Babi Mello
Babi Mello is a multidisciplinary artist, creative director, researcher, and designer working across fashion, image-making, installation+objects and events. Their practice explores human relationships, urban life, and the ways identity is shaped through images, language, and digital culture, often investigating the tensions between public and private experience.
Through installations, objects, garments, and social interventions, Babi examines how symbols and visual systems influence the way we understand ourselves and our surroundings. They also develop events and parties as spaces for experimentation and research, using collective experiences as a tool for observing and reimagining social dynamics.
Founde of Prvoke @prvoke.sp, a clothing project exploring the intersection of intimate fantasy, self-construction, and contemporary social life.
For this São Paulo guide, Babi maps out a day of quiet obsessions and romantic detours. From brutalist cultural institutions and photography archives to hidden cinemas, chaotic commercial streets, and bowls of late-night ramen, these are the places where the city reveals itself slowly; through images, chance encounters, and the small rituals that make everyday life feel cinematic.
Instituto Moreira Salles
IMS, especially its photography-specialized library, is where I spent most of my hours at least 1 day a week. IMS is a very important Institute and one of the most integrated to the city in its natural flow. With its special architecture, where the main hall is on the 5th floor - so the visitor occupies the space vertically - you are faced with a gorgeous view from one of the main postcards of the city, in a very glossed way.
Babi Mello
Centro Cultural São Paulo
CCSP is simply a cultural spine to this city. Architecture is important here too, being one of the most iconic brutalist buildings of the city. There’s everything in there: Art exhibitions, movie theater (with seasonal film festivals screenings), workshops, very well-equipped art studios, amazing library, coffee shop, theater, fashion week shows, and so on. My favorite of all, though, is the Green Terrace, where you can go bathe in the sun while you do your shadow work with your notebook.
Babi Mello
Cinesala
Who doesn’t love a cute cinema? Cinesala is the best street movie theater in my opinion. They are always screening festivals, the theaters are great, the cafeteria is great. And the fun part… There's a bar inside one of the Screen rooms, where you can watch the film from there. It is a very romantic, cool, and somewhat noir experience.
Babi Mello
25 de Março
This one doesn’t seem that romantic at first - it’s one of the main commercial centers in Latin America. You will find all sorts of things, if you have a curious eye and a well-protected phone. From feathers and beads, fabric, objects, to completely perverse bootleg versions of anything, I think this is a great place to find something different if you are not from here. It can be chaotic, but hey, you can’t experience a city only with its curated spaces and moments. Especially a South Global one
Babi Mello
Restaurante Lamen ASKA
I don’t care what anyone says; this is my favorite lamen place in the city. After a long day of working, studying, or wandering around looking for the perfect bootleg chanel earrings, this is the place to go. Solo, with a date, or even a friend you just met - get a drink in the bar next door because the line can be long. But it will be worth it, I promise. And this is how you end your day with a cozy meal and a moment that will feel like a scene from Lost in Translation vibes.
Babi Mello
Babi Mello is a multidisciplinary artist, creative director, researcher, and designer working across fashion, image-making, installation+objects and events. Their practice explores human relationships, urban life, and the ways identity is shaped through images, language, and digital culture, often investigating the tensions between public and private experience. Through installations, objects, garments, and social interventions, Babi examines how symbols and visual systems influence the way we understand ourselves and our surroundings. They also develop events and parties as spaces for experimentation and research, using collective experiences as a tool for observing and reimagining social dynamics. Founde of Prvoke (@prvoke.sp), a clothing project exploring the intersection of intimate fantasy, self-construction, and contemporary social life.