Visibility and identity of São Paulo. Figurative-plastic rearrangements in the ressignification of the values

Abstract

Adopted in the early 20^th century until nowadays, the emblem of the city of São Paulo recaptures figurative and plastically the colonial values of its foundation and it can be found on the flag of the city, on the side structures of the means of public transportation, among other places. From the analysis of this emblem, this article examines a set of slogans and emblematic traces from which we can comprehend how the visibility of the megalopolis has been based on the values of leadership, dynamism, achievement, innovation and modernity. Concretized in the various figurative-plastic arrangements, these values define the thematic role of the city as a conductor of the municipality, the State and the Country. These figurative-plastic arrangements exhibit a never ready São Paulo, in continuous transformation and always moving on. From the recent slogan, São Paulo, a clean city! to the current one, São Paulo, a beautiful city!, this article reflects on how these calling for the aesthetic beauty ofSão Paulo shows, discursively, a city that prepares itself to be following its the thematic role. Those calling reiterates a resignified town from the same values shown in the ongoing rewriting preservation of its dynamic identity placed into media visibility to affect and the population and compromise it with makingSão Paulo together.