Mural Istanbul Festival: The biggest street art event in town!
Widely recognized artists will color up the city with huge murals/@istanbulstreetart
When it comes to street art culture, Istanbul surely has its own distinctive identity. It is versatile, dense and alive. Adaptive to the city’s chaotic environment, it’s evolving itself every year.
Despite the fact that street art culture is rather young in the city, with the vast energy of the local artists and the support of organisations and festivals, it is truly stepping up to the international scene to compete worldwide fame and visibility.
One of these festivals is Mural Istanbul Festival. Each year, the most widely recognized street artists from around the world are putting up an outdoor exhibition of huge murals that lightens up public spaces, stimulates community perception and national dialogue. With a festival so valuable, Istanbul’s street art has already become a worthy reason to visit this beautiful city.
Throughout the past years, Mural İstanbul brought more than 20 global artists together in a district called Kadıköy, including Jaz, INTI, Captain Borderline, Pixel Pancho, Freddy Sam and such.
A couple of these artists were en route when Occupy Gezi hit Istanbul. Therefore, some of them tailored their own perspective to reflect the present political situation. Festival is sponsored by Kadıköy Municipality, one of the most environmentalist and art-friendly municipalities in Istanbul.
The importance of this festival is non-debatable, considering the fact that street art is oftenly associated with graffiti and vandalism by the locals, the organisation changed the perception of the residents. Now everybody embraces the works of the artists, even asking for a special piece on their own building. It’s a huge step up for this culture to spread its wings.
Esk Reyn, one of the festival’s main organizer, also a street artist who will be painting for the festival: ‘‘The artists are selected according to their unique style, and it is really important for them to be ‘real’ street artists. We are not working with painters, nor who doesn’t have a background from the streets. Local residents used to chase after people who were painting streets, now they are offering them hot tea in pots.’’
The organisation also encouraged gender equality in street art by giving a chance to the female artists of İstanbul to perform their work on big walls.
On its 5th birthday Mural Istanbul will bring international artists together such as Aryz, Rustam Qbic, Deih, Kristy Sandoval and Levi Ponce along with local street artists such as Esk Reyn, Cins, Wicx and Canavar.
Mural Istanbul Festival will take place between June and September, coloring up the big, deaf walls in Kadıköy, hoping to spread this spirit to the entire city.
As Street Art Istanbul, we will keep introducing you these walls, liberated by the artists hands. Beyond Mural Istanbul Festival, our main purpose is to maximize the impact of street art in the city. You can download our App to check every piece made for Mural Istanbul Festival and read the stories behind them.
If you ever bumped into any of the murals belong to the festival, share them with #sanatinparcasiol hashtag and we will share it on our Instagram page.
Stay tuned for more!
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