public spaces but also in private ones. Regrettably, it is drenched in bureaucracy and regulations that take away spontaneity and disturb the ephemeral character of street art.

I believe that the general implication of advertising in private spaces can be mitigated with knowledge.

The advertising concession pays bills. The granting of urban furniture generated R$ 242 million for the city’s cash, in addition to the maintenance and upgrade of hundreds of bus shelters in the periphery, as well as clocks.

The most beautiful capitals in the world, such as New York, London, Tokyo and Paris, are full of advertising, including in private spaces such as building gables, taxis, buses, lots. Big names in street art and advertising live in São Paulo. Enough of this prejudice — as backward as everyone else — against corporate art.

Let everyone take care of their facade within more benign rules, colors come back, business takes off. The city will become more vibrant, and people who are uncomfortable with gables and commercial facades with big brands will always be able to turn to the addictive screens of their cell phones. Plenty of advertising.