The City of Waters: Art, Perceptions, and Historical–Geographical Studies on the Hydrographic Network of Belo Horizonte (Brazil)

Belo Horizonte is currently the sixth most populous city in Brazil, with approximately 2,315,560 inhabitants. Planned and built between 1894 and 1897 to be the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, occupying the territory of thirteen hydrographic sub-basins, all belonging to the sub-basin of the Arrudas stream, the city has been plagued by frequent floods since the 1920s. This was when the intervention process in the hydrographic network began, aiming to incorporate streams into the city’s layout. Due to the significant environmental impact and the processes that led to regular overflow occurrences in recent decades, without the full knowledge of a portion of the population that still supports channelization as the sole solution to the urban water issue, it became necessary to encourage a paradigm shift on the subject. In this context, an artist, who has been developing numerous artistic proposals since 2006 that highlight the existence of the hydrographic network in the city of Belo Horizonte, and a geographer, who has been conducting geographical-historical studies on the urban evolution process of Belo Horizonte since 2010, seek through their projects to contribute to breaking the paradigm of “controlling and hiding waters” in the urban environment. Among the results obtained, the works carried out by “Curral del Rey” and the projects “Sobre o Rio” and “Entre rios e ruas” influenced the emergence of various actions related to the watercourses of the capital. They also led to the publication of numerous books, exhibitions, interviews, and scientific publications that significantly reached a portion of the population regarding the need to consider possible alternatives for the urban rivers of Belo Horizonte in the face of the current climate changes.