Julio Augusto Pereira Costa and Jocivaldo Santos Silva were both born in Salvador in 1981, and grew up in the Cidade Baixa, the sprawling lower-class low districts of the Bahian capital. As teenagers they were both renegade writers, scorned by their families and chased by the police. In 1998 they formed the crew Nova 10Ordem, working in the poor neighborhoods, where the seven members expressed their anger and discontent with crude and garish tags. In 2005 they met Pietro Gallina, the founder of the Institute of Culture Brazil Italy Europe, and before long, they were enrolled in Italian language courses and getting to know the many foreign visitors to the Institute, who encouraged them to study European art, from Giotto to Picasso. The ICBIE hosted their first formal exhibition in August, 2005, and during the same year, the City of Salvador hired them, as part of the innovative project Salvador grafita, which supports the best street writers, paying a decent salary to decorate parks, schools, hospitals and orphanages, providing materials and even offering daily lunch vouchers for the participants. In 2006 they visited Rio de Janeiro and São Paolo, where they were able to meet the leading street writers and share their skills. By 2007, the large number of Italians who had invited them to visit Italy had grown to the point that Pietro Gallina wrote a formal request to the Mayor of Salvador, João Henrique, asking that the city finance their flight to Rome. Miraculously, the mayor not only consented, but sent two city officials, Edvando Luiz Castro Pinto (Tucunaré), the municipal director of urbandecorum, and Edvaldo Evaristo dos Santos Filho, the municipal directorfor tourism (and Salvador’s giant carnival), to accompany them at the public events that the ICBIE organized in Rome. They visited Verbania, Bassano del Grappa, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Milan, Ferrara, Venice and Florence, painting murals at schools, in city parks, and in night clubs. Everywhere they went, people watched in wonder as they produced their beautiful murals, so full of color and life. Julio and Bigode are now back in Salvador, training crews of young aspiring artists at the ICBIE, and planning their future projects. They hope to visit New York next, to make a pilgrimage to the mecca of all street writers.

Since returning from their Italian tour, Julio and Bigode have celebrated ten years as an artistic team, along with the anniversary of their crew, Nova 10Ordem.  To mark that event, street artists came from all around Brazil, and all the artists of Salvador worked together decorating a huge (and ugly) storage building.  Be sure to have a look at the 20 fotos of this wonderful work.