Brussels, the capital of street art!

For quite some time, street art is becoming more and more important in Brussels. The number of works is growing and the city is working on establishment of a ‘street art route’. RTBF reported that each year, 100,000 euros are dedicated to hosting artists in the field of urban art.

There is a huge variety of works all around the city. One example is Détours Festival in which City of Brussels invited Galician artist Isaac Cordal to display his work in the city centre. Pay attention, in an already colorful pedestrian zone now you can find tiny statuettes on the front of the Bourse building or at nearby Ancienne Belgique.

Brussels is developing routes that will connect the existing diverse works and allow locals and tourists to explore and discover amazing wealth of urban art. Many of the works are located in less-known, non-touristic streets of the city.

Another example – by the artist named “Jaune” put in scene the workers of the public cleanliness. The artist has already signed 5 works in Brussels.

RTBF made a video examining the role of urban art and its place in the public domain. For example, it is very hard to obtain a permission in order to create some of the frescoes on the walls. But Brussels can benefit greatly from street art, not just in bringing creativity to the streets but also boosting attractiveness of the city. This is why the city authorities decided not to erase some of the very much discussed ‘taboo’ works which appeared recently all around the city – such as the giant penis painted in Saint-Gilles or, more recently, the fresco representing a female masturbation, along the canal in Brussels. You can also read our article on how urban art and murals make Brussels attractive. In addition to the booming urban art, it is also worth noting that more and more people consider Brussels as the centre of contemporary art scene in Europe.

In case you want to explore by yourself, VRT news made this handy map with the locations of some of the most interesting murals all around the city. They also talked to the street art expert Björn Van Poucke who claims that recent sexually-explicit murals are works of the same artist. According to expert, the masturbating woman is the sixth in a series of the same artist, and even more works should be expected.

Head photo by @gilbert_west /Instagram