muralismo @ festival of world cultures

dublin | arts and media | opinion/analysis

Saturday August 28, 2004 13:19

by dunk

fuspey at yahoo dot co dot uk

Park Road Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th · 12pm - 6.00pm · family, all ages
FREE

muralismo is happening this weekend, a giant mural will be painted alongside peoples park dun laoighre as part of festival

some indymedia people are trying to do "communication action"; hopefully this will happen
petit cinema, imc boards, printflares, take pictures and hopefully make little documentary with nicaragua team FUNARTE?

muralismo

Over the Festival of world cultures this weekend Park Road, alongside the People's Park, will transform from a tranquil residential thoroughfare to a dazzling multi-coloured street-mural project created by a group of young Nicaraguan mural-painters, a collective called FURNATE. Deriving its theme from local community groups, the Muralismo team will paint an impressive mural stretching the length of the road . This exciting and colourful project is a joint venture between the Festival of World Cultures, Mayfield Community Arts Centre in Cork and their South American partners FURNATE, who will travel from Nicaragua for this event.

Murals play an important role in the life of Nicaragua. There are a number of reasons for this but many are to be found in the violent history that the country has suffered over the past 30 years. Murals first became a strong element of life in parts of Nicaragua in 1987. They were linked to the Sandinistas and were initially painted by people as political statements from a community that had been racked by poverty and violence.

The “Muralismo” Project which began in 1988 and is based in the town of Estelí is an attempt to help young people look at their realities and then to ask how these realities could be changed and transformed. Muralismo run workshops which try to restore young people’s self-esteem but also help them to look at the society in which they live and to imagine what they want for their futures. Most of the children come form the barrios (shanty towns) of Estelí and include a number of street children, child labourers and disabled children. The issues and beliefs of the children of Estelí are now to be seen all over the walls of the town. The murals depict the dreams of a new Nicaragua as well as being a living testimony to the development and growth of the children.

links:
http://www.dlrcoco.ie/festivalofworldcultures/muralismo.htm
http://www.materdei.ie/logos/murals.doc

this relates to healthier more playful urban systems, there is a very interesting discussion going on here about that, if you would care to participate
"be realistic, demand the impossible"
http://easa.antville.org/stories/887874/#896471

on now- making the world more colorful

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Comments (4 of 4)

muralismo @ festival of world cultures - Photos

by Noise Hacker

Sat Aug 28, 2004 21:44

Park Road
Dun Laoghaire
Saturday 28th

Looks Beautiful

by critic

Mon Aug 30, 2004 13:08

Finally some examples of beautiful street art on Indymedia. congratulations to everyone involved. There is just no comparison between this and the usual sloganeering rubbish that is normally posted as 'art' here.

indymedia radio interview with muralismo gang

Tue Aug 31, 2004 00:06

"all different, all equal"
this is a 7 minute interview
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/muralismo.wav
between imc-dunk, micelle whooley from mayfield arts centre, julio from nicuraqua who is now a tutor and been invovled with muralismo since he was 9, michelle from mayfield who was very emotional after the end of the process. most people were covered in paint, signatures on t-shirts, tears and smiles

4 nicuraquans travelled over to ireland 10 days ago, they worked with the children in mayfield and then came up to dublin with about 30 people from cork to dublin for this special event.
they painted a 40 foot mural on panels which were demouned and taken back to cork where they will be hung in bodegas pub untill a more permanent home can be found for the mural
this project is leading into a bigger one with cork being 2005`s city of culture

"all different, all equal" was the theme
there was a lot of colour, a lot of hugging, crying, laughing, final goodbyes.
the team have been working for 3 weeks on this, consensus is reached between the group, no ones ideas are rejected, the children have to work out what they want to say through the medium of the mural

i am very sorry i got out so late- i hope the specialness of this process comes through in the short interview and i hope that more of this muralismo appears all over the world

the mayfield muralismo gang

sharon and julio with a lot of paint on his trousers

“Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things”

Tue Mar 01, 2005 02:00

next muralismo event
http://www.cork2005.ie/programme/default.asp?id=333&p=50

Young people from Community Arts Projects in four countries will exchange and explore themes related to identity and equality throughout 2005.

As part of its broader aims of facilitating access and participation in the arts for young people, Mayfield Community Arts Centre will host four young artists from Funarte, Brazil to collaborate with young people in painting murals and creating a resource pack to facilitate schools and youth groups exploring equality issues through peer education.

In July 2005 a three week, youth-art residency with participants from four partner countries will result in the production of a series of collaborative art projects/events, with a public bus touring the work at the close of the project.

and a link to history of muralismo and the sandinistas revolución in the 1980's
http://www.siennamoonfire.com/nica/historia.php

Change for Children, the esteli project that has carried on the tradition which led to above muralismo @ dun laoighre
http://www.changeforchildren.org/paintingpeace/mural/index.php

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muralismo @ festival of world cultures

Comments (4 of 4)