News of the Salvador Grafita European tour is beginning to trickle in. The sojourn in Paris was packed full of exciting activities, including a visit to a prestigious private art school near the Bastille and a meeting with a group of writers from the banlieues. When pictures and more detailed news arrive, they will be posted here.
On Monday the group left Paris for Limburg, Germany, where they stayed until this morning, when they departed for Marseilles. Thanks to the staunch ICBIE supporter, Steve Whitton, photos and a vivid account of that visit have arrived. This is what Steve had to say about his visitors:
Following their great success in Paris (more news as soon as Pietro has an hour free), the ICBIE group had a long trip to Limburg that was a mixture of storms, wind and heavy rain – typical April weather in this part of Europe. They arrived on the Monday evening to a great meal, plenty of wine, beer and fruit juices, and plenty of humour as well. And, most important, 2 warm houses and 6 warm beds!
Limburg is a small, historical town between Köln and Frankfurt. It has a wonderful “Altstadt”, with houses nearly a thousand years old, and is cut in half by the River Lahn and its green, extremely pleasant valley. On Tuesday morning, the Mayor of Limburg, Herr Martin Richard, welcomed all six shivering visitors from Salvador with some German Sekt (Champagne) and presented Pietro with a book about the town, after which Edvando “Tucunaré” from the Prefeitura de Salvador presented the Mayor with a book about the Salvador Graffiti Project. The translator for the day, Herman de Bruin, then took the visitors up to the famous Limburg Cathedral, followed by some warmth and coffee in the equally famous Melonis, the best café this side of Switzerland.
The group then went to the Lahn Artists Art Centre, and took the chance to paint some quick pictures in acrylic with the help of Renate Kuby, the president of the 50-strong Lahn Artists group. But sprayers really just want to spray! When an old VW camping bus arrived, owned by one of the artist members who had given his permission to “do what they wanted” with it, the cans came out and with an interested and sometimes active audience, the bus gradually changed into an art object. It is great, and will stop the traffic wherever it goes this summer! 21 members on art courses also arrived, plus some local sprayers who mixed very happily despite not sharing a common spoken language – Michael Schuy (the main sponsor of Lahn Artists) provided some wonderful fillet steak, and the whole evening turned into a great party. Lahn Artists also has a new “graffiti” sign at the front (soon to feature on the Lahn Artists website), as well as a lot of new friends.
Wednesday started easily with a relaxed trip to Frankfurt, but the spray cans came out again later in Wiesbaden when the Limburg and Salvador sprayers met up once again, this time to paint some walls at the world famous Meetings of Style Schlachthof” site. This is an extraordinary place with some extraordinary artworks – some political, some historical, some just colourful designs – and even the rain did not dampen the enthusiasm. That feeling continued with the last event, an open meeting in the Irish Pub back in Limburg, but in this case, it was Guinness rather than rainwater….. The black stuff went down well, and as your correspondent listens to the contented sounds of sleep from the oh-so-tired ICBIE travelers, the feeling is that the trip to Germany was interesting, full of humour and memorable – many thanks to all in Salvador, Rome and Limburg who made it all possible!
