Instagram Creates Walkable Route of Rio Street Art

By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Featuring over fifty works located throughout the city of Rio de Janerio, Instawalk Rio is a walkable route that showcases some of the city’s best urban art. In addition to the previously finished and included works, for the 2016 Rio Olympics, the online mobile photo-sharing application, Instagram commissioned five urban artists to create new murals, graffiti, and collages in the city.

The works by the five commissioned artists, Acme, Luiz Zerbini, Raul Mourão, Rita Wainer and Vik Muniz, join pieces on the tour that range from murals to sculptures to collages. Other featured works are by well-known artists including Marcelo Ment, Toz, Marcelo Eco, and Bruno Big.

Notable works on the route include Jorge Selarón’s famous steps in Lapa; Panmela Castro’s giant women’s rights mural, Onde há respeito, há paz (Where There is Respect, There is Peace); and São Paulo artist Eduardo Kobra’s giant “Todos somos um” (We Are All One) mural, which was commisioned for Praça Mauá’s Boulevard Olímpico Site.

“We want to surface these works and show everyone how rich the street art in Rio de Janeiro is,” Christian Rôças, head of strategic partnerships for Instagram in Brazil told Facebook. “We built this project to appeal to Brazilians, tourists and a community of over 500 million people on Instagram who will not necessarily manage to come to Rio, but will get to experience a bit of local culture through @InstawalkRio.”

In addition to their commissioned works, the five artists, Acme, Zerbini, Mourão, Wainer and Muniz, got an opportunity to share their favorite pieces in the city by each creating their own personal Instawalk routes.

To view all of the images and the complete route map, visit @InstaWalkRio.