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Call for Mural Show

January 25, 2008

This just came through the inbox from the Wouter Osterholt en Elke Uitentuis in the Netherlands, seems like a cool project:
Speaking Through Walls
We’re looking for people that can help us finding political/revolutionary murals for a project called ‘Speaking Through Walls’ that will be presented during the art exhibition ‘Ground’, September 2008 in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
The murals can be made by professionals, amateurs, protest groups, schools, government, children, etc. For us it’s more important to find murals that tell a story about situations of social injustice within your county than the esthetic beauty of the painting. Do you know any murals in your surrounding that would fit within our project and would you like to help us out? Please contact us and give us as much information about it as possible.


Concept:
Social justice movements always had their visual voice. This visual language serves to propagate ideals and a positive vision of the future, encouraging resistance against the oppressive forces, and cultivating a pride in the construction of an alternative. Historical and contemporary events can be effectively ‘told’ by murals. Imagery leads to further questioning and understanding within a community about the historical events, which have led people to their current social and political position
We are looking for existing murals from all over the world that are visualizing resistance against occupation, (post) colonialism and oppression. We want to kindly ask muralists to allow us to make an extension of their voice, by copying the mural in the city centre of Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The murals are going to be presented for two months in total. The muralist doesn’t need to be a professional artist. We’re looking for murals representing the voices of the people.
As a result of the ‘new’ communication technologies and migration, a new countermovement started in the Netherlands, searching for their cultural identity and roots. This introvert attitude now prevails. We feel the need to break through this indulgence in navel-gazing and stimulate the awareness towards (former) conflict situations / injustice all over the world. Of course people receive a big amount of images through the media already but the enormous quantity of information seems to reduce the feeling of connection. It’s time to search for new strategies beyond the well-known media such as television, radio and newspapers
One possible strategy might be to implement the information in the physical public space. In other words: to present the stories from far away just around the corner. How will people relate to the social engaged murals if they suddenly appear in their own environment? Will the physical confrontation with the political / revolutionary murals contribute to a more direct feeling of involvement?
During the exhibition period we want to organise a guided tour to inform the public about the background of all different murals and we make a publication. The copies of the murals will be made in cooperation with local street/graffiti-artists from Eindhoven.
What do you have to do?
Send us a good quality picture of your mural by email of minimal before the 1st of June.
And the following information about the mural (if possible):
Title:
Size:
Address:
Town:
Country:
Where does the mural stand for?
Background information about the political and social context:
And the following information about the artist (if possible):
Name:
Day of birth:
Address:
Zip code / town:
Country:
Email:
Telephone:
For more information about us:
www.osterholtuitentuis.nl
www.publicinterface.org

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