View of Selaron's Stairs (Escadaria Selarón), a mosaic staircase made of colorful tiles, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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View of Selaron's Stairs (Escadaria Selarón), a mosaic staircase made of colorful tiles, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 15 February 2012. World-famous staircase, mostly covered by vibrant yellow, green and blue tiles (inspired by the colors of the Brazilian flag), is the masterpiece of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who considers it as “a personal tribute to the Brazilian people”. Connecting the neighborhoods of Santa Teresa and Lapa, the stairway is made up of 250 steps and measures 125 meters long. In 1990 Selarón began work on the stairway, creating a constantly evolving piece of art, now adorned with over 2,000 brightly colored tiles collected from over 60 countries. Selarón funds his one man's project through donations and the sale of his black-and-red paintings which mostly depict a pregnant African woman or himself. Living his passion, the eccentric 65-year-old artist claims that “this crazy and unique dream will only end on the day of my death”.

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Size: 3544px × 5316px
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Photo credit: © Jan Sochor / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: america, architecture, art, artist, brazil, brazilian, ceramics, city, colorful, craft, culture, de, decoration, design, eccentric, escadaria, flag, janeiro, jorge, lapa, latin, latino, mosaic, project, rio, santa, selaron, staircase, stairs, stairway, steps, street, tereza, tile, urban, visual