JR’s Morro da Providência Exhibit

In 2008, the French photographer JR interviewed and photographed 20 women from Morro da Providência, Rio de Janeiro. The photographs were displayed on the sides of around 40 houses and buildings throughout Morro da Providência. The exhibit was part of JR’s project 28 Millimeters: Women are Heroes. In 2009, JR returned to Rio de Janeiro to take part in a series of events organized to celebrate the cultural and historical ties between France and Brazil. The Morro da Providência photographs were pasted on different parts of downtown Rio de Janeiro and were also part of the first exposition presented at Casa França-Brasil after six months of restoration. These two events provide a fascinating point of departure for discussing some of the tensions related to the production of space. Drawing from Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia and bell hooks’ notion of oppositional gaze, this essay examines the ways in which the photographic exhibit 28 Millimeters: Women are Heroes challenges the very terms that define the city of Rio de Janeiro. It also points to some of the tensions present in the way the exhibit was structured in 2009.