Feast Your Eyes
May 15, 2017 7:52 AM   Subscribe

Many Indonesian villages are following this trend and the transformation is stunning. Poor villages and slums invest a few thousand dollars to beautify their buildings and the world takes note.
posted by MovableBookLady (14 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Nice that the primary colors are abstract art. Colorful house are really common across much of the developing world, but usually it's ads painted by the local beer / soda / mobile company...
posted by rh at 8:13 AM on May 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


... or international media company as a publicity stunt for The Smurfs.

This is wonderful, especially the international tourism, and the effort to clean the river.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:03 AM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


That's not a slum.
posted by My Dad at 9:09 AM on May 15, 2017 [3 favorites]


Hoax? Every wide shot of the village is just a cropped version of one photoshopped pic, is it not?
posted by growli at 10:15 AM on May 15, 2017


The wide shots are all credited to Instagram accounts that exist and have the pics. The pic of the guy walking on the bridge is a different location than the other two bridge-based shots. I'm not saying there's no way it's a hoax, but that's not the same photo over and over.
posted by donnagirl at 10:26 AM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


I wish there was a little more... reporting... going on in this article. Indonesia is a middle-income country. People and civil society have a lot of agency. It will take more than paint to fix some problems. It would have been nice to have interviewed some of the appealing and engaging people who appear in the photos.
posted by My Dad at 10:52 AM on May 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


I would definitely not be happy if someone painted my neighborhood like that. Just because the neighborhood is poor doesn't mean rainbow paint everywhere is aesthetically pleasing.
posted by waving at 11:17 AM on May 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'm going to be painting my house 29 shades of rainbow, and it's not a money-poor neighborhood. I think this is lovely.
posted by aniola at 11:26 AM on May 15, 2017 [5 favorites]


Kampung Pelangi translated is "Rainbow Village". So is that the original name of the town or is it a description or, as sometimes happens, did they change the name of the village to match the project? Old maps can be deceptive.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:24 PM on May 15, 2017


I wish there was a little more... reporting... going on in this article.

welcome to boredpanda.com
posted by numaner at 12:37 PM on May 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Here's a link from Lonely Planet which has a little more info. rainbow village LP
posted by MovableBookLady at 1:13 PM on May 15, 2017


Jakarta Post has a little more info. Its original name is Kampung Wonosari, and like the Bored Panda post mentioned, the effort was inspired by the other painted villages in Indonesia. After some digging I'm guessing it's around this area in Semarang.

(It wasn't clear in the OP, but this is a community inside the larger city of Semarang. Much like Hell's Kitchen as a part of New York City. Imagine de Blasio setting aside money to paint Hell's Kitchen to boost tourism!)
posted by numaner at 1:16 PM on May 15, 2017


Who made money, what difference can it make to people's lives, it's still a dilapidated area --
I DON'T CARE. These pictures made me grin, and lifted my heart, and I'm grateful I got to see it. Thanks!
posted by kestralwing at 6:59 PM on May 15, 2017


it's still a dilapidated area

No it's not.
posted by My Dad at 8:54 AM on May 16, 2017


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