Selarón Steps

Wikipedia describes Selarón as a Chilean-born painter and sculptor, born in 1947, who lived and worked in more than 50 countries before settling in Rio de Janeiro in 1983. In 1990 he began renovating dilapidated steps in front of his house, calling the work his tribute to the Brazilian people. He largely funded it by selling paintings.

The staircase has 215 steps and is described as 125 metres long. It is covered with more than 2,000 tiles from over 60 countries. Early tiles were scavenged from construction sites and urban waste, and later most were donated by visitors. About 300 tiles were hand-painted by Selarón, showing a pregnant African woman.

Selarón chose blue, green and yellow, the colours of the Brazilian flag, for the initial work, a choice that his neighbours reportedly mocked. The steps run from Joaquim Silva and Pinto Martins streets, officially Manuel Carneiro Street, and the work later extended to steps at the foot of the Arcos da Lapa.

Selarón regarded the project as never complete and said it would end only on the day of his death. He was found dead on the steps on 10 January 2013. Wikipedia notes that he claimed to have sold more than 25,000 portraits since 1977, though this is unverified.

The steps have appeared in music videos including Michael Jackson's They Don't Care About Us, directed by Spike Lee, and U2's Walk On, as well as in Rio's 2016 Olympic bid video and in several editions of the television series The Amazing Race.

The staircase is less a single artwork than a long, evolving collage. Each donated tile carries a connection to a country or a visitor, so the steps work as a kind of record of the people who have passed through Rio, which is how Selarón himself framed the project. The neighbourhoods at either end add context: Lapa is known for its arches and nightlife, while Santa Teresa climbs the hill above, and the steps link the two. Because the work was always evolving, the exact appearance of any section can differ from older photographs and descriptions.

The staircase sits between Lapa, with its arches and nightlife, and the hillside neighbourhood of Santa Teresa, so it is often combined with walks in both areas. A private driver can handle the approach, and a guide can help place the steps within the neighbourhood's history.