We arrived back in our beloved Algarve late Wednesday, and spent most of Thursday settling into our new apartment, catching up with stall holders in the market and enjoying a very long lunch at our favourite restaurant Vai e Volta. Took us until Friday to explore the town, and just look at what we found.
These fabulous murals take up the whole of Largo and Rua da Fábrica Velha, on the edge of the Bairro do Levante, in Olhão. They are the work of four artists who specialise in urban art – Asur, a Portuguese artist known as dgiphi for commission work, and Pedro “Mistik”, “Gnose” and “Kaset” from The Satori Artistic Association.
The association was set up in 1999 and is Algarvian based – currently located on the Salir bridge. They aim to train, support and give opportunities to unrecognized artists, and clearly are well recognised and well respected in the Algarve since it was the council which commissioned them to undertake this work.
They used old photographs as their source material, and so within a few minutes you quickly get a feel for what life was once like here. Apparently a few locals visited the artists during the gallery creation to point out that it was them or a parent they were painting.
But they haven’t just brought Olhão’s past to life, they have also turned what were once dilapidated buildings into a fabulous street gallery.
There are three different styles as the artists worked on their own walls. I liked them all and together they create something quite special. On one side there is the detail of the factory workers, then around the corner there are the back streets of Olhão, and then there is life at and beside the sea.
If you want to discover more about the artists, including a great shot of the four of them visit here, and for more Six Word Saturdays visit Debbie.
What a wonderful project, combining history and art–just great.
Oh I’m so glad you agree – it’s fabulous isn’t it 😀
Superb! The Portuguese seem to have a special liking for murals as wherever I’ve been I’ve seen something like this, even the Azores and Madeira.
They certainly do. Has transformed this area. I love it 😀
They started in about beginning of june,and initially thought it was sponsored by Pingo Dove,until it continued spreading.The mature veg lady was a little upset,when she had to move her pitch for a few days…
Does the Olhao pong,not get to you? We originally thought it was the mud,at low
Wow so they only took three months – that’s incredible.
Oh I know her – so glad she’s still around as not seen her at farmer’s market recently. I can imagine her getting cross!
Hee hee yes the pong can be strong at times! All being well should not be a problem in a year or two – in the meanwhile we like the fact it keeps tourists away from the salt-pans!!
Those are splendid!
They are aren’t they! I had walked past the first one so busy chatting to MrB and then suddenly we both stopped and I think our jaws dropped to the floor. Was some time before we moved on again from the square!
How wonderful to find these. I wonder why they are not in colour though? Some of the top photos remind me of Diego Rivera’s work and the murals I saw in San Francisco. https://smallbluegreenwords.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/sunday-stills-the-next-challenge-murals/ which also depict the signs of the time.
Diego’s work is fabulous – can certainly see why they reminded you.
I guess in B&W as the photographs would have probably been in b&w. They reminded me of a Pittsburgh artist – Doug Cooper https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/dcooper/universitymural.html
Must be so much more difficult to paint using only monochrome though.
One of them when interviewed said how much he enjoyed working with and creating the shadows so guess if you enjoy it it is worth the challenge.
Have to say where they are the B&W works so well . . .
I imagine it does work well in that wonderful light.
Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy fpr yourself later this year?
I raised the idea and didn’t get a “no way” 🙂
😀 exciting
Fantastic. I missed this entirely during my long walk around Olhão’s back streets the other day!
Hee hee! We missed it Thursday too despite it only being round the corner from Vai e Volta – thank goodness we explored again yesterday. 😀
I saw these on a recent visit to Olhão and was really impressed by them. They are a fitting tribute to Olhão’s past and brighten up these abandoned canning factory buildings. I was wondering if they have plans to turn the buildings into a museum as they have done in Portimão.
Not heard of anything yet but they’ve created an outdoor museum on the main street so who knows what might happen.
Fabulous, just the sort of stuff I was delighted to come across last year in Portugal!
Thought you might like this 😊
What an incredible body of work, Becky! And how swiftly they’ve brought it together. 🙂 I can’t wait to come and have a look. Think it might have to be Vai e Volta again. 🙂 🙂
Fantastic – it is just around the corner from Vai e Volta so you’ll be able to visit before and after lunch 🙂
I was overwhelmed by it, just fabulous. Have to go back early one morning me thinks when hopefully there’ll be less cars
Yes, I recognised the location. Good for the council for commissioning something like this. Not all bad, the changes 🙂 🙂
That’s true 🙂