CCC's Street Art Contest # 301 "Neighbors" - Mariana Duarte Santos - Bairro 2 de Maio, Lisboa - Portugal

Good evening, friends!

Welcome to another post in the Street Art community!

This week, I’m featuring the third piece by artist Mariana Duarte Santos, whose other two works—also created in this same Lisbon neighborhood—I’ve previously shared here.

This neighborhood is particularly significant because it was one of the areas converted into public housing, largely driven by the Revolution of 1975, as there was a great demand for housing at the time. Initially, it is believed the neighborhood was being built to house state police officers and their families, but it was later occupied by people who had nowhere to live, and they went on to finish the houses that were not yet fully constructed. Some are missing walls, others doors, and other details.

The work shared here, titled “Neighborhood,” was inspired by a painting, as were other works here in the neighborhood (link 1, link 2). The painting that served as inspiration is called “Rua do Arco do Marquês D’Alegrete,” which was painted by Roque Gameiro in 1910.

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^{https://marianaduartesantos.com/project/3-mural-in-bairro-2-de-maio-lisboa-portugal/}

The artist painted the mural with this scene in mind, drawing on the daily lives of various people and the conversations that take place on the stairwells of the buildings. The stairwells become a common gathering place where news about everyone’s lives is shared with those who live in the same building.

It’s interesting to see the connection that exists between neighbors, who end up participating a little in each other’s lives. Something that, at times, isn’t seen in the more elite neighborhoods—or isn’t even possible there. There are some neighborhoods where the elevator leads directly to a parking spot, isolating people from any possibility of communicating with their neighbors. It’s a strange world, isn’t it? We know more about what’s happening thousands of miles away, and sometimes we don’t even know that a neighbor is going through some kind of hardship or difficulty.

And you, what is life like in your building? Are you able to talk to your neighbors? Do you know their names? Or is the “obligatory” greeting exchanged daily only when you run into each other in the elevator or the lobby?

We spend more and more time worrying about “our own lives,” our problems, or our goals, and we don’t even notice that perhaps our next-door neighbor just needed five minutes that morning to talk a little… Often, the best gift we can give is our time and our willingness to listen to others.

I hope that community life is lived more and more authentically, with a focus on making our neighbors’ lives a little more bearable. And most of the time, that doesn’t even require spending money or a lot of time. It makes you think, doesn’t it?