Recently, I stumbled across an article in Gazete Kadıköy which had an interesting article on Street Art coming to Kadıköy, Istanbul. I decided to translate this article as well as go to view the street art in person. I was very impressed by the artists’ skills. They are certainly masters. However, their art work was a little enigmatic. I wished I could have had the artist with me to explain it. Let me recommend that you look and decide.
Here is the article.
“The Walls of the Windmill Neighborhood will be Painted by Artists“*
The “Mural/Street Art Festival” is sponsored by the Municipality of Kadıköy and Çekül Vakfı (The Foundation for the Protection and Promotion of the Environment and Cultural Heritage) and carries a special place as the first time a building’s entire façade is to be painted in Turkey.
This kind of art is becoming more and more popular in the world. In this kind of art a large speechless wall inside the city is turned into a canvass for painting (Mural Art or Wall Art). With the skill of a street artist, what seems to be a big, empty, and (normally) frightful façade is turned into one of the most attractive places in the city.
For one week this year, four artists will join the first organized Mural-ist/Street Art Festival in Windmill Neighborhood, one of the original neighborhoods in Kadıköy. The facades will come alive with paint. These artists will carry the art to the streets.
Here is who will be included in the Windmill Neighborhood Renovation Project, supported by the Municipality of Kadıköy and the Çekül Foundation. The Italian Pixel Pancho will be on Nüshet Efendi Street from September 21st-26th; The French Almose will be on Karakolhane Avenue from September 26th-30th; and the German Dome along with the Brazilian Claudio Ethos will be on Misaki Milli Street from September 22nd-30th.
In addition during the Festival there will be workshops, films and exhibitions, which can be viewed in the streets of Windmill Neighborhood. In the evening of September 28 all those who have come to the Festival, the artists, the neighborhood people and those passionate about street art will meet for a street party on Iskele Street.
In the upcoming years the goal is to spread beyond the borders of Windmill Neighborhood to encompass all the neighborhoods that give support to the Mural-ist street artists, helping these neighborhoods to come alive with color.
Street Art/What is Street art?
In the last few years we have often heard of examples in the world and in Turkey of “Street Art.” This is a trend that has carved its own road out of the graffiti culture and is also known as “post-graffiti.” This term was used in the 1980s in New York and it regards the street as an artistic surface.
Many artists have decided to use the street to rebel against the supremacy of advertising. It is possible to see the work of graffiti and Street Art in the world’s important cities. The work of important artists continues in Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Barcelona and many other cities. However, in Turkey this artistic trend has only come in the last five years, and particularly to Istanbul.
Graffiti and street and mural artists are against the depressing and stagnant advertisements in cities and are against exploitation in the world. Their dreams are big. They have become warriors for not giving free reign to these advertisements and exploitation in their cities, streets and the places where they live.
*(This is an article from Gazete Kadıköy’s article “Yeldeğirmeni duvarları ‘Sanatla’ boyanacak!” Written by Semra Çelebi and translated by permission.)
İstanbul'da ne var? 