Lanchonete invites 32 guest artists from around the world and different parts of Brazil into a time- and site-specific artist residency project in the center of São Paulo.

Lanchonete is a place and a project. The overall project lasts five years, and consists of two phases lasting two-and-a-half years each. The first phase, building a platform of support and solidarity, is a prerequisite to inhabiting a physical lanchonete during the second phase.

In the center of São Paulo, and across the vast city, the lanchonete (or lunch counter) is one of the only places where people in different economic classes share middle ground. Unlike new-construction-restaurants, lanchonete in the older part of the city typically have open fronts – or corners – rather than doors, making them porous and easy to enter or pass through. These ubiquitous lunch counters and their longstanding tradition present an alternative to the homogenizing effect of advanced gentrification on public space.

The lanchonete will have a staff and operate as a business; 32 international and Brazil-wide artists-in-residence will live in a suite of adjacent apartments for periods of four months each, four at a time. Local artists and cultural organizers will join the project through residency and publications activities co-produced with PIVÔ art space in the bottom of the historic Copan Building. The lanchonete, residency apartments and PIVÔ form a triangle of urban space. This urban corridor is the space of the Lanchonete artist residency, with the restaurant serving as the nucleus (or power source) of the project.

The five-year duration of Lanchonete is both ephemeral and enduring long enough to take necessary risks and serve as a station of witness in a fast-changing neighborhood for which population growth and change have outpaced urban planning.

As the major cities of the world move from limited to contested space for a variety of reasons (e.g. rural to urban migration, immigration, forced mobility, traffic jams, beautification projects, and the exorbitant prices paid for convenience) and because those institutions, groups and people with the most agency and means get priority access to prime real estate, a simple question must be asked: Can diverse neighborhoods persist and survive near epicentres of capital?

Lanchonete asks that question in a different way:

If artists are empowered to innovate on a large enough scale to interrupt the status quo, what would that look like?

Lanchonete is a project conceived by Todd Lester. It takes the form of a Brazilian non-profit, membership association, Associação Espaço Cultural Lanchonete.

The project coordinator is Isabel Gandia.

For more information and to invite a fei$hoada to your community, please contact saopaulolanchonete@gmail.com

Donations are needed to make the Lanchonete dream come true.

Partners:

	PIVÔ is a non-profit cultural association founded in 2012. Its focus is organizing experimental artistic activities that promote critical discussion in the fields of art, architecture, urbanism and other contemporary expressions.
	Residency Unlimited (RU) is an artist-centered organization that supports the creation, presentation and dissemination of contemporary art through strategic partnerships with collaborating institutions. RU produces customised residencies for New York based and international artists and curators at all stages of their careers.

The Lanchonete project sends occasional newsletters whenever it has good news to share, including the forthcoming Open Call. Please enter your e-mail address below to subscribe for the Lanchonete newsletter.

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	The Residency Unlimited (RU) platform hosts an ongoing blog series and anticipated dialogue on making and implementing the Lanchonete project.
	A text and photo essay on Lanchonete by Todd Lester and Pedro Marques was invited for the SARAI Reader 9: Projections.

	Lanchonete took part in the New Museum's IDEAS CITY Street Festival. Members of the Associação Espaço Cultural Lanchonete interacted with festival goers from behind a food cart, borrowing from the methodology used to engage neighborhood residents in São Paulo in order to have their input and permission to do Lanchonete.
	A text and photo essay on Lanchonete by Todd Lester and Pedro Marques was invited for the SARAI Reader 9: Projections.
	In Brazilian Portuguese, both Wednesday and Saturday lunch are called feishoada. As R&D for Lanchonete, these itinerant events – termed ‘fei$hoada’ – punctuate the first half of a five-year project, one that begs an overriding question in São Paulo and other places ... How do we live with money? See details for inviting a fei$hoada to your community.
	Residency Unlimited (RU) interviewed Lanchonete founder and artistic director, Todd Lester at the beginning of the project’s 5-year run. The RU platform will host an ongoing blog series. documenting the making of Lanchonete.
	In addition to its typical functionality, Lanchonete’s Facebook page is an archive of advice given to the project by trusted peers and in presentational settings.
	Lanchonete’s first website was launched in October 2012 right before the project launch – and first fei$hoada – in São Paulo. Member of Associação Espaço Cultural Lanchonete, Niki Singleton created its unique design, which is now used as the masthead for the project’s Facebook page.

Lanchonete is a celebration of and experiment in artistic witnessing and poetic analysis. When artists involve themselves in social issues in a new place, they must first learn a community’s rhythm and frequency of change. By patiently watching, synthesizing information, and asking permission from the community, they get to offer 'outsider' insights that complement 'insider' knowledge. This is the approach Lanchonete has taken since 2005 in the center of São Paulo. Lanchonete is inspired and fueled by the work of many local artists as well as other international projects following a similar approach:

	Núcleo Cultural São João is an art studio, library and series of events at the Occupation São João.
	PIVÔ is a non-profit cultural association founded in 2012. Its focus is organizing experimental artistic activities that promote critical discussion in the fields of art, architecture, urbanism and other contemporary expressions.
	PAPA (Participating Artists Press Agency) is an internationally curated network of artist-correspondents. PAPA is nomadic and works from temporary offices in cities all over the world.
	Museo de los Desplazados is a platform created by Left Hand Rotation in collaboration with local partners to analyze the role of culture in the process of gentrification. This video on Bairro da Luz is one byproduct of their work.