BTOY via Flickr //CC BY - NC - ND 2.0
For decade , graffiti has been a punishable crime in Tunisia . So when Mehndi Ben Cheikh , the founder ofGalerie Itinerrancein France , offer that 150 artist invade the tiny white - walled Greenwich Village of Er - Riadh on the island ofDjerbaand coat the tract in beautiful street artwork , he was understandably anxious . Somehow he pull in it off .
In 2014 , Ben Cheikh enrol 150 artists from 30 different country to take up residency on the island . Some masked the livid and tan facades with traditional looking ( faux ) tile formations , blending their workplace into the architecture . Others have their work stand out , brightening the village with vibrant colouring and imaging . Each artist detain for only a few day , and groups rolled in and out over the course of the summer , preclude a monolithic inflow of hoi polloi all at once .
While Djerba is a tourist address , Er - Riadh is off the beat route . But as Ben Cheikh told theTimes , it ’s a source of stirring because Christians , Muslims , and Jews have peacefully coexisted in the space for one thousand of years . In turn over Er - Riadh into an open - air museum , Ben Chiekh hopes to draw more attention to the sleepy village while create a jubilant gallery for everyone to explore . Indeed , it seems to be having an wallop . All of the graphics can be seen on Djerbahood’swebsite , along with a series of webisodes about the initiation . There ’s also a map [ PDF ] of the nontextual matter that exhibit the full reach of the task .
Ben Chiekh ’s last street art collaborative project wasTour Paris 13 . In 2013 , more than 100 street artists took over a nine story dilapidated building in Paris , paint its interior and exterior before its impendent demolition . Although the edifice has since been destroy , it can be almost explore on the Tour Paris 13 site .
