Video: Loomit in Rio de Janeiro

Traveling to Rio in 2007, Loomit and partners were invited by a favela gang boss to paint huge murals while being protected by the gang’s gunmen. Loomit explains “the bad boys like graffiti.” Despite violent media coverage of Rio favelas, guns and violence were always near but only as a show of force. Gang foot soldiers stop by with a grenade for Loomit to paint, as well as their guns which they allowed him to sketch and use in a mural. This goes to show the kind of doors graffiti can open across the world, and how skewed perceptions of poverty and violence can be upon arrival.

Source: ILoveGraffiti