MORE than 20 artists from all over the world were invited to Shenzhen in August to paint murals on the walls of the Dafen Art Museum in Dafen Village, a place given over entirely to the art of painting and the only place of its kind in the world.

Organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Planning and Land Resources Commission, the project, titled “Examine the Village, Paint the City,” attracted Alexandros Vasmoulakis from Greece, Rami Meirri from Israel, Caleb Neelon from the United States, Ata Bozaci from Switzerland, Hendrik Beikirch from Germany, the Bogside Artists from Ireland, and several others from China and beyond.

According to the planners, the project was intended to explore how murals can match a city’s public space and how murals can revitalize an industrialized city.

“By using Dafen’s walls, the project tells the public that murals can bring warmness, intimacy and a sense of art to urban people,” said Meng Yan, chief designer of Urbanus, a design firm based in Overseas Chinese Town in Nanshan District. Urbanus, the curatorial team for the project, designed the Dafen Art Museum in 2005 and the Shanghai Expo’s Shenzhen Pavilion.

“Shenzhen is filled by commercial elements and what we see are all advertisements,” said Meng. “If you see an advertisement on the street, you feel it has nothing to do with you, but if you see a mural, you can feel the artist’s emotions and thoughts, and then you feel you are a part of it.”

Some muralists questioned urbanization through their works. Street artist Faith47 from South Africa, who painted a giant ox led by a man reading a mobile phone. “The ox represents rural life in the past, while the man, the present. He enters modernization but still misses the tranquil life in the past,” said Faith47. “Sometimes, urban life makes us depressed and feel lost. If there are murals in a city’s public space, you will be touched when you pass by and murals may give you ideas and positivity.”

U.S. muralist Neelon, who painted an amusement park with strong colors on the wall and titled it “Have Fun,” said: “When I was 13, I visited the Berlin Wall in Germany, where I saw all kinds of graffiti and murals. At that time, I knew murals were not only an improvisational art, but also a symbol of freedom. So, don’t care about the name of my work, just have fun.”

The international muralists, who made their first visits to Shenzhen, were full of praise for the artistic community. Meanwhile they also thought with the explosive growth of Shenzhen, the city needed more colors and artistic elements for its buildings.

“Dafen has already a huge concentration of artists, and regardless of the fact that they do replica oil paintings, a lot of them do personal work. If the local government encourages them to do originals and frequently invites international artists to share the latest artistic trends and techniques with them, they would be top of the world,” said Tom Kelly, who represented Ireland at the event as one of the Bogside Artists. The trio, including Tom’s brother William Kelly and Kevin Hasson, created a mural depicting the transition of old China to a new modern power.

Tom Kelly said that before he created murals, he would like to have conversations with neighborhood to know their history, mood and what they pursue. “Murals come from the surrounding reality and reflect life. As long as you express your own feelings, you don’t have to worry whether viewers will understand it or not and my work never caters to government’s taste,” he said.

Zhou Hongmei, an official with the urban planning commission, hopes that the Dafen public mural project can be extended to other places in Shenzhen and she has decided to propose to the municipal government, suggesting holding an international mural biennale for Shenzhen.

“The project, which is also an experiment, reminds us that public space can be beautiful and inspires us on how to redesign that space,” said Zhou.

(Cao Zhen)

MORE than 20 artists from all over the world were invited to Shenzhen in August to paint murals on the walls of the Dafen Art Museum in Dafen Village, a place given over entirely to the art of painting and the only place of its kind in the world.

Organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Urban Planning and Land Resources Commission, the project, titled “Examine the Village, Paint the City,” attracted Alexandros Vasmoulakis from Greece, Rami Meirri from Israel, Caleb Neelon from the United States, Ata Bozaci from Switzerland, Hendrik Beikirch from Germany, the Bogside Artists from Ireland, and several others from China and beyond.

According to the planners, the project was intended to explore how murals can match a city’s public space and how murals can revitalize an industrialized city.

“By using Dafen’s walls, the project tells the public that murals can bring warmness, intimacy and a sense of art to urban people,” said Meng Yan, chief designer of Urbanus, a design firm based in Overseas Chinese Town in Nanshan District. Urbanus, the curatorial team for the project, designed the Dafen Art Museum in 2005 and the Shanghai Expo’s Shenzhen Pavilion.

“Shenzhen is filled by commercial elements and what we see are all advertisements,” said Meng. “If you see an advertisement on the street, you feel it has nothing to do with you, but if you see a mural, you can feel the artist’s emotions and thoughts, and then you feel you are a part of it.”

Some muralists questioned urbanization through their works. Street artist Faith47 from South Africa, who painted a giant ox led by a man reading a mobile phone. “The ox represents rural life in the past, while the man, the present. He enters modernization but still misses the tranquil life in the past,” said Faith47. “Sometimes, urban life makes us depressed and feel lost. If there are murals in a city’s public space, you will be touched when you pass by and murals may give you ideas and positivity.”

U.S. muralist Neelon, who painted an amusement park with strong colors on the wall and titled it “Have Fun,” said: “When I was 13, I visited the Berlin Wall in Germany, where I saw all kinds of graffiti and murals. At that time, I knew murals were not only an improvisational art, but also a symbol of freedom. So, don’t care about the name of my work, just have fun.”

The international muralists, who made their first visits to Shenzhen, were full of praise for the artistic community. Meanwhile they also thought with the explosive growth of Shenzhen, the city needed more colors and artistic elements for its buildings.

“Dafen has already a huge concentration of artists, and regardless of the fact that they do replica oil paintings, a lot of them do personal work. If the local government encourages them to do originals and frequently invites international artists to share the latest artistic trends and techniques with them, they would be top of the world,” said Tom Kelly, who represented Ireland at the event as one of the Bogside Artists. The trio, including Tom’s brother William Kelly and Kevin Hasson, created a mural depicting the transition of old China to a new modern power.

Tom Kelly said that before he created murals, he would like to have conversations with neighborhood to know their history, mood and what they pursue. “Murals come from the surrounding reality and reflect life. As long as you express your own feelings, you don’t have to worry whether viewers will understand it or not and my work never caters to government’s taste,” he said.

Zhou Hongmei, an official with the urban planning commission, hopes that the Dafen public mural project can be extended to other places in Shenzhen and she has decided to propose to the municipal government, suggesting holding an international mural biennale for Shenzhen.

“The project, which is also an experiment, reminds us that public space can be beautiful and inspires us on how to redesign that space,” said Zhou.

(Cao Zhen)