Kickstarter

Friends and Family,

Before I start I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year, and positive wishes for all. This is an exciting time for us, at Aerosol Carioca, considering the huge leaps we have made since our last update.

If you recall, we started this project with a limited vision, and a simple goal: To catalog the graffiti on the walls of Rio de Janeiro. When we arrived we noticed there was such a vibrant culture here, but more so, there were innumerable opportunities to grow within this amazing culture. As time has progressed we have started taking advantage of these opportunities, and this is where we find ourselves today.

We are on the horizon of doing some amazing things and what was once a simple idea, is on the verge of becoming a full business opportunity.

With the release of our first print project, Cidade Grafitada: A Journey Inside Rio's Graffiti Culture, we will establish ourselves as the marque graffiti brand in Rio de Janeiro.

Later in the year we are planning the official release of the documentary "Cidade Grafitada: Stories From the Graffiti City." We have also linked up with some local organizations and have begun planning a series of graffiti related events, and community action initiatives based on graffiti, including the Roda de Graffiti and the Quinta Quadra.

Additionally, we have begun basic preparations for the launching of the Carioca Collective, an initiative created with the goal of helping develop graffiti from the grassroots level, and give artists and organizations without resources the opportunity to use graffiti for community change.

Other projects include a calendar, a magazine, a black book and a clothing line, all in collaboration with local brands that have seen the possibilities of working with Aerosol Carioca!

This has been a lot of hard work, hours of phone calls, hand shaking, and bus rides, but the pay off has been the opportunity to take a our dream and turn it into something that could really change lives.

I am really proud of what we have accomplished and what we are still capable of doing. As I look back on 2012, and anxiously await the rest of 2013, I can only think about our initial campaign, without which this project would still be a dream hanging in the clouds.

With that, I thank you, and hope to hear from you all soon.

Lu

It's been six month of straight work and it's easy to say that this project is on the way to reaching its stated goal, and then pushing past it. This is what AEROSOuL CARIOCA was all about.

Initially, we had a goal of going inside the graffiti culture in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, documenting its ins and outs, and presenting a different perspective for the Cidade Maravilhosa. But like anything in Rio, things tend to go beyond the surface, and reveal levels of content it seems almost impossible to touch upon it all. But we have slowly begun to uncover all the layers that make up the culture in Rio de Janeiro, and that, simultaneously provide the context for the development of graffti in Rio. 

Through or blog we have managed to create and in depth catalog of ideas that represent the complexity of th culture, the video clips provide a visual perspective and the interviews with the artists have given us their take on this amazing cultural enclave, in one of the world's most interesting, and important cultural destinations. 

For continued updates on our project please visit: www.therioreport.com, www.youtube.com/sdotr or join our Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/248768151821507/ 

"AEROSOuL CARIOCA" has truly gone international with an outpouring of support from all corners of the globe. This has made the project more than just an idea, but an investment in bringing the beauty and creativity of Carioca artists to the world. 

Street Art has always been controversial, inciting heated opinions from both sides of the debate. Those who defend it view it as a form of expression by urban dwellers, which creatively reflects the contrast in artistic style and social dichotomies in the cities the art is located in. For many, street art is the visual representation of differences between the status quo and the rebellious attitude of those that see life beyond the black and white lines of that same status quo. 

However, with the same energy, detractors label street art, regardless of its style and message, as vandalism, better left to the dark alleyways on the other side of the tracks. No matter how creative, or how "artistic," and no matter how much a mural does to beautify an abandoned walkway, "vandals," are more a criminals and leaders of social change. 

The confusion between "tagging," vandalism for the sake of destruction, and "street art," art done in a public space, has added a layer to this conversation, which is one of the layers AEROSOuL CARIOCA intends to explore.