Street wise

The 3rd phase of the City of God Bible Art Mural Project was launched at mass today. International mural artist Joel Bergner has returned to work in partnership with the Anglican Parish of Christ the King and 20 young people from the Seed of Life Association.

With murals of the Garden of Eden, the Last Supper and the Book of Revelation's vision of the City of God painted on church walls over the past two years, this time round the project is hitting the streets and will produce murals for two public squares - Prophets' Square and Easter Square - as well as a mosaic for the church's Garden of Memory and Hope.

Come on over to our place!

The end of the line...

The timeline is getting more of Joel's attention as Monday's project finish draws nearer. One of the things it aims to show is just how much local talent the community has produced and artists who were born or who lived in Cidade de Deus have been featured.

Local opinion remains divided on whether Fernando Mireilles' 2002 film 'City of God' was good news or bad news for the community but without a doubt it brought the neighbourhood to international renown and an image of Little Ze - Cidade de Deus's most notorious drugs trafficker and one of the main characters of the film - has been included.

It was November 13, 2008 when the police finally occupied the City of God. Thirteen people died that night. Ever since 300 policemen have remained partrolling the streets.

A new heaven and earth

As the project draws towards a close, Joel has started to put the finishing touches to the mural. Although there's still a lot more to do, St. John the Evangelist can now be clearly seen pointing us towards his vision of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the life of that future City of God appears to be centred around the river of life which, unlike the river in Cidade de Deus today, is clean enough for children to swim in!

It's a new world in which the former things - death, crying, mourning and pain - have passed away...

And cue camera!

A sheep appeared on the mural today. Actually, it's the Lamb of God who, according to the Book of Revelation, will live in the City of God with God and his people.

In the afternoon, documentary makers Tristan and Lex from the UK turned up to start making a short film about the project and Joel's work.

No session of the project goes without juice and biscuits at some point. Today we sat down with Tristan and Lex for a quick rest before resuming work in the scorching heat!

Painting by hand

We were back in business today as the sun poked its head out and within a short time temperatures were rising. Work started in earnest on the image of St. John the Evangelist with group members painting the background on which Joel will lay the details.

There was no shortage of willing hands eager to leave their mark on the mural!

Whilst the group worked on the mural, Joel got going on the details of the timeline and one panel in particular which features four key local leaders.

Disaster strikes

It's not sunny every day in paradise and rain stopped play today on the first day of the painting phase of the project. We had to call off the morning session but a small beginning was made by a determined few late afternoon as the grey clouds started to clear.