Selaron Steps

Jorge Selaron, a Chilean painter who settled in Rio, began tiling the steps outside his house in Lapa in 1990 as a private project and kept going for the rest of his life, covering two hundred and fifteen steps with something over two thousand tiles collected from more than a hundred and twenty countries, many of them sent by visitors who had seen the work. He financed it by selling paintings, replaced tiles constantly, and described it as never finished. Red dominates, with a recurring painted figure of a pregnant African woman that he never fully explained. Selaron was found dead on the steps in 2013 in circumstances that were never satisfactorily resolved. The staircase is now city heritage, and the tiles continue to be repaired and replaced.

History

In 1990 the Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón began to renovate the run-down steps in front of his house, covering them in fragments of blue, green and yellow tile, the colours of the Brazilian flag, while his neighbours laughed at his choice. What began as a side project to his painting became an obsession, which he paid for by selling paintings, until the whole staircase was covered in tiles, ceramics and mirrors, his tribute, as he put it, to the Brazilian people (Wikipedia, Escadaria Selarón).

What you'll find

• 215 tiled steps - covered over more than twenty years by one man.
• Tiles from 120 countries - sent by visitors and set into the work.
• A recurring painted figure - the image Selaron never fully explained.
• A work he called unfinished - constantly replaced and never completed.

When to go

All year. An hour, going early to avoid the crowd and the queue for photographs.

Good to know

It is small, extremely busy from mid-morning, and photographing it without other people is essentially impossible after nine. Lapa around it needs normal city caution, more so after dark. Vendors and self-appointed guides are persistent.

Nearby

The Lapa arches are a few minutes down; Santa Teresa is up the hill.

Key facts