80 Street Artists Flock to RiNo for CRUSH Walls
Written by Elysian Koglmeier on behalf of the Public Art Archive
Mundano, a Brazilian street artist and activist based in São Paulo, joined 80 other street artists in the RiNo Arts District streets of Denver for a week-long festival.
Street artists from around the world shared their vibrant colors, eye-catching designs, and meaningful messages as part of the CRUSH walls project. The project is an annual arts festival organized by CRUSH (“Creative Rituals Under Social Harmony”) in collaboration with Denver’s RiNo Art District. The goal of the project is to bring art out of the galleries and into the streets. It also empowers artists to bring their unique voices to the Denver community.
Mundano is one of those unique voices. Mundano infuses humor into his work, which focuses on social, political, and environmental challenges. He has made interventions throughout Brazil and around the world.
Mundano is best known for Pimp My Carroça, a project that began as a way to raise the visibility of trash collectors throughout São Paulo, Brazil. Pimp My Carroça is now a global, crowdfunded initiative. Over 700 carts in 42 cities have been painted with the help of street artists, volunteers and donors. The project was honored with the International Award for Public Art in May of 2017. For more information about his award, check out this Forecast Public Art feature article. Watch his TEDTalk about the project here.
Mundano is also one of 16 esteemed participants in WESTAF’s 17th Symposium, The Future History of Public Art, in Honolulu, HI, November 5-7, 2017. He will be presenting about crowdfunding public art projects in The Future of Technological Advancements in Public Art session.
The Public Art Archive was lucky enough to visit Mundano at his mural site located on 40th Avenue near the Blake Street Station. Images below show his work, The Amazon is not for Sale / A Amazonia não está a venda.
We caught Mundano just before he was beginning and went back to see what he created. Photos courtesy of the Public Art Archive.
