Last week, the first Biennial of Public Art and Muralism took place in Cali, Colombia; inviting 33 artists, 17 international artists. This is a pretty big deal given that Cali is a medium scale city that has struggled with drug cartels and violence. In recent years, the city has made efforts to develop more positive outlets for communities through various non profit and government ran projects. Considering Cali’s context, bringing together international artists to create murals and workshops proves that the development of community awareness to nurture cities, towns and neighborhoods is spreading via public art throughout various geopolitical boundaries. Festivals like this are inspired by street art movements in Europe and the U.S, and although some headliners in Cali’s Biennial of Public Art and Muralism are from those countries, most artists and speakers are Latin American and I can only predict that more festivals (organized and headlined by Latinos) are going to take force in Central and South America in order to give agency and more local cultural context to those artists and their communities.
Here are some works by Spaik (Mexico) in the Stadium Pascual Guerrero, Cali.
And here are some works by Painters (Chile) in the Stadium Pascual Guerrero, Cali.
Photos courtesy of Painters and Spaik
