The great success of last October’s expedition, when ICBIE president Pietro Gallina brought two Salvador city councilmen and our artists Julio and Bigode to Italy, caused the city of Salvador to plan another, even more ambitious, trip, visiting France, Germany, Spain and Italy, following an itinerary meticulously prepared, once again, by Pietro. This time, he will accompany the city councilman Edvando Luiz Castro Pinto, the photographer José Francisco Paranaguá Guimarães and three Salvador Grafita artists, both to show off the city’s innovative program in support of street art, and to offer the lads an opportunity to absorb the cultural treasures of Europe.
The three fortunate artists are:
- Julio – our wonderful ICBIE artist, and leader of the crew Nova 10Ordem.
- Pinel – an ex-juvenile delinquent who reformed and joined the Salvador Grafita project in 1995, becoming a protagonist of Bahian street art.
- Lee 27 – one of north Brazil’s most famous graffiti artists, a protagonist of Bahian hip-hop culture since 1993, who has worked in Brasilia and São Paulo; his art has been used by Coca-Cola, Johnny Walker and Red Bull, and he has collaborated with UNESCO.
They will depart on the evening of the eleventh of April, arriving in Paris on the twelfth. On the fourteenth they will travel to Limburg, Germany, where they will be hosted by LahnArtists, the cultural center directed by our great friends Renate Kuby and Steve Whitton. They will be received by the mayor in city hall and meet with local artists and a famous group of street artists from Wiesbaden. They will also spend a morning painting the old LahnArtists VW bus!
On the seventeenth they will travel to Marseilles and on the eighteenth they will arrive in Barcelona, where our enthusiastic supporters Celeste and Veronique have organized a big event with local artists at the city’s spectacular Centric Point Hostel.
On April 21st they will fly to Rome, staying until April 24th, when everyone but Pietro and Julio will return to Salvador.
