Building a future through Street Art
This is the last post of this blog, and, because I like to follow my habits, I’m doing it about culture and sustainability, once again. And to finally honour the background picture of this blog (If you have ever noticed it) I decided to write about Street art and sustainability, or how even the little details can make a statement about our greatest issues.
Last week, I visited for the second time Shoreditch, the capital of London Street Art. The first time I went there, I had booked a tour with my friends, and besides all the beautiful pieces I saw, one of the only things I can remember is the repeated motto of the guide: ‘Pay attention to details’. And so last week, when I visited the place on my own this time, this is what I did. And I found something that probably goes unnoticed to a lot of people: on a balcony, someone had put a box filled with three little characters, each holding a banner with a warning on it:
I am not sure about what this isolated piece says. If the message it carries is so important, why choosing such a small piece to spread it? Maybe that’s the whole point go the author, that warnings often go unnoticed, or that demonstrations don’t necessarily have an impact on changing behaviours.
If that is a pretty pessimistic view on the topic, a lot of street artists see it differently, and actually use their art to make an change. Here are some examples of street artists or street art projects that have a visible and positive impact on Sustainability.
Bahia Shebab: Spraying ‘No’ to Violence
Street art in Egypt became particularly prominent during the Egyptian revolution in 2011, as a way for the oppressed voices of the people to freely express themselves. Bahia Shebab is one of the many artists who fought that revolution through through street art, by responding ‘No’ to every negative event happening during the 18 days of the crisis. By expressing herself through her art, she fought for equality, stood against a system that was unsustainable both for the people and the country, and by doing so, contributed in the building of a more sustainable future for Egypt.
el Seed: Preserving Culture through ‘Caligrafiti’
I discovered El Seed last year, in the Art and Revolution module. El Seed was born in France to Tunisian parents and started learning arabic when he was 18. Since then, he uses the language to spread messages of peace all over the world, and by doing so, be an ambassador of his culture.
Haas&Hahn Giving colours back to neighbourhoods
Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn are two artists that took it as their mission to transform disadvantaged neighbourhoods through their painting projects. They started in Rio’s favelas, where they drew a mural of a boy and his kite on the façade of a building. Since then, they have projects all over the world aiming to transform neighbourhoods: their projects go in the way of sustainability in many ways: Socially, they engage the community in doing something positive. Culturally, they allow the neighbourhoods to shift from their reputation not always flattering: The favelas are ruled by drug dealers and are animated by conflicts between the police and the gangs. By giving it colours, they attract positive attention towards the favela. You can check out their website to check out more of their artwork all over the world.
Ouzville: Demarginalizing neighbourhoods
In the same spirit of the projects of Haas&Haan, the Ouzville project first aimed to make the slum of Ouzai in Lebanon accessible to everyone and to change the stigma against it. Launched by the business man Ayad Nasser, the project united both Lebanese and International artists to paint murals over the walls of the neighbourhood. Nasser stated in an interview he gave to Middle East Eye that: ‘When you land at the Beirut airport, Ouzai is the one thing you see from the plane. It is the first image you get of Lebanon and I want it to be positive’. The project has now more than 10000 followers on Facebook and 3000 on Instagram, a number growing every day. It is now being developed in other neighbourhoods of Beirut. The goal is to break stereotypes affected to the neighbourhoods where the project is developed.
Those four projects are relatively large scale projects and their impact seems evident. But what to do with smaller pieces like the three characters in their box? I think it all comes back to what my guide in Shoreditch repeats: ‘Pay attention to details’ : If we’re expecting long term change, we can’t just wait for the big projects to do the work alone, but we need to put efforts in little details of our every day life.
On this (deep) note, I am closing this blog. I hope you enjoyed following it!
Camille Fattal