The social work of Haas & Hahn

Dutchmen Jeroen Koolhaas(1977) and Dre Urhahn(1973) are known as the artistic duo Haas & Hahn. 

Graphic designer Koolhaas previously worked as an illustrator for the New Yorker while Urhahn worked as a journalist, copywriter and art-director. 

Since working together on Firmeza Total(2005), a documentary about hip hop in Brazilian favelas, they have been joining artistic forces in social art projects. 

Haas & Hahn's Firmeza Foundation(2007) organizes inspiring community art projects to encourage crime news manipulated citizens to deal with their negative perceptions of certain deprived neighborhoods. With the help of local youth enormous murals are created to improve the look of a slum village and enhance it's inhabitants sense of pride. 

In 2008 the duo worked eight months on Rio Cruzeiro, a 2000m² carp-filled river painting in Vila Cruzeiro and one day on a fantasy wall with the help of fifty Brazilian children in Terra Encantada. Their Brazilian quest continued with the painting on Praca Cantao, a 7000m² square.

At Art Basel Miami 2010 they created an installation with eighty painted canvasses.

A 2011 Knight Arts grant allowed them to reside in Philadelphia for a year to reinvent the Germantown Avenue blocks with bright colors and patterns to provoke a sense of unity. The same year they participated in a group exhibition held at the Smithsonian.

Lectures, documentaries, video clips, audio and photo installations complete the urban concept of these two social workers.

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http://www.favelapainting.com/haas-hahn