Crônicas da Necrópole 🪦
According to anthropology, burying our loved ones after they die is one of the things that constitutes our early culture, differentiating us from animals — it's what makes us human.
But while visiting the São Paulo Necropolis, all you see is a blatant disrespect for the dead. Tombs are broken in, cars are parked on the graves and it is in an overall state of depredation.
My response to this outrage was this project.
Crônicas da Necrópole, or Chronicles from the Necropolis, is a publication consisting of stories from the lives of 5 people resting in the cemitery in question. I researched their names on the internet and found statements from relatives and loved ones aswell as professional achievements and compiled them into this magazine.
Each person received a souvenir that speaks to their story: for music teacher Wilson, a music sheet stamped with a phrase often quoted by him. For Thereza, a vintage postcard of the park she loved to visit, stamped with lyrics of her favorite song. For João Alfredo, a picture of him and his 1930s revolutionary friends, marked with the slogan of their movement. For Anna, a pair of black gloves that she was said to always wear.
Posters with a brief introduction of the characters of the magazine were glued to the cemitery wall, some mundane, some more flamboyant, "Wilson played piano for Liza Minelli, João Alfredo was a coroner, Thereza listened to the radio everyday" and so on. The posters were accompanied by a link to a website where people could read more about each person.
This was my humble attempt to bring humanity back to what makes us human, reminding everyone that the cemitery is where real people reside for eternity, and that they are human themselves.
