Boa Mistura: how to colour a city?
You’ve probably seen some of their urban interventions. Huge bright coloured anamorphic typography — does it sound familiar? Boa Mistura are a huge team, with roots on graffiti art. They’ve been together since they are 15 and, although they have an office in Madrid, they’re far from being a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. company, because their work is in the streets!
As a big team, they split in many projects at the same time. And 180 Creative Camp was happy to welcome some of the members in 2016’s edition. During the week, they developed a workshop, consisting in painting 2 different words in 2 different places of Abrantes, using anamorphic typography. As Àngela Amer says, it’s a game they play with the passersby! When you look it from the wrong angle, it seems a mess. When from the right point of view, it shapes into something, and that’s the special thing about this type of intervention.
The chosen words weren’t random: as you can see in the 180 ID, directed by Luís Sobreiro, they always spend some time getting to know the places they paint, its people, its story, so they can come out with a meaningful word. “Transition” was the word chosen to be painted in a cloister, as the place was under construction and therefore was being transformed. As for the word “Silence”, it was taken from a passagem of the poem “Paixão das Viagens”, by Mário Rui Cordeiro, who is a poet from Abrantes. The word seemed appropriate, according to the city’s surroundings and ambience.
Apart from that, they also painted a wall with a flowery pattern, since Abrantes was being celebrated as “Flowery City” in 2016. As the team says, it’s easier for locals to identify with drawings rather than words. Everyone knows words and has some opinion on them, so these type of interventions can be more shocking — but that is also the point!
In this new episode of 180 ID, you can get to know Boa Mistura a bit more and understand how is their work method. It was challenging to portray such a huge group talking only with part of it — however, the creative mind open spirit that characterizes it is common to every artist in the group.
