Gustavo Piqueira

Sao Paulo (SP)

São Paulo, Cidade Limpa

[Sao Paulo, Clean City], 2007

“From now on, each establishment is allowed to have on its façade only one sign bearing all the necessary information to the public. Moreover, the sign must have a maximum size as determined according to the property width facing the street.” This excerpt, taken from the City of Sao Paulo guidebook, summarizes part of the Lei Cidade Limpa [Clean City Act], which was made effective in early 2007. With a mixture of actual pictures and fiction texts, Piqueira showed the solutions that shop owners in Sao Paulo adopted in the first days of that law enforcement to avoid paying the penalty for illegal advertisement. From a biased perspective, he shed light on the mitigating content of the law which, by focusing on regulating the business landscape, forgot that the city image is also composed of other significant layers.

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