Hanging Out in Brasilia

When I got back to ECCO after helping to hang my show, I was told I had an hour to spare before lunch, and I decided to take a short walk. ECCO is in the SCN or Northern Commercial Sector on the edge of the central axis of the city (Eixo Monumental) around which all of the major public and commercial buildings are grouped.

Brasilia is Car City. Planned almost entirely around the idea of movement by car, with streets seen simply as routes. The guide books say it is too large to walk, which isn’t true. They say people don’t walk, ditto. Few people may stroll for pleasure as I was doing, but many were hurrying from A to B, usually taking the most direct route, often in the absence of paved routes cutting a path through grassed wastes, exposing the deep red soil as a violent gash in the city fabric.

I wish I’d had more time to explore and photograph. It was hot to walk in the sun (and I’d forgotten I’d need a hat, so my forehead was peeling a few days later) and it seemed very odd to be celebrating Christmas in mid-Summer weather. Though they have that all the year round in Brasilia.

I took a few pictures around the outside of two large shopping centres, and a few around the offices and waste areas between, then returned to the gallery.

Later, on the way to lunch, we stopped at a large and empty building in the SCS and while Karla was trying to sort things out I took some pictures from its balcony. One shows the Bank of Brazil and the other is looking roughly north, with a row of ministries at the right hand side. On the full size image there are roughly 20 people visible, either walking or standing around under the trees.


There are almost 20 people walking, standing under the trees and waiting for a bus.

I’ve chosen these images partly to be different to those I’ve already put on line on the pages of my pictures from Brasilia.

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