Praça da Paz adds 18 names to Rio de Janeiro memorial

By Marcus Bennett

Praça da Paz reopened in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, 5 November. Its expanded memorial now honors 145 victims of armed violence, with 18 names added to 127 already painted on tiles.

The square stands in Nova Holanda, within the Conjunto de Favelas da Maré in the city’s north zone. The reopening forms part of a renewal that recovered gardens and tiles, then added benches and a velarium for shade.

A memorial made with families

Artist Laura Taves of Projeto Azulejaria conceived the memorial. Relatives of the victims collaborated in painting its pieces. That collaboration makes the act of painting part of how the victims are remembered, not merely an accompaniment to the ceremony.

The memorial stands on the boundary with Baixa do Sapateiro, a region historically marked by conflict. No armed confrontations have been recorded at the square in the five years since its 2022 inauguration. That record does not establish that the redesign caused the absence of violence, but it makes the site’s present use significant.

Set against that recent history, the tiled names document specific losses within a public space that now supports remembrance, rest and collective discussion through restored gardens, seating and shade.

What does the reopening change for the community?

The answer begins with the count: 18 more victims now appear in a public memorial, and family members helped paint the pieces that preserve their names. Restored gardens, benches and a velarium also make the square usable for daily meetings and shared remembrance.

For families and other residents, the practical change combines a fuller public record with a place to gather, while the seminar creates a formal forum for discussing reparation, rights violations and the prevention of renewed conflict.

Three days of reparation

Redes da Maré included the handover of the square in the Seminário Memória, Justiça, Reparação e Não Repetição, which runs from 5 to 7 November. The program brings families, researchers and legal professionals together to discuss strategies for reparation and ways to confront rights violations.

Redes da Maré’s agenda includes:

• Support workshops for women.
• Debate tables with the Casa de História e Memória da Maré and the Cátedra Patrícia Acioli.
• The launch of an e-book and a technical note developed with PUC-Rio.

The program closes on Saturday, 7 November, at 19h, with Macacos, a work by artist Clayton Nascimento, at the Centro de Artes da Maré (CAM). The performance addresses structural racism and racial violence in Brazil.

The final evening broadens the program from neighborhood remembrance to the national structures identified in Macacos, placing structural racism and racial violence at the center of the closing presentation.

For families and residents, the practical test is whether the square can preserve its five-year record of no armed confrontation while the seminar turns proposals on reparation into specific safeguards against rights violations.