“Che bello: ti chiamano a dipingere graffiti, così fai quello che ti piace e vedi il mondo”.
Mi è stata data la possibilità di visitare Anversa e Gent, due città in cui la collaborazione tra writer e istituzioni sta crescendo, anche se attualmente stanno portando avanti progetti differenti, dal momento che, sostanzialmente, a Gent è già attivo un tour dedicato specificamente alla street art, mentre ad Anversa ancora no. “Concrete Canvas Tour” (questo è il nome del progetto) prevede due percorsi prestabiliti con tanto di mappa (uno più breve da percorrere a piedi e uno più impegnativo da completare in bicicletta), che vi fa attraversare la città visitando sia zone centrali che periferiche scoprendo quindi il territorio e le opere di vari artisti.
I graffiti sono opere in divenire, nel senso che il meteo li usura e deteriora, ma molte volte anche i writer passano sopra ai loro lavori (o a quelli degli altri) per svariati motivi: di conseguenza sarà interessante anche capire se e come riusciranno a mantenere aggiornata questa accattivante proposta turistica. Come dicevo, nel campo della street art in Italia non siamo messi poi così male e mi sembra opportuno segnalarvi il progetto Frontier, che sta dando la possibilità a personalità di spicco della scena italiana e internazionale di rivalutare alcune pareti della città di Bologna.
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The Belgian street art seen by @Stailuan
“What a beautiful thing: you are called to paint graffitos, so you do what you like and you see the world”.
Yes, it’s true: the problem is that those who see a graffiti writer generally see them in the subway of a horrible suburb, at the wall of a destroyed factory or at the walls of an old grey gym. Or, at least, very often this is what happens or what happened. I have had the task to go to discover which the situation of the street art in Flanders is and I return to Italy with an interesting experience among rain, graffitos and tour by bike on pavé to share it with you.
I was given the opportunity to visit Anversa and Gent, two cities where cooperation between writers and institutions is growing, even if currently they are carrying out different projects, considering that in Gent a tour dedicated specifically to street art is already active, while in Anversa it is not, yet. “Concrete Canvas Tour” (this is the name of the project) includes two fixed paths with map (one shorter for walks and one more challenging to complete by bike) that makes you cross the city visiting both central and peripheral areas in order to discover the territory and the works of several artists.
In my humble opinion, the level of the local scene is not superior to the Italian one. On the contrary, we should highlight how in this field we’ve historically been able to offer a great stylistic level both in the individuals and in some crews. The fact remains, thought, that also Belgium and in this case Gent, is able to propose a good average level and some celebrities such as Roa, who’s famous for painting enormous animals in black and white, and Bue – that instead has a style much more bound to the cartoons and vectorial graphics. Without anything detracting to all others, of course.
Graffitos are works in progress, because the weather wears out and deteriorates them, but many times also writers retouch their jobs (or those of others) for several reasons: so it will be interesting also to understand if and how they can keep this enduring tourist offer updated. As I was saying, in the field of the street art in Italy we are not so bad and I think that it is important to tell you about the Frontier project, which is giving Italian and international prominent characters the possibility of revaluating some walls of the city of Bologna.
As regards the city of Anversa, instead, it was possible to meet a famous local artist, Steve Locatelli just while he was making a huge work, near the train station and he explained how, with the passing of the years, his situation has changed from having to paint secretly and fight to win a wall, to be contacted instead (and often paid) to draw. A path reserved to a few people of course, but that it is similar to what has happened in Italy too. I advise you of course to visit his website, together with Derm’s one, another artist that was painting in that very moment, because their level is very high. In both places, the best way to visit all the halls of fame is getting on a bike and start exploring these beautiful works, bearing in mind that the pavé will always be with you, or rather under you. Bicycle, pavé, graffitos: welcome to the tour of the steert art in Flanders.
Translated by Classe 4B indirizzo “Turismo” ISIS Follonica