december 2012 - pirelli · the government led by dilma rousseff has decided to invest in...

2No. 63 — December 2012

No. 63DECEMBER 2012

Pirelli worldwide magazine

Antônio Carlos “Tom” Jobim


Contents

Published byPirelli & C. SpACorporate Communication and Media Relations

Editorial CoordinatorMaurizio AbetDirectorBarbara LightwoodEditor-in-ChiefSimona Gelpi

Editorial officeViale P. e A. Pirelli, 25 - Milano [email protected]

English text editorWilliam CrerarGraphicsLeftloft — www.leftloft.comPrintingGraphicscalve S.p.a.

Registrazione Tribunale di Milanon. 494 del 24.9.1994

Printed on Arcoset paper

No. 63 — December 2012

www.pirelli.com

CQ-COC-000018

Pirelli worldwide magazine

Brazil gears up

Building the new Brazil

No fear of the future

Cities of God and Men

Shooting Rio

From Italy to Brazil... and back

Bruno Senna and Brazil: full speed ahead

Earth summit

Brazil is the real automotive El Dorado

Travelling side by side for over 80 years

The art of collecting

Exporting creativity

2 PIRELLI WORLD

João Wainer. Cidade, 2005 - São Paulo, SPthe Pirelli/MASP photography Collection


s the world’s sixth-largest economy and its fifth-largest country in terms both

of geographical area and popula-tion, boasting robust public finances, Brazil is playing an increasingly significant role on the global stage.Enormous, rich, multiethnic, contradictory, growing and changing. That, in short, is modern-day Brazil: one of the few nations in the world that has continued to grow even in the year of the European debt crisis, with an estimated +1.6% growth in GDP in 2012 compared to last year and a wealth of natural resources that give grounds for optimism about the future.It’s also a strategic country for Pirelli, where there is a special bond between company and nation, a bond that has gone from strength to strength over our 83 years of shared history. Pirelli has its “roots” in Brazil: it is the market leader and boasts a considerable industrial presence, with the highest number of factories in a single nation. The five Brazilian plants produce the entire range of Pirelli tyres (motorbike, car, SUV, light and heavy commercial vehicles, and agricultural vehicles) as well as steel cord. It’s a constantly evolving, continually growing market, where the Pirelli brand has been “top of mind” for a full 10 years and where one in two new cars is fitted with our tyres. It’s also the area where the Premium

strategy is registering its greatest increase, accompanying the growth of high-end vehicles, a testament to the country’s recent evolution.

The continuous economic growth of recent years is not the only sign of Brazil’s remarkable transforma-tion from a developing country at the end of the 80s to an important BRIC nation today. There’s also the finding of recent demographic surveys that over 30% of the Brazilian population has shifted social class in the last few years.Over 60 million Brazilians (equivalent to the entire Italian population) reported an increase in earnings between 2005 and 2011 that allowed them to improve their standard of living. In most cases that meant joining what is defined as class C, the middle class with a monthly income of R$ 1,450 (around €600), currently repre-sented by over 100 million people, 54% of Brazil’s population. Another

25% of the population remain in the lower social classes, while the remainder make up the wealthiest social class, which includes numerous millionaires.This conspicuous transformation is clearly visible in Brazil’s main cities, where shopping malls have replaced old abandoned sites and the presence of the main global luxury brands has grown expo-nentially. Rio de Janeiro is a resounding case in point: it will play host to the most important international events of the coming years, such as the Confederation Cup in 2013, the football World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later. But its true vocation is as an “oil capital”, with recent deep sea discoveries and impressive investment plans attracting the world’s major oil and gas compa-nies to the “Marvellous City”.Infrastructure transformation is already in progress, one of the most significant projects being the redevelopment of the old docks area - now called “Porto Maravilha” - along the lines of what was done in Barcelona in 1992. It’s also an important area for Pirelli, an area that symbolises the transforma-tion and the one chosen to present the 2013 Pirelli Calendar. Dedicated to Brazil and the success of its socio-economic metamorphosis, the calendar was shot in Rio de Janeiro by American photo-jour-nalist Steve McCurry and features a set of images taken in locations that bear witness to Rio’s social transformation in recent years.

Enormous, rich, multiethnic, contradictory, growing and changing

Paolo Dal PinoExecutive Chairman Latin America Pirelli

Brazil gears up

Tuca Vieira. Paraisópolis, 2004 - São Paulo, SP the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

By Gea Scancarello

5No. 63 — December 2012 5

even thousand five hundred kilometres of new roads, over ten thousand kilometres of railway, plus ports,

airports, underground railways: an investment of 65.6 billion dollars in total: from Rio to Fortaleza, by way of São Paulo and Porto Alegre, Brazil is one big building site.The government led by Dilma Rousseff has decided to invest in infrastructure to sustain the growth which, over the last decade, has turned the country into the world’s second emerging power after China. The operation is no mere makeover, it has real sub-stance. It’s all about eliminating the bottle-necks which, after twenty years of runaway develop-ment, are now slowing the Brazil-ian juggernaut down. And which could, as the global economy grad-ually recovers from the effects of

the European crisis and American uncertainty, hold it back compared to its giant Asian competitors.The first indications of a slowdown are already visible: after growing 7.5% in 2010, Brazil’s wealth in-creased by just 2.7% in 2011, and that figure is set to dwindle to just 2% in 2012.“This has to be the moment for reforms,” explains José Scheink-man, professor of Economics at Princeton University, co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy and Brazilian by birth. “Analysts expect Brazil to make a strong re-covery in 2013, but internal obstacles to development must first be removed.”

What are these obstacles? The process of profound change that began in the 90s, with the advent of democracy, is starting to show a few cracks.

An interview with José

Scheinkman, professor

of Economics at Princeton

University, co-editor of the

Journal of Political Economy

and Brazilian by birth

6 PIRELLI WORLD6

Such as?At that time, along with the trans-formation of politics and society, the economy began to recover, supported by reforms. After twenty years, how-ever, those reforms have stalled: we need to breathe new life into them.

How?The formula is simple enough, at least on paper. On one hand, certain industries and services need to be privatised; on the other, there has to be a focus on infrastructure invest-ment. From many points of view, in terms of transport and logistics, the country is still massively behind.

In August, president Dilma Rouseff announced 65.6 billion dollars of investments.There isn’t enough money in the State coffers for all the work that is needed. To get the economy back in gear, the government is obliged to put its faith in private investors, even though that’s not traditionally a left-wing solution.

The sale of concessions for twelve railways and nine motorways is already scheduled.The country is facing a challenge: to

ensure growth the whole system has to be renovated. Selling concessions is not enough: there must be clear rules for development. Investors complain about the lack of a frame-work of regulations and assistance which they can rely on when they decide to do business in Brazil.

Explain what you mean.Doing business in Brazil can be too expensive. Foreign investors, which the country badly needs, have to deal with duties and licenses whose motivation is often more political than economical.

Why?Partly because of the power of the lob-bies. A good example is the automobile lobby, which is extremely influential on the country’s politico-economic scene. Broadly speaking, after Presi-dent Ignacio Lula’s first term there was a push for protectionism.

A way of nurturing domestic champions?Probably, but it has counter-produc-tive effects: over the long term it makes the nation lose wealth rather than gain it. We mustn’t be afraid to look to the future.

For sustained growth Brazil has to open up its market?And its universities.

Meaning?For a long time it’s been very difficult for anyone who hasn’t had a career within the federal universities to get tenure or a research post. They have not been open to foreigners.

Intellectual protectionism?Yes, in the past it was like that. But now Brazil is paying a penalty. Technology is one of the sectors that has paid the highest price for this lack of external input: the entry of major global players was blocked to protect the domestic industry. Now the numbers speak for themselves.

What do they say?The number of patents is very low. And that’s the best example of the difference between Brazil and the rest of the so-called BRICs. If you take India and China, for example, you’ll see how much they have fo-cused on the high-tech sector, im-porting know-how and ideas, which then flow into domestic industry as a whole.

On the positive side, then, there is an enormous margin for growth.Yes, and the first step is to open cen-tres of research and industry, under foreign guidance if necessary. That’s a big difference between Brazil and the United States or Asia: we haven’t yet got into the habit of importing the best minds.

What’s the second step? Education: we’ve got to invest in schools. In a high-quality educa-tion for all.

90% of Brazilians already go to school.True, and that is one of the successes of ex-president Lula’s social cam-paigns, which should be continued.

Tuca Vieira. Largo de Concórdia, 2005 - São Paulo, SPthe Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

7No. 63 — December 2012 7

What else needs to be done to ensure growth?Wealth needs to be better distrib-uted. The economic boom and the social policies of recent years have lifted millions of people out of hunger, but there are still appalling differ-ences in the distribution of income.

But for the first time, there is a middle class, and it’s growing.Yes, and this has a marked impact on consumption. The real phenom-enon of modern-day Brazil is access to credit: up until a few years ago it was impossible to get a loan from the banks. But today, almost anyone can have a credit card.

Is there a risk of a bubble?No, because the phenomenon is rela-tively recent and the central bank is doing a good job of monitoring it. For the moment, however, it’s an entirely positive phenomenon, which will contribute to the country’s growth.

The forthcoming Olympics and World Cup could also provide a significant boost.Yes, but we should be cautious with

our optimism. Experience has taught that these mega-events only work as a stimulus if they succeed in trans-ferring investments from the rest of the country to the areas involved, otherwise they create debts.

For example?The Barcelona Olympics were an economic success because the whole of Spain concentrated its investments on the region in a profitable way. But in Montreal, for example, they are still trying to pay off the debts undertaken by the government to pay for the infrastructure.

How will it go in Brazil?In Rio de Janeiro, the hub of it all, the infrastructure is extremely poor, so there are lots of useful things that can be done. And the country is currently full of optimism, because the improve-ment in quality of life conditions has been amazing for millions of people.

So there’s a desire to act?Yes. And there’s work too: unemploy-ment, despite the slowdown in 2012, is decreasing. The road to development is long, but the signs are good.

The emergent powers par excellence are those identified with

the acronym BRIC, which then became BRICS with the addition of South Africa, and appeared for the first time in 2001 in a report by Goldman Sachs. Centres of economy are, therefore, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Source: World Bank, Financial Times

BRAZIL NUMBERS

GDP Growth Unemployment Work Force 2012

Infrastructure investments 2012

+7.5%2010

6.7%2010

104.7million people

65.7billion dollars

+2.7%2011

6%2011

+2%2012 (forecast)

5.5%2012 (forecast)

+4%2013 (forecast)

José Alexandre Scheinkman

was born on January 11, 1948. He is

a Brazilian-American mathematical

economist, currently the Theodore

A. Wells ‘29 Professor of Economics

at Princeton University. He spent the

bulk of his career at the University of

Chicago, where he served as depart-

ment chair prior to his departure

for Princeton. He was columnist for

the top Brazilian newspaper Folha

de São Paulo and was also the top

economic adviser to the failed presi-

dential campaign of Ciro Gomes.

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Brazil: a country that loves to

spend. Parsimony is not part

of the national DNA. “There

is a historic reason” explains

Luis Paulo Rosenberg, an

economist from São Paolo

who has for many years

offered guidance to central

governments


ome would call them irresponsible, but Bra-zilians prefer to describe themselves as optimis-tic. Fear of the future

and parsimony are not part of the national DNA: even when it means choosing between saving or spend-ing (almost) every last cent.

Now the country’s 195 million inhab-itants, encouraged by over 30 years of economic growth and a young but robust democracy, have discovered “consumer mania”: a genuine love of spending which, elsewhere in the world, would be regarded with suspicion.

«There is a historic reason», explains Luis Paulo Rosenberg, an economist from São Paolo who has for many years offered guidance to central governments, first as president João Figueiredo’s advisor for energy in-vestments and then as economic advisor to president José Sarney. «For 40 years, Brazil was afflicted by soaring inflation: the erosion of purchasing power was such that spending money on tangible goods was the wisest choice a Brazilian could make», continues Rosenberg, who was also the country’s negotia-tor with the International Monetary Fund and is now one of the founders of Brazilian consultancy firm Rosen-berg Partners. «The overall economic situation has changed, but not the attitude to spending. On the contrary, it is spreading like wildfire».

Did the elimination of inflation create a middle class of happy consumers?Absolutely. But to understand what really happened, and how, it is neces-sary to take a step back and under-stand our Jeitinho.

What does that mean?It is a Brazilian expression which means finding your own way of doing things, muddling through, bypass-ing formal rules.

What has it got to do with the middle class?For almost 40 years, Brazil swallowed up all salaries and savings; they were massacred by inflation. There were some months, before 1994, where it reached 90%...

And..?By virtue of the Jeitinho, we did not actually have the will or the need to face the problem for a long time. Instead we created a compromise; we built a system of automatic price adjustment that allowed us to carry on. But each month up to 50% of one’s salary could be eroded by inflation, creating one of the worst income distributions in the world. During the 80s, there were only three countries with a more unjust distribution. Saving was basically impossible and meaningless for the lower classes, who had no access to sophisticated forms of investment. So they had to spend before their purchasing power

was destroyed by inflation. Then what happened?In 1994 we established a program of reforms that seriously tackled the problem, cutting public debt, elimi-nating automatic price adjustments and increasing real annual interest rates for consumers up to 40%. Do you know what this means?

Tell us. It means that it was almost im-possible to get credit, as it was too expensive, which discouraged consumption. So spending was no longer convenient.

So, there was a sort of short-circuit. First everybody spent eve-rything and then nothing at all.Exactly.

Anyway, today the country is booming.And interest rates have finally dropped; they still remain among the highest in the world, around 20%, but they are falling. And they have enabled the nation to discover the joy of credit.

The joy of the new middle class.In Brazil the instinctive inclination

Julio Bittencourt. Séries Prestes Meia, 2006 São Paulo, SPthe Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

10 PIRELLI WORLD

towards purchasing is reinforced by the availability of credit: we calculate that new consumers are spending about 85% of their salary.

What are they buying?The first phase of consumption con-sists of non-durable goods. Those who finally have some money want better nutrition and an Internet connection. Then we move on to durable goods such as fridges, tele-visions and furniture…

And cars?The car is the true object of desire. Motor shows drive entire cities crazy. Everyone dreams of a Ferrari even if they can only afford a Fiat.

How many high-end consumers are there in the country?There are about 800,000 Brazilians who are considered rich, who have always engaged with the luxury market and dedicated 40% of their salaries to it. But remember: Brazil-

ians have such a high inclination to consume that the middle class here buys what in other countries would be considered luxury goods.

What do you mean by luxury goods?Jewellery, fashion, restaurants, even helicopters. Travelling abroad, on the other hand, still remains the preserve of a small group of people.


Which are the winning brands?Brazil is such a voracious market that every brand has arrived here, adjusting products and distribution methods to the local environment. However some influences are stron-ger than others.

For example?Italy. The city of São Paolo is tradition-ally very close to Italy. There was a famous joke about half of the inhabit-ants being the children of Italians.

And the other half?Italians!

Has this helped shape consumer tastes?Yes: everything that is Italian is conceived as elegant, refined and having a strong identity. The main national newspaper carried out a survey among its readers asking them to indicate the best brands present in the country. The top ten included Pirelli, even though it is not a brand that lavishly promotes its own identity. And among males, Pirelli is number one among the “top of mind” brands!

How do trends develop?Television has tremendous power. Especially soap operas. There are two of them, one broadcast at 6pm and the other at 9pm. They are so important and watched by so many that they can even get soccer matches postponed.

Do they dictate fashion?Not only that, they dictate the rules of consumption. Everything that appears on TV, from a nail varnish to a dress, immediately becomes a must. They act as a spotlight that illuminates certain products and makes them essential.

How long can this hunger for spending last in Brazil?According to some studies consump-tion will continue to grow for at least ten years, at an annual rate of 7%. Faster than the GDP growth.

How is something like this possible?Such are the miracles of credit. Until now it was non-existent. And Brazil basically had no private debt. But now that credit exists, society is hungry for consumption. G.S.

Luis Paulo Rosenberg, Graduated

in Economics from the Faculdade

de Economia, Administração e Con-

tabilidade da Universidade de São

Paulo – FEA/USP (School of Economy,

Administration and Accounting from

University of São Paulo), he obtained

a Ph.D. in the same area from Vander-

bilt University in Tennessee, USA. He

is a professor at Instituto Tecnológico

de Aeronáutica – ITA (Technological

Institute of Aeronautics) and has

lectured at Fundação Getulio Vargas

(Getulio Vargas Foundation) and

at Universidade de Brasília – UnB

(University of Brasília).

He was superintendent of the IPEA

Research Institute and advisor to

Minister Delfim Netto during the

government of President João Figue-

iredo, being responsible for energy

sector investment management. He

was also a member of the Govern-

ment’s negotiation team for the IMF.

Later, he was an economic advisor to

President José Sarney.

In the private sector, he was vice

president of the Machline Group

Holding (Sharp, SID and Digibanco),

superintendent of the Lavra Group,

and associate director of Linear

Investimentos. Nowadays, he is the

president of Rosenberg & Associa-

dos, associate director of Rosenberg

Partners and, since 1999, has been a

member of the Nestlé Administrative

Council. He is an economic commen-

tator for various radio programs and

newspapers in Brazil, such as Folha

de S.Paulo, Rádio Eldorado and Carta

Capital magazine.

Aristides Alves. Garimpeiro no Mercado Municipal, 1993 - Lençóis, BA the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

12 PIRELLI WORLD

Steve McCurry, Pirelli Calendar 2013


Uruguayan by birth and Brazilian by adoption, with Genovese blood in his veins, 72-year-old Héctor Vigliecca is a university professor and one of Brazil’s most renowned architects, having won more than 40 prizes all over the world. After graduat-ing in Montevideo, he headed for Rome, where he spent four years studying for a Masters degree at the Università degli Studi.“I arrived in 1968 after winning a scholarship. They were very dif-ficult years; the demonstrations and protests had spread from Paris all over Europe, the situation in the universities was complicated, there were strikes and lectures were cancelled. But there was no need to study architecture, you could learn it just by living in Italy. Italy is one big architectural monument.”From 1974, the superstar architect Vigliecca moved to São Paulo. And for the World Cup in 2014, his studio Vigliecca&Associados, founded in 1996 with Luciene Quel, has designed the Castelão Stadium in Fortaleza and the Baixada Arena in Curitiba among other projects. We asked him to take us on a guided tour of this changing country, its hopes and its problems.

By Andrea Torrente

Transforming

the urban landscape

An interview with Héctor Vigliecca, one of Brazil’s most renowned architects, who has won more than 40 prizes all over the world

14 PIRELLI WORLD

“Brazil is an unfinished building site. You get the sensation of being in a country in constant transformation”

In terms of town planning and ar-chitecture, how is Brazil changing?In the last ten years, Brazil’s architec-tural output has begun to approach the level of other countries. This is due to the favourable economic situation, but also to politicians who have understood that architecture is an extremely important weapon for branding an administration.

Brazil’s cities have undergone major transformations. São Paulo alone has almost 11 million inhab-itants. And the urban outlook is continuing to evolve.It’s a slow process: in the 60s, Brazil-ian cities began to expand out of all proportion. Gigantic favelas (shan-tytowns) emerged in the outskirts. Today the real problem is the lack of infrastructure and public transport. Population growth has not been ac-companied by investment in public transport, airports and railways. But the situation is changing, albeit slowly.

In view of the World Cup and the Olympics, billions of dollars have been earmarked for infrastruc-ture investments. Yes, but it’s still inadequate com-pared to the size of the population. I doubt the problem will be solved by 2014. First and foremost because there is no interconnected transport system, like in Europe. There are few motorways, the airports are small and they are not connected to either the train stations or the underground lines; railways are practically non-existent, and if you

have to travel by aeroplane you need to get to the airport three hours early because there’s too much traffic.

Nevertheless, Brazil currently gives the impression of being an enormous building site, where new solutions are being tried out. Is it really like that?Sure, although Brazil is an unfinished building site. You get the sensation of being in a country in constant transformation. On one hand that’s clearly interesting, but on the other hand it creates a feeling of instability.



You designed the re-urbanisation of the favelas Paraisópolis and Heliópolis in São Paulo and Mor-ro dos Macacos in Rio de Janeiro. How are the favelas changing?To begin with, the favelas of São Paulo are different from those in Rio de Janeiro. In São Paulo you don’t notice their presence because they are marginal compared to the rest of the city. But in Rio they are an integral part of the urban fabric, they are inside the city boundaries.

Are they a problem for future urban development?No, on the contrary. They are still Brazil’s beating heart, the “melting pot” where the country’s culture de-velops. Most of the population here is less than 16 years old and the birth rate is still growing by 14% a year.

Will they become one of the country’s strengths?The populations that live in these districts are becoming more aware and starting to organise themselves. These days in the favelas you find local newspapers, radio stations, local television; in one favela in Rio there’s even a symphony or-chestra: that creates a very strong sense of citizenship. In any case, the last few years have seen an important political change: from being merely a social problem, the favelas have begun to be perceived as an architectural problem. Nowa-days people come from all over the world to study them. They are our best export!

Meanwhile Rio is giving itself a new look to face the millions of tourists who will be arriving in the next two years.Rio is traditionally the city that first became aware of its problems and tried to solve them. The proposal to transform all the favelas arose from a public competitive tender. What’s more, Rio has a personality that makes change and integration

easier. For example, every Sunday the seafront is transformed into a big urban party where all the different social groups meet, from the richest to the poorest. At that moment the whole population feels like it owns a part of the city: a spatial condition that other cities don’t have.

So all in all, despite some criti-cisms, the country is ready for the big events coming its way?Brazil has a tradition of organis-

ing big events and I’m sure it will be capable of organising an out-standing World Cup and Olympics. It will be a big success. Of course, there will be problems, like there are anywhere in the world. The sta-diums will certainly be ready, the infrastructure less so, but nothing that might endanger the smooth running of the events. The real tragedy for Brazil would be losing the final of the World Cup, maybe against Uruguay, like happened in 1950 at the Maracanã.

Héctor Vigliecca

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The creator of the fortieth edition of “The Cal™” is Steve McCurry, one of the world’s best known

photojournalists, who has success-fully depicted Brazil’s social and economic transformation in recent years, through the beauty and colours that represent the soul of this South American country. Steve McCurry has been travelling and taking pho-tographs for almost forty years. He is constantly alert, focusing like a hawk on the reality of things, ready to find humanity in every image. For proof, we need look no further than the famous photo of the green-eyed Afghan girl, now a contemporary icon. In the course of a two-week shoot in the streets and favelas of Rio, Mc-Curry undertook one of his fascinating journeys in search of man, journeys characterised by his ability to cross the boundaries of language and culture to capture the stories, experiences and

attributes of people in distant lands. In the 2013 Pirelli Calendar, the story includes faces sketched with simple graffiti, ordinary people and models who, in this edition of “The Cal™”, are all united by their commitment to support NGOs, foundations and humanitarian projects.We interviewed McCurry, who de-scribes himself as follows. “I would say that I’m a street photographer who depicts ‘found situations’. You can take pictures of nudes anywhere. But these models are clothed, and each of them is personally involved in charity work. They are determined, idealistic people. That’s why I wanted to photograph them somewhere spe-cial, and Rio was the perfect choice.”

This is not your first time in Brazil. Could you tell us about the other times you have found yourself in the golden-green continent? What affects you every time and what changes

have you noticed now that you have come back?I’ve been to Brazil a few times on vari-ous editorial assignments. Perhaps the most memorable visit was a trip to Rio during Carnival, which gave me a chance to see how the entire city comes alive with music, dancing and partying all night long. I remember staying out and photographing un-til four in the morning, and the fes-tivities were still going strong.One of the major differences on this trip was visiting many of the fave-las in and around Rio. On previous visits, it was unheard of to go there, even with an armed security escort. This time, we actually went in and did several of our shoots in a favela, unescorted. We photographed in a well-known bed & breakfast which has gotten many glowing write-ups in international travel magazines. The vantage-point from the favelas, because they are up so high, makes them some of the best places to see Rio.

By Simona Gelpi

An interview with Steve McCurry, one of the world’s best known photojournal ists who has realized this edition of the “The Cal™”


Rio de Janeiro is the special setting for the pictures: from historic districts like Santa Teresa to the favelas, home to one and a half million people, not forget-ting the pervasive intrusion of nature into the landscape of this iconic Brazilian city. What inspired you most?One of the fascinating aspects of Rio is the city’s many different fac-ets. There are the famous beaches which we all know. There are also world-class botanical gardens, which we actually photographed in. Within minutes of downtown Rio, you can be in a tropical rainfor-est, and have the feeling you are a thousand miles from civilisation. The geography of the city makes for some spectacular opportunities for photography - landscapes like nowhere else in the world. Brazil has its own style. It’s full of life and charm. Music, food, art and dance are all embraced and celebrated

as a part of Brazilian life. For ex-ample, Brazil has taken even the art of graffiti to a whole new level. I don’t think there is any place in the world that comes close to its range of imagery, its level of art-istry, or its originality and beauty. The Brazilians have an incredible way of turning the mundane into something quite profound.We found the local people welcom-ing, hospitable and fun to work with. There were many new sports centres, which we visited and pho-tographed, including a boxing gym where we photographed young female athletes. These are all signs that Brazil is clearly a country un-dergoing some positive changes, with a lot of new opportunities for upward mobility.

Although you are a travel report-er, you always try to interpret the places you photograph through human faces. How did Brazilian faces affect you?One of the wonderful qualities of Brazil, and the Brazilian people, is the amazing vibrancy to be found everywhere in the culture. People

from all strata of society approach even the most mundane tasks with a joie de vivre that is simply infec-tious. I am always more interested in the people that make the place than the place itself, and in Brazil that is truer than ever. They are warm and inviting, energetic, friendly, and you can’t help but get carried away in the unique quality of life that is so pervasive in Brazil in general, and in Rio in particular.

In your pictures did you want to bring out the backdrop of Bra-zil or were you concentrating more on the faces you were photographing? Did you let Brazil’s untamed natural beauty inspire you or did you start with a clear idea already in mind?I think the character of the city of Rio is a very important element in this project. Few places have so much personality, such vibrancy and energy, as Rio de Janeiro. There is a fascinating sort of juxtaposition between moder-nity and history, the natural world and the urban, order and chaos - Rio is a city of opposites and contrasts, but somehow that all converges and works in a sort of beautiful harmony. There is truly no place on Earth like Rio, and this project could not have been realised in quite the same way anywhere else.

Steve McCurry with Tunisian top model Hanaa Ben Abdesslem


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The driver Carlo Pintacuda with Enzo Ferrari at the 1935 Mille Miglia


n Brazilian motor racing jargon, drivers with a reputation for being a little crazy were once known as “pintacudas”.

Indeed, Carlo Pintacuda needed only three back-to-back victories in the Brazilian Grand Prix - all with Alfa Romeo, in 1936, 1937 and 1938 - to become a kind of nation-al hero imported from Italy. And naturally, he did it all on Pirelli Stella Bianca tyres. Pintacuda’s first win on Brazilian

soil was on the San Pablo circuit, with the Alfa 8C, but the real triumph came the following two years, when the Florentine driver emerged victorious at Rio - with the Alfa 9C in 1937 and with the 308 in 1938 - at the deadly Gávea Circuit, tellingly known as the “devil’s springboard”….

Devil or no devil, it was thanks to Pirelli tyres that Pintacuda - often under torrential rain - always managed to finish first and build

his Brazilian reputation as a “winning madman”.Juan Manuel Fangio was wearing his usual expression, somewhere between a stare and a scowl, in the photo that portrayed him in the March 1958 issue of “Notícias Pirelli”, Pirelli’s corporate publica-tion in Brazil. The headline was “Fangio victorious in Interlagos”, and the article explained how the five-times world champion and his Maserati had won the Interla-gos race, promoted by the Brazilian

The Gávea Circuit in 1936

By Daniele Pirola

20 PIRELLI WORLD

Automobile Club to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its found-ing. At the end of the race, Fangio “sang the praises of the Pirelli Corsa tyres with which his power-ful car was fitted”.

For Pirelli tyres, the Fifties and Sixties were filled with victories in the Brazilian races: the heroes were the Extraflex “raiado” and the Stelvio, which in 1957 enabled the Fulgor-Especial of Celso Lara Bar-beris and Rugero Peruzzo to take the 500 Quilômetros de Interlagos while - on the same circuit - the Chevrolet of Aristides Bertuol and Orlando Menegaz won the Mil Milhas Brasileiras.

But the team was soon joined by the CinturatoTM, which in 1960 found a winning partner in the debutant Alfa Romeo FNM JK - jewel of the Brazilian automobile industry. In Fangio in “Notícias Pirelli”, 1958

A Pirelli advertisement in a 1967 edition of the company newspaper Noticias


April, the JK - “sporting Pirelli’s new CinturatoTM tyre” - won the J.K. Grand Prix Motor Race - its name coming from the initials of the president of the Republic, Juscelino Kubitschek - which officially inau-gurated the new capital Brasília. In July, the Cinturado-FNM pairing imposed itself on the 24 Horas de Interlagos. In November, the legend-ary Francisco “Chico” Landi took it upon himself to win the Mil Milhas Brasileiras with the same old JK: “the victory of a car fitted with our regular tyres, produced in Capuava”.

So the Pirelli CinturatoTM left a per-manent mark on motor racing in every corner of Brazil, from the Cem Milhas da Independência on the Mineirão circuit of Belo Horizonte to the Grande Prêmio do Nordeste in Fortaleza, and from the Com-petição Automobilistica del Paranà to the Semana da Velocidade di In-terlagos. In 1966 alone, Pirelli tyres won over 93 percent of races. While the rest of Brazil was whistling “A Banda” by Chico Buarque de Hol-landa, the PR Office had a field day saying that the Pirelli tyre is the only one that doesn’t stop to watch the “banda” go by... in the Thirties, the Italian Pinta-cuda went to race in Brazil. In the Forties, the Brazilian Landi came

to race and win in Italy. Francisco “Chico” Landi, “the predecessor of Fittipaldi, Piquet and Senna”, in 1987 looked out at us from the pages of Via-CinturatoTM - the new name of the Brazilian company newspaper - at the age of 80. He told us his story, the story of a Brazilian me-chanic -the son of immigrants Pas-quale and Antonietta Landi - with a passion for cars and racing in his blood, “to the point where his name became a symbol of bravery at the wheel”. While he was winning in Brazil, he was noticed by Alfa Romeo. But the Second World War

was about to break out, so Chico had to wait until 1947 to come to Italy, just to get a close look at the Monza circuit, the temple of speed, not to compete with the Italian masters… but Chico stayed in Italy and the following year, 1948, he won the Gran Premio di Bari in a Ferrari. It was such a surprise that the or-ganisers did not even have a record of the Brazilian National Anthem, so they played “O Guarani” by Carlos Gomes instead….

Chico Landi was the first, but he was followed by others. Generations of Brazilian drivers, who were loved by Italians and especially by Pirelli. In 1985, Nelson Piquet smiled and pointed at his cap with the long ‘P’: he had just won the French Grand Prix in the Brabham with P7 tyres. “My happiness was nothing com-pared to that of my mechanics, the BMW people, Gordon Murray and all the “Pirellians”. I know what it feels like to win for the first time, to wait for victory for months and months, to feel that it’s right there at hand but it continues to elude

you. Then when it does come you can’t quite believe it.”

Ayrton Senna smiled too, and stared at a distant spot on the track. It was 1984 and he was a young test driver recruited by Toleman: his debut would come in the Brazilian Grand Prix in March of the same year. The Pirelli techni-cians noticed him immediately, saying: “This boy has quality. He could go far…”.

Nelson Piquet, driver for Brabham-Pirelli, after his victory in the 1985 F1 French Grand Prix

“The Pirelli CinturatoTm left a permanent mark on motor racing in every corner of Brazil”

An exclusive interview with Bruno Senna, the Formula 1™ driver with the Williams team, who talks to us about his country, how Brazil has changed, his roots (he is Ayrton Senna’s nephew), and his experience in Formula 1™ this year

and Brazil: Full Speed Ahead!

What is it like being a Brazilian in Formula One™ these days, in particular given your family name and family history in motorsport? Brazil has a lot of history in For-mula One™, lots of followers and it is the second biggest sport in the country just behind football, so for sure there are plenty of knowledge-able fans. The country already had three motorsport world champions before and everybody wants to see the next one. It is great to see all this support from home and we also have a nice home grand prix that I and Felipe (Massa) love to participate in. It is pretty special to be part of a culture that loves motor racing so much.

By Simona Gelpi


When you are back in Brazil do people recognize you on the streets? And if so, what is their reaction? Depending on where I am, people do recognize me. They look at me and they know me but it is a bit strange because they won’t necessarily come and talk to me. Sometimes they just stand and look. I don’t know if this is the same for other people or not but it is definitely a slightly strange situation.

Can you give our readers a quick summary of how the season went for you? Are you happy with your results or could it have been better? You always believe you could have done better. And this year has been quite a tough learning curve for me with many little things I had to learn and to improve on. I have improved a lot in many aspects and learned a lot, so to treat Formula One™ as a one-year affair is obvi-ously not the right way because you always learn more and more, you improve more and more. This year I had to start almost from zero because this was my first full season in Formula OneTM and I had to push very hard. Some races could have been better but in general I am happy with my race performance this year and we have been getting stronger and stronger.

How did you manage to adapt to the Pirelli tyres? Was it easy for you or did they give you lots of challenges and headaches? The tyres were definitely the big-gest challenge of the whole learn-ing curve. I think they are very peculiar to drive and it suits some driving styles more than others, so if you are not in the circle of driv-ing styles that suit the tyres, you have to adapt which is very tough, especially when the margin is so small – we are talking about hun-dreds of a second of a margin here which will put you in or out of Q3.

So it has been a very big challenge but we got more and more on top of the tyres as the season went on. Next year we will have a few new tyre compounds and structures, so that could make it a bit broader in terms of driving styles.

Brazil is one of the biggest markets for Pirelli. Can you tell us a bit about the profile and public recognition of the company in Brazil?Pirelli is probably the best known brand in Brazil; I am not only talk-ing about tyres but about brands in general, where Pirelli is up there with names like Coca Cola etc. Pirelli has been in Brazil for a very long time and in the early 90s Pirelli was one of the only tyre brands in the country, so everybody knows Pirelli. It is a very trusted brand as well. We grew up with Pirelli and you know: a legend is born.

Have you seen any changes in Brazil in recent years? Not only in motorsports but in society in general?I have been living abroad for many years now, so when you go to Brazil you see things happening, how things are changing. For sure with all the changes in politics, Brazil has been shaping itself in a very different way. Brazil is growing up massively; it is becoming a huge power economically. But unfortu-nately for us the difference between the rich and the poor is becoming bigger as well. So it is up to you what you want to see and hopefully this situation will change in the future with a bit more time and education.

What do you love about Brazil? I love the culture, how friendly and warm people are and the fighting spirit that we have. And as a culture – in terms of hard work and dedica-tion – we are pretty much up there with the best.

Is there anything you would change about your country if you could?I would love Brazil not to have vio-lence in the way it has, this would probably make it the nicest coun-try to go to. You would then get the warmth of the people, the beautiful nature and all the nice things this country has to offer you without any concerns at the back of your mind and this would be amazing.

It is pretty special to be part of a culture that loves motor racing so much

24 PIRELLI WORLD

Expectations were enormous. If only because Rio+20, the environmental conference of June 2012, came 20 years after the Earth Summit of 1992 that achieved such historic milestones as the Climate Change Con-vention, which led to the Kyoto Protocol and the “action plan for the environment” known as Agenda 21.Before the summit even began, however, the absence of important leaders like Barack Obama, David Cameron and Angela Merkel led many to predict a dearth of important decisions. The official document of the summit - 50 pages, 283 paragraphs and 6 sections - has a headline that is nonetheless full of hope (The future we want). And even though it has been criticised en masse by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and environmental organisations, it asserts for the first time the necessity of the green economy.

FIRST POINTThe first of the five points, the only one on which real progress was made, is the Green Economy. Whereas in the 1980s companies saw safeguarding the envi-ronment as just a cost, now it has become a business. The document specifies that the green economy should be aimed at eradicating poverty, with the main objective of bridging the technological gaps between developed and developing countries.China was the first to play its part, assigning 6 million dollars to the fund for the development of clean tech-nologies and another 31 million for climate adaptation in economically depressed areas.

SECOND POINTThe second point, the “Sustainable development goals”, signals the need for binding decisions on climate protection but postpones fixing any points until 2015.

In September, the UN General Assembly indicated a working group of 30 officials, which will have the task of defining the goals, with an appropriate approach to the three pillars of sustainable development (en-vironmental, social, economic) in a process of inter-governmental negotiation. Its proposals will be pre-sented in 2013.

THIRD POINTThe chapter on “Means of implementation” (in other words technology transfer, reform of trade policies and public aid for development), launched nother intergovernmental process - again under the control of the UN - which should lead to a strategy for the financing of sustainable development through a set of specific actions.

FOURTH POINTThis is about the “Institutional framework for sustain-able development”, which many hoped would lead to reform of UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program, which monitors climate change. The pro-posal of the European Union and many African coun-tries to transform the Program into a specialist Agency was blocked by the United States, China, Russia and India - the main producers of greenhouse gases. However UNEP will no longer be financed by voluntary contributions from the States but will have secure fi-nancial resources and representation from all members of the United Nations.

FIFTH POINTThe last of the main points in the text relates to “Re-sources”. It supports the strengthening of financial support for development through new partnerships but above all - and this is the real innovation - through private investment. This is “of vital importance”, ac-cording to the Italian Environment Minister Riccardo Clini, “to provide unprecedented opportunities in the battle against poverty and the transition to sustainable economic growth”. Many Italian companies are already committed on this front. And Pirelli was one of the first to respond.

Rio+20the future we wantis on the way

By Marco Todarello


On the right track

Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Develop-

ment held in Rio de Janeiro from 20 to 22 June 2012, was also an opportunity to restate Pirelli’s commitment to creat-ing a model for sustainable, efficient growth, in line with the sustainability objectives of the 2012-2014 Business Plan.One of the projects aims to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacture of tyres at the Campinas plant.Pirelli’s technicians will calculate the carbon footprint for the whole lifecycle of a representa-tive tyre produced in the plant, as well as identifying more sustainable and efficient actions

to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to its lifecycle.The carbon footprint calcula-tion will also be done for the bio-silica extracted from rice husks and produced in Pirelli’s Meleiro plant, in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.This innovative, eco-compatible process, developed by Pirelli, uses waste from rice process-ing to produce bio-silica, an essential component in the tyre compound with a lower environmental impact than silica produced using conven-tional methods.Another project involves technical and financial analysis relating to the introduction of solar thermal technology in some phases of the tyre

manufacturing process, to replace fossil fuel sources.Pirelli’s commitment to reduce its environmental impact led to an 8% reduction in energy consumption and CO

2 emis-

sions in 2011 compared to 2009, with 28% less specific water withdrawal.With over 80 years’ presence and nine thousand employees in Brazil, Pirelli now has five tyre manufacturing plants (Gravataí, Campinas, Santo André, Sumaré and Feira de Santana).Our environmental sustainabil-ity objectives include a reduc-tion of 15% in both energy consumption and CO

2 emis-

sions and a 70% reduction in specific water withdrawal by 2015, compared to 2009 levels.

Newton Mesquita. Faixa 1, Rua da Consolação, 1979

26 PIRELLI WORLD

Incentives, consumer anal-ysis and healthy competi-tion to sharpen the wits. The new promised land of the automobile, Brazil,

is moving to consolidate its leader-ship. And to expand a market that is already the fourth largest in the world by purchases, with bright growth forecasts. Over the course of a decade, the car industry has developed at the same rapid pace as the country itself: according to the National Associa-tion of Automobile Manufacturers (ANFAVEA), 16 foreign producers are knocking at Brazil’s door. With 195 million inhabitants and the world’s sixth largest economy, it offers op-portunities that are hard to find in the

major western markets, constrained by the crisis, especially in Europe.

Over 4 million vehicles in 2013A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows that sales for the year in prog-ress will be largely unchanged at 3.5 million vehicles compared to 3.4 mil-lion in 2011. But in 2013 they will pick up considerably, exceeding 4 million in 2014 and reaching 4.9 million by 2017, with annual growth of 5% in the total number of potential car buyers.According to the analysts, by 2015 Brazil will already be the third largest car market after the United States and China. And the government is aiming to further increase the 23 bil-

lion dollars which car manufacturers have already predicted they will sell in the country by that date.

Dilma rousseff’s development decreePresident Dilma Rousseff’s adminis-tration has been keeping itself busy on this front. The latest scheme dates from 3 October 2012, when the gov-ernment published an ad hoc decree for the development of the automo-tive industry. The goal is to create the right economic conditions to increase competitiveness and encour-age businesses not only to make cars cheaper and safer, but also to invest in the entire production process, in engineering, basic industrial tech-nology, research and development and employee training. In practice, to ensure that the whole cycle can be firmly rooted within the country.

Fiat and Volkswagen the biggest investorsThe Minister for Trade and Industry, Fernando Pimentel, has promised a tax credit of up to 30% for manufacturers who commit to one or more of these areas. The biggest spender will be FIAT, with 5.9 billion dollars to split

By Alfredo Ranavolo

Brazil is thereal automotive

Nani Gois, Sem título. 1982 – Paranáthe Pirelli/MASP photography Collection


between the new plant at Goiana and the expansion of the existing one at Betim. Next is Volkswagen with 5.2 billion. Lagging somewhat behind are Ford, Peugeot and Chevrolet.The race to invest is amply justified: while Brazil is the fourth largest market in the world for the sale of automobiles, it is still only seventh in terms of manufacturing. “We want to reduce this gap,” declared Pimentel when presenting the decree.

More cars, more technology and more premiumDemand from new consumers could therefore have the effect of a fly-wheel, pushing manufacturers ever upwards, towards high-end models and new ranges.A study by Accenture shows that ve-hicle innovation and new functional-ity are central to the way buyers are thinking in the premium segment and others.“89% of Brazilians would like a system of automatic alarms for mechani-cal problems. Moreover, 86% want an automated emergency system to send an alarm in the event of an accident,” explains the consulting company’s analyst Leandro Freitas. He continues: “A lot of importance is placed on equipment for monitoring the vehicle, also in the event of it being stolen, and on in-car entertainment.” But it’s not just safety that Brazil’s consumers are thinking about. Style and quality, according to Accenture’s research, are both considered impor-tant factors, leading directly to the

desire for products with a high profile and an established brand identity. It’s no accident that Italian-made automotive products have a good reputation in Brazil.

Incentives for manufacturersIn order to qualify for the tax credit offered in the new regulations, car manufacturers must carry out at least six of the twelve identified phases of production in Brazil in 2013. That will increase to seven in 2014-2015 and eight in 2016 and 2017. The regulations may be destined to become an example for the rest of the world.The package of incentives is not aimed solely at existing plants and activities, but also at companies wishing to invest in new plants, whether they already have a pres-ence in Brazil or not: in the latter case, the tax credit is equivalent to 50%. Half of it can be used during the factory construction phase, the other half once it becomes opera-tional. Its activity must in any case always be focused on research.

A close eye on the environment and flex-fuel enginesThis way, according to Marcelo Cioffi, a Brazilian analyst with Pricewater-houseCoopers, “the ultimate effect of the new policies will be the develop-ment of a very wide range of suppli-ers in the automobile sector, which could become even larger than it is today, encouraging new players to enter the market.”The objective of improving vehicles’ energy efficiency standards requires manufacturers to commit to improv-ing performance by 12.08% compared to current levels by 2016, incentivis-ing the use of biofuels over petrol. In Brazil, “flex-fuel” engines, which can use petrol, biofuels or a mixture of the two, have been popular for years. In fact, ethanol, generally produced from sugar cane, accounts for 20% of the country’s consumption.

BRAZIL · Automotive Industry Overview

20

53

4,3

91,5

24,8

121,5

34,7

1,5

61

5% 21%

3,7Assemblers

Industrial units in 9 states, 39 cities

million production capacity/year

billion Sales

billion Exports

billion Revenue

billion Imports

million Employees

billion Investments 1994-2011

total GDP share Industrial

thousand Dealers

US$

US$

US$

US$

US$

The standoff with mexicoThis evolution of the market can probably be interpreted as an effect of the competition between Brazil and another Latin American giant: Mexico. Although they have historically been partners, the Rousseff government has recently been engaged in a tricky tug-of-war with its rival, in a bid to limit imports from Mexico City.The Brazilian government decided to intervene when imports from the North American state increased by 70% in 2011. The agreement reached sets a limit on exports of light ve-hicles from Mexico to Brazil for the next three years. They cannot exceed a value of 1.46 billion dollars in 2012, 1.56 billion the following year and 1.64 billion in 2014. Scarcely a free trade agreement, but specialisation and consolidation are currently Dilma Rousseff’s top priorities. And the struggle goes on.

“A study by Accenture shows that vehicle innovation and new functionality are central to the way buyers are thinking in the premium segment and others”

28 PIRELLI WORLD

Newton Mesquita. Augusta com Paulista, 1979


razil and Pirelli: a bond that has lasted over 80 years, covering most of the twen-tieth century and tracing the history of a country in search of modernity, econom-ic development and higher standards of

living. A bond that has grown stronger over time, through industry, culture and sport. From the Twenties to the first wave of industrialisation (with the powerful contribution of entrepreneurs of Italian origin, like the Matarazzo family) and on to the Fifties and Sixties of mass car ownership, promoted by the president Jus-celino Kubitschek, from the long years of crisis to economic recovery and social inclusion during the presidencies of Cardoso, Lula and now Dilma Rousseff.

Pirelli tyres: the market leader in Brazil, then as now. Pirelli factories and jobs. The Pirelli brand, highly present in the minds of consumers. Pirelli, the supporter of cultural, social and sporting activities. Of the Group’s six billion in global revenue, a third comes from South America, for the most part Brazil, with production in five plants, giving work to around 11 thousand people. “With Brazil we have a his-toric bond and a future of investment and growth, in line with the rhythm of the country”, claims Marco Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli’s president.The public shares this sense of belonging. For four years, Pirelli has been the brand Brazilians remember best in all product categories (with a male target market), based on the “Top of Mind” research con-ducted by the “Folha de São Paulo” publishing group.

Of the over 600 Italian companies with manufactur-ing plants in Brazil (a far-sighted choice, supplying markets with strong, rapid growth), Pirelli is, along with Fiat, one of the oldest and best established.

Brazil is growing at an impressive pace, despite the major global crisis. It has earned a place among the big players on the global political scene and in the major organisations, like the IMF, which govern eco-nomic choices. It has a strong domestic market, which will be fuelled in the coming years by the success of

its public policies of social inclu-sion. It has access to growing foreign markets, from the rest of Latin America to China, for its exports. And it is a highly attractive destination for foreign investment and capital. For years, it has been “the country of the future”, a future which, however, thanks to one crisis after another, never arrives. Now the future is finally taking shape, and its shape is that of a modern nation rich in agriculture, industry, energy and financial services.

The bond between Brazil and Pirelli goes back a long way, to 1929 when, despite the stormy atmosphere

that was to culminate in the Wall Street crash, bring-ing chaos to half the global the economy, Pirelli and General Electric had between them bought all the shares of the Companhia Nacional de Artefactos de Cobre-CONAC, along with a new area in Santo André, 25 km from São Paulo, in which to build a new plant. For cables. And then, from 1941, for tyres as well. The agreement with Dunlop and the signing of the

“With Brazil we have a historic bond and a future of investment and growth, in line with the rhythm of the country”

By Antonio Calabrò

Brazil and Pirelli

side by side for over 80 years

30 PIRELLI WORLD

Carybé. A Busca, 1969

“Union” led, in 1970, to the acquisition of the Campi-nas factory, also in São Paulo’s industrial area. It rapidly became the Group’s largest plant, “the flowery factory in the City of Swallows”, as it was poetically described in “Notícias Pirelli”, the company journal. Next, a factory at Gravataí, in the Rio Grande do Sul, for motorcycle tyres. And then, at Sumaré, a plant for manufacturing steel cord, the wire that strengthens tyres and, most importantly, the first tyre testing track in the whole of Latin America. And finally, at Feira de Santana, about a hundred kilometres from Salvador da Bahia, the “ecological factory”, where the most advanced eco-compatible manufacturing pro-cesses have been applied and which, in the Nineties, was acknowledged by Vigilante do Meio Ambiente as a model of environmental conservation.Indeed it was at Feira de Santana in 2003, while inaugurating the completely renovated factory in

the presence of the then President of the Republic of Brazil Lula, that Marco Tronchetti Provera in-sisted on the strategies that link economic success in Brazil with quality of work, quality of the environ-ment, corporate social responsibility and overall development: “The thing that best repays the com-mitment of our company and that of the manage-ment team, the thing that encourages us to keep pursuing the path of progress and development in this great country, is the enthusiasm of the people who work in our factories and their pride in belong-ing to a great international Group, one which is technologically at the cutting edge. The success and the competitive strength of a company are measured first and foremost by the quality and professionalism of the people who work there, and for Pirelli, invest-ing in the training and qualification of human re-sources is a top priority.”


Emiliano di Cavalcanti. Gabriela, 1970

And that brings us to the present. To the new invest-ments to enlarge, modernise and improve the Group’s industrial plants, in every sector, from automobile and industrial vehicles to “special vehicles”. This response to the growing demand for agricultural machinery and vehicles for the construction indus-try is linked to the plans for agriculture and infra-structure development throughout Brazil. The facto-ries? Technological, innovative and high-quality. And the rest? Sport - Pirelli teams in Brazil have won 1,700 trophies over the years. Solidarity. And culture. Because Pirelli is also associated with, for example, the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection: twenty-one years of commitment and over 1,100 images by the best Brazilian photographers documenting the “Re-tratos do Brasil”, in other words the evolution of Bra-zilian history and society. Not forgetting the collection of 130 works of art by painters like Emiliano Di Cav-alcanti, Carybé and Clóvis Graciano, examples of artistic modernism and modernity, depictions of work and life.

There’s another aspect, one which Pirelli people in Brazil love to talk about, a sort of synthesis of origins and current events, along the lines of a “green” sen-sibility embracing both environmental and social solidarity, tied to Brazil’s unique economic culture. Here’s the story. In 1945 Pirelli had acquired the Fazenda Oriboca in Belém, in the state of Pará, marking a return to producing natural rubber, thirty

years after the first plantations in Java. Soon after came the Fazenda Una, in the state of Bahia. And there, schools had been created for children and adults, along with homes, health clinics, sports clubs

and cultural associations. In these experiences of Oriboca and Una, a special attention for the condi-tions of the seringueiros (natural rubber collectors) had been estab-lished. The same attention could be seen again at the end of the Nineties with the launch of a project to support the seringueiros communities of the village of Xapuri (where the battle against the landowners, guided by Chico Mendes, began), in the provision of training for the local workforce, the improvement of the extraction process and the purchase of the rubber produced at “fair trade” prices. And in the Feira de Santana plant, they began to manufacture the “Xapuri” tyre, produced with

natural rubber extracted by the seringueiros of the state of Acre. An example of how modern industry, through the fusion of Italian and Brazil cultures, can demonstrate new facets of sustainability.

“Pirelli is also associated with the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection: twenty-one years of commitment and over 1,100 images by the best Brazilian photographers documenting the “Retratos do Brasil”, in other words the evolution of Brazilian history and society. Not forgetting the collection of 130 works of art by painters like Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Carybé and Clóvis Graciano”

32 PIRELLI WORLD

ne of the crowning achievements of the company’s 80-year presence in Brazil is the Pirelli Collection

at the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP). Much more than a monument to the period photograph, it’s also the photo album of a country discovered and rediscovered, in twenty years of exhibitions, through the lenses of the world’s greatest photographers.

The first edition of the “Coleção” in 1991 set in motion the exploration of a “new world” of artistic photog-raphy in Latin America. Today, with a catalogue over 1,100 works in his care, curator José Teixeira Coelho has two maxims: “Look to the classics and be open to the new.”

High-calibre collecting plus an eye on what’s new. How do you combine the two?It’s all about rewarding quality. Every year, for the last 17 editions, the Pirelli-MASP commission has selected the works of the most ac-complished photographers, three or four at a time, which were exhibited and then purchased by Pirelli.

Just old masters?Absolutely not. We decided, together with Pirelli, to pay increasing at-tention to new work. To “young”, contemporary artists.

What is the value of the initiative?It highlights on an artistic heritage of immense value, not only for Brazil. We’re not interested in documentary or journalistic photography, but in photography as art: our primary objective is to acknowledge the ar-tistic value of photography. It doesn’t

matter whether the photographer is a past master or a newcomer. We’re interested in all of them.

But in a country in the midst of a transformation, photography has a not insignificant role in docu-menting change.Of course, sometimes artistic photog-raphy also has a documentary func-tion. That’s true in the case of Pierre Verger, the French master famous for his anthropological study of the shantytowns of Bahia, which com-bines beauty with social document.

The star of the show is not so much the photographers as Brazil itself….In the beginning, the MASP exhi-bitions were dedicated exclusively to Brazilian artists. In the last few years, the catalogue has also included foreign artists, like Verger, who have spent long periods of time in Brazil.

Who are the artists that you have helped to showcase?In the last edition, ten top-class pho-tographers were selected and repre-sented by a series of very important works, which Pirelli then purchased

Mario Cravo. Mona Lisa, 1989the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

An interview with José Teixeira Coelho, chief curator of MASP-Museum of Art of São Paulo


and added to the Collection. The most significant artists included Claudia Andujar, a photographer who has spent a lot of time with the indios: a fine piece of work. Geraldo De Bar-ros, a leading name in the field of Brazilian photography, principally associated with the concretist move-ment of the 60s. Pierre Verger, Mario Cravo Neto, two past masters, and Miguel Rio Branco, an exceptionally talented “young” artist.

When you were appointed as head of the MASP in 2006, the museum was going through a pe-riod of financial crisis. Those dark days are now over. But how can art survive in times of crisis?Supporting art in Brazil has always been difficult, crisis or no crisis. One needs to tune in to what people want and make what one is offering appeal-ing. In the last six years our audience has more than doubled; this year the MASP had 800,000 visitors. The problem is that the public sector has trouble understanding and satisfying the needs of people who are hungry for real art.

Are private contributors necessary?Of course. It’s only thanks to private donations and, above all, Pirelli’s contribution that the MASP has become what it is today.

How has Pirelli’s support made a difference to the museum?Quite simply, its help is essential. Let’s not forget that the Pirelli Col-lection is the most enduring ex-ample of public-private cooperation in the arts in Brazil’s history. It’s something quite unique. Sometimes it happens, here just like in Europe, that a foreign company finances an event or an exhibition, then makes way for a different sponsor the following year. But Pirelli has demonstrated an unparalleled de-votion to art through its constant support for over 40 years.

A rarity then.Yes, and the MASP isn’t all. The Pirelli calendars are a classic here in Bra-zil too. Their images permeate the Brazilian imagination at all levels of society, from the most humble to the most sophisticated reader. Each new issue is awaited with trepida-tion and greeted with jubilation.

A portrait of Brazil

o ver 130 works by the greatest painters of

twentieth century Brazil: from the “Parisian” Emiliano Di Cavalcanti to Heitor dos Prazeres, from Carybé to the autodidact of Italian ances-try, Clovis Graciano. Express-ing Pirelli’s global approach to Brazilian art, the MASP photographic collection (the first in the country, with 297 artists and almost 1,200 works) is joined by an important collection of paintings kept at the Group’s headquarters in São Paulo. Helped by the commissions for the Brazilian editions of the Pirelli Calendar, like “Móveis Antigos do Brasil” (1964), “Cinquenta anos de Samba” (1968), “O Garimpo” (1970), “O Carnival” (1983), the collection has been enriched over the last 40 years by “tailored” pictorial masterpieces, exhibited by Pirelli in the exhibition “Retrato do Brasil” at the biennial in 2009. From the Picasso-influenced modern-ism of Di Cavalcanti to the homegrown inspiration of Genaro de Carvalho, by way of the geometric abstrac-tions of Lucca-born Alfredo Volpi, the most famous of the second-generation Italo-Brazilian modernists.

“The Pirelli

Collection is the

most enduring

example of public-

private cooperation

in the arts in Brazil’s

history”

Mario Cravo, Lord of the Head, 1988the Pirelli/MASP photography Collection

34 PIRELLI WORLD

stou aqui. Sempre estive. E sempre estarei. I am here, I have always been here, I will always be here. The title of book by Carlos Eugenio Marcondes de Moura, but also a mantra that pervades the soul of all Brazilians, express-

ing a genuine love for the country.

This pride in their origins has reached new heights now that the country is emerging as a power on the world stage and a wave of well-being has transformed the population, turning Brazilians into seekers of beauty, consumers of global glamour and trendsetting party people. And now Brazil is exporting a new set of ambassadors, accompanied by the sounds of the samba, a balletic ability on the ball and a passion for beautiful objects that encapsulate entire worlds. This team of young champions talk to us about the nation’s transformation with a hint of the saudade do Brasil.

We all recognise Brazil’s strength on the football field. Today the world is applauding the prodigy Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, better known as Neymar, born in 1992. The boy with the golden feet is an under-20 world champion and a striker of outstand-ing ability, with a speciality that could earn him a place in history: he always scores from the corner. It’s not just Brazil that is expecting great things from this new discovery, but the whole world. National football-ing legend Pelé has said of him: “He could be even better than me.”The big European clubs have noticed him, but none has yet secured his services. Another Brazilian phenom-enon who has already arrived in Italy is Philippe Coutinho. The twenty-year old has been wearing the colours

of Inter Milano for almost three years, although a piece of heart remains in his native land.

“I spent eighteen years of my life there. I love my country and wouldn’t swap it for any other. The climate, the people and the sea are three things I adore and whenever I can I go back to Rio,” he tells us. He proudly explains how his country has changed: “Now you can see the prosperity, you can see a country that is eager to grow. What’s more, with the World Cup and the Olympics on the way, Rio is building new infrastructure that can only improve the city and make it a better place to live in future, creating new opportunities for everyone. A middle class has emerged in Brazil that didn’t exist even a few years ago.” Meanwhile, on the field, the Italian approach undoubtedly seems more complicated to a young Brazilian: “Here in Italy the attacker has to pay at-tention to the way the whole team plays, to the pat-terns worked out in training. Being able to score goals isn’t enough.”

Philippe Coutinho

“I spent eighteen years of my life there. I love my country and wouldn’t swap it for any other ”

New Ambassadors


The keywords are exuberance and history. In terms of colours, creations and style. That’s the personal and professional line followed by a new generation of de-signers: young, well-trained and willing to travel over-seas to promote their work. Like Rodrigo Almeida, currently one of the world’s best known designers of chairs and furniture. Self-taught and highly inventive, in just a few years he has made a name for himself even in Milan, the industry’s heartland. His output is

lavishly exhilarating in its colours, its materials and its originality. “Isn’t Milan’s cathedral exuberant too, in its spectacular beauty?”

Mind you, being glamorous in mod-ern-day Brazil means first and fore-most “behaving in a natural way, low profile, without arrogance”: a very Brazilian concept of humility and the desire to learn from others.To understand the country and its

art, the designer has three pieces of advice: “Ask a Bra-zilian to cook something for you. Visit Paraty, the city between Rio and São Paulo. And explore Amazonia.” A way of discovering Brazil’s profusion in each of its forms.

But Almeida is just one of Brazil’s many exports. Another symbol of the new generation is Tété Knecht, the 34-year-old Swiss-Brazilian designer who has made an art out of recycling, moving effortlessly from shoes to furniture


Rodrigo Almeida

“Isn’t milan’s cathedral exuberant too, in its spectacular beauty?”

36 PIRELLI WORLD

using recycled material. The same approach is espoused by the Campana brothers, who have emerged from the shantytowns of Rio to establish themselves making imaginative use of second-hand materials. Fernando and Humberto, among the kings of contemporary design, are in no doubt: the secret of Brazil is its multicultural-ism. In Santa Cecilia, the district of Rio where they live and work, hundreds of languages and colours mingle to from a variegated community. So the two of them had the idea of “translating Brazilian identity into design, for example interpreting what you see in the poorest communities and creating a bridge between the world of primitive craftsmanship and the modern, industri-alised world.”

Someone else riding this wave of transformation is Henrique Oliveira, born in 1973, who has turned his hand to painting, sculpture and installations, using recycled and recyclable material, from wood to plastic. It’s no surprise that critics have defined his work “master-pieces of urban debris”.

In Brazil, the important thing is to have the right backdrop. Life plays out to an endless soundtrack, from timeless music like that of Caetano Veloso to the more contempo-rary sounds of Seu Jorge and Marisa Monte, who mix rock and samba: anything goes as long as you keep moving.But Brazil is a country that is making significant moves to enrich itself culturally. Paula Cademartori, a design-er of bags that carry her brand, who has lived in Milan for some time, explains: “Brazil is growing in the fashion world and I hope that local designers understand not to take too much inspiration from foreign catwalks, to preserve a national identity as well.”

But be careful not to fall for the “samba and bikinis” stereotype, which is far removed from reality. “People in Brazil today have greater spending power and more op-portunity to see the world and have contact with other cultures. This enriches the individual, as well as society and the country as a whole. I’m happy with the improve-ment in living standards in Brazil, but I’m worried about the economy, and in particular about the consequences of this economic boom on the country.” One of its effects is the difficulty many successful Brazilians experience in trying to return home and sell their products: “It’s hard for me to sell in Brazil; I’m hoping to succeed but there are import taxes that increase prices by as much as 150%”. There’s nothing for it but to go back every now and then to feel the refreshing wind of change. And for those who don’t know the country, Paula’s advice is: “Go to Rio de Janeiro, a city blessed by God, with outstanding natural beauty, and get a taste of Brazilian life. But also go to São Paulo, closer to Europe in its frenetic pace, and catch at least one exhibition at the MASP (modern art museum). Also taste Brazilian food and visit the beaches in the north.” For those staying at home, she recommends one film above all others: “City of God” (Cidade de Deus), a story of personal and national growth, through the eyes of someone who escapes the shantytown to create a new life, with humility and exuberance, energy and culture. Just like what is happening in Brazil today.

Paula Cademartori

“I hope that local designers understand not to take too much inspiration from foreign catwalks, to preserve a national identity as well”

Paulo Mendes da Rocha Works and project

Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

Brazil: A Cook’s Tour

Brazil is the New America: How Brazil Offers Upward Mobility in a Collapsing World

O País do Carnaval

Brazil on the Rise: The Story of a Country Transformed

Macunaíma

The Curves of Time Oscar Niemeyer Memoirs

The New Brazil

Raízes do Brasil

Brazil: Five Centuries of Change

Annette SpiroNiggli Verlag (2009)

Caetano VelosoAlfred A. Knopf (2002)

Christopher IdoneClarkson Potter (1995)

James Dale DavidsonWiley (2012)

Jorge AmadoSchmidt (1931)

Larry RohterPalgrave Macmillan (2012)

Mário de AndradeAdelphi (1976)

Oscar NiemeyerPhaidon Press Ltd (2007)

Riordan RoettBrookings Institution Press (2011)

Sérgio Buarque de HolandaComp. das Letras (1995)

Thomas E. SkidmoreOxford University Press (2009)

december 2012 - pirelli · the government led by dilma rousseff has decided to invest in...

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