Morar Olimpíadas shot between 2014 and 2016 shows the rapid urban transformation of Rio de
Janeiro as
the city prepared to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The cost of hosting a
games has risen 200,000% since the first in 1896. The official estimate for Rio 2016 is
$12 billion including infrastructure projects. These construction processes typically
transpire behind tall walls, blockades, and barriers. As such, they are difficult, if not
impossible, to appreciate, let alone access from ground level. These vertical aerial
images, which often take on a graphic, abstract appearance, offer not only a new
perspective of the scale of construction and development in Rio, but also simultaneously
highlight the social inequality that the Games brings. Morar Olimpíadas shows how the
Olympic monolith imprints itself on to a host city and raises the question: for whom does
Olympic development benefit?
