Portugal is the country of eternal sunshine with beautiful views and delicious food, but not only that. What captivated me already in the first week was the street art, the murals, the graffiti on many streets that can be seen everywhere. You don’t have to go far in search of such places. There are many of them on “our side”, so you don’t have to go to Lisbon, which is so well-known and recommended. Of course, there are also places with simple scribbles on the walls, but I will skip that fact. One such street can be found in the area around the naval zone, which is of course closed to civilians.
The tram stop closest to our flat in Laranjeiro
is an excellent example.
The unusual and modern street art I got to know after arriving here belongs to artists from Portugal. I love and admire both artists, their works can be found not only in Portugal but all over the world. One of the artists is Bordalo II (more exactly Artur Bordalo), he creates his works from urban waste, and gives them a second life. He uses abandoned objects, waste and rubbish from construction sites, building ruins, cars and factories, among others, mixing them to create a new artistic object. As a result, his graffiti is three-dimensional, becoming bas-reliefs and high reliefs.
The second artist I would like to mention is Vhils, who creates his works in an explosive way. To be exact, for his art he does not use paint or spray (as other artists do), but makes use of what is already on the wall (e.g. deteriorating plaster), and his working tools are a hammer, a chisel and a drill. He also uses the detonation of explosives for his art.
