Art

Street art is the most common thing in Aalborg

Street art is booming these days and all over the world ugly walls and colorless façades are being brought to life with original murals. What started out as guerrilla art has become a sought-after branch of contemporary art that caters to all and not just those who go to galleries and museums.

Street art has added an element of surprise and new dimensions to many an urban space, and this is what the two men behind the WEAArt project wanted to bring to Aalborg.

Lars Bonde is himself an artist and runs the VÆG gallery, while Mads Mulvad is the artistic director of Studenterhuset in Aalborg. When they met in 2012, they were both dismayed at the lack of contemporary art in Aalborg’s urban spaces, so they decided to do something about it. Their ambition was for internationally recognized street artists to produce works of art around the city over a three-year period.

Street art is an expression of a kind of democratization of the art that makes it accessible to all. But it also has to respect the urban environment.

“Street art is far from unique to Aalborg, of course,” Bonde says. “It can be found in every self-respecting major city. The interesting thing here, though, is that we are a small provincial city that has managed to attract recognized artists from the street art scene, who during the course of the past 3–4 years have created over 40 works concentrated in the heart of the city. At the same time, this is a project that was born out of a private initiative and has been put together on a small budget.”