Dutch duo beautifies Rio’s slums with murals

Since 1996, the Dutch artist duo of Haas & Hahn has been beautifying some of Rio de Janeiro's notorious slums with colourful murals.

The artists, Jereon Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, first started working together in 2005 when they filmed an MTV documentary about Rio's hip-hop scene. Their visit to the favelas inspired them to start a new project: "to bring outrageous works of art to unexpected places, starting with painting enormous murals in the slums of Brazil together with the local youth."

Their latest effort, the colourful makeover of 34 houses in Santa Marta's central square, can be viewed here.

Watch their stunning art transforming violent neighbourhoods, including their plans for 2011, below.

This year, the duo hopes to employ O Morro's inhabitants to paint their entire hillside favela, turning "their community into an artwork of epic scale and will produce an explosion of colour, joyfully radiating into the world." (via official site)

The slum of O Morro is visible from Rio's centre. The O Morro project is designed to both illuminate poverty and instill pride in its dwellers.