City’s largest mural to be billboard for International Public Art Festival
Over the next eleven days, the mural will effectively act as an extension of - and billboard for - the third International Public Art Festival which takes place in Salt River between 9th and 17th February next year. Infamous Belgian street artist Bart Smeets (better known as Smates) starts his epic work today and visitors can see the mural develop until its completion on 11th November 2019. BAZ-ART, the NGO that runs the International Public Art Festival (IPAF) has collaborated with the Flanders Embassy in Pretoria and with Flanders State-of-the-Art in Belgium to bring Bart Smeets to Cape Town to create this massive public artwork. The mural reflects the IPAF 2019 theme of ‘Generation Next’, which will feature a child, a dog and ‘aviation’, and Baz-Art is working towards bringing Bart Smeets back to Cape Town again so that he may create a subsequent masterpiece for IPAF in Salt River next February.
To secure this landmark mural, Baz-Art worked with property owner and tenants to enlist their agreement for the giant artwork.
Through IPAF over the past two years, BAZ-ART and more than 70 local and international artists have transformed the streets of Salt River into an open-air national art gallery featuring over 100 public artworks.
The launch of the mural will be marked by a pre-party at Youngblood Gallery today (First Thursday) and the event features local musicians plus the opportunity to meet Bart Smeets.
Then, on 11th November, there will be the ‘after-mural’ party at Lefty’s on Harrington Street on 11th November.
Baz-Art
Website: http://baz-art.co.za/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BazArtCape/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bazart_npo/
IPAF
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IPAFCapetown/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ipaf_festival_sa/
Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL36DDXf8UjP0C7wzOmfBd2ab803PtFrcw
About Baz-Art
Exciting graffiti, street art and contemporary urban art festivals are blossoming all around the world. The founders of Baz-Art recognised that despite the incredible talent pool, Africa did not have a flagship international event that gave artists the opportunity to express and showcase their skills. Baz-Art seized the opportunity of collaborating with the IPAF community and initiated the first IPAF in Salt River in February 2017. Baz-Art is also collaborating with the Mexico and Vancouver Public Art Festivals, which focus on exchanging ideas and projects.
Baz-Art serves as a connecting agent, unifying residents, local businesses, artists and an array of different embassies under a shared mission of creating an outlet for social change through street art.
About Bart Smeets
Bart Smeets, better known in art world as Smates, is a Belgian street artist who was born 1978 in Asse (close to Brussels). He studied graphic design at Sint-Lukas Brussels and graduated as a graphic designer. Bart has always been a fan of realistic drawings and paintings, so after graduating he followed painting classes for about two years and that helped him to become the artist he is today. At the age of 17-18, Smates started with graffiti and since September 2013 he has been a full-time street artist.
