SBS Dateline | Brazil s Underground Art

Dateline invites you to the sewer tunnels of Sao Paulo, to see artworks that have galleries in London and New York in a frenzy.

Dodging pools of watery muck, armies of cockroaches and rats, Dateline's Aaron Lewis meets up with Zezao, a graffiti artist who’s made the city’s sewerage network his personal gallery.

Zezao’s art is more personal than public, although he also works above ground in areas of shocking environmental or social decay. “I do this work for environmental reasons,” he says.

However it's his underground story which fascinates his audience – he often arms himself with an aerosol can and cigarette lighter to use as a blowtorch – to use as a light source or to kill swarms of cockroaches which attack him.

Sao Paolo’s graffiti artists are pushing street art in new and daring directions. It's a concrete jungle in which colourful graffiti is encouraged by the locals.

But increasingly, Sao Paolo’s artists are being tempted away from the street and into top art galleries in New York and London.

What will become of these renegades, and the future street artists they inspire?

On air: 18th June 2008