Natal - the corner of America

Ponta Negra Beach in Natal - Brazil

The location of Natal already have yielded some color full of admiration and enthusiasm.

The city, which is nearest the coast of Africa that of São Paulo, is very developed during World War II, when served as a base for the allied troops, as defined by the Department of War of the United States as "one of the four points the world's most strategic, "along with Suez, Gibraltar and Bosporus.

Crucial, both for the defense of the South Atlantic, as for resumption of North Africa, the end of the Great War, the corner of the continent won the nickname of the Trampoline Win.

But it is with a nickname and more peaceful Natal that better identifies itself, and it was also by the work and grace of its special geographical position that the capital of Rio Grande do Norte received the title of the Sun City.

A name quite fair for a city that receives more than two million tourists and 300 days of sunshine per year. In the southern coast, 14 km from the center of Natal, is a beautiful beach of Ponta Negra, with a small bay of white sand, where the Morro do Careca, of 120 meters high, is one of the best known of the postcards city.

It is from Ponta Negra that begins to call Way of the Sun, with beaches and much more quietly beautiful as those of North Pirangi and South Pirangi, Parnamirim, Buzios and Barra de Tabatinga.

In North Pirangi, in addition to natural pools that, at low tide, are formed in less than 1 km from the coast, tourists will know the biggest tree in the world, a rare natural phenomenon, in which a single tree, more than a hundred years of age, occupies an area of 8,500 m².

In the opposite direction, toward the north, is the Parque das Dunas, another work of nature. Considered Environmental Heritage of Humanity, the Parque das Dunas involves the center of the city, along the Coastal Route, an area of approximately 1,172 hectares.

It is the second largest Urban Forest Park in Brazil, outpaced only by the forest of Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro. Built on sand dunes between the Rio arid and Atlantic coast, in the midst of lagoons and lush vegetation native, is not at random that Natal, in 1994, received from NASA (the North American Space Agency) another title: the More Clean Air of the Americas.



Read more about Natal (in portuguese) >

CowParade in Rio de Janeiro

CowParade in Rio de Janeiro

When the plastic Swiss artist Pascal Knapp described CowParade the day for the first time, in the center of Zurich in 1998, perhaps even imagination that his idea had size range.

After he sold the copyright to the North American lawyer Jerry Elbaum, saw the project, the principle established as an alternative to the exhibition of works of art in galleries and museums, can be installed in various cities around the mundo.

The organizers of the CowParade Holdings Corporation, tell more than 4,000 cows have been carved in fiber glass and painted in different ways, raising more than eleven million dollars for social projects.

After passing through New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Sao Paulo and 29 other cities, in September as "Cowriocas" will invade the "Wonderful City".

To the Rio CowParade, were selected 120 works by guest artists, receiving thousand reais, cache, as well as material to perform his work.

Businesses sponsor pay a quota of 35 thousand reais for each of the 120 cows, that the end of the exhibition, will be auctioned in a benefit event in support of Social Work of the City of Rio de Janeiro.

Some people are against the project, and say that art is just an excuse to put more advertising in the middle of disputadíssimo urban space.

Others believe that the work can be used to "critical interventions." When the controversy exhibition was mounted in Belo Horizonte, for example, three sculptures were targets of demonstrations. Cows "Cowburguer", "Gold" and "Mazoca" were pichadas with suggestive phrases: "fetish", "is vegetarian" and "buy my pain."

Matheus Felipe Dias, student of the course design and creator of the University Fumec the cow "Mazoca" rather than be offended by the violation of his work, has an interesting reflection:

"I think these speeches very valid. A talent that passes an ideal is not a vandalism, is a way to pass your idea. If cows have the right to be in the streets, why people would not have the right to express through them? . "