Lisbon Graffiti: Av. Infante D. Henrique

Come on, street art lovers! Grab your lomo cameras, it’s time for another graffiti tour in my beautiful city, Lisbon. This time, lets walk along the Tejo river and discover some fine masterpieces.

Av. Infante D. Henrique is one of the longest avenues in Lisbon. It runs along the Tejo river, starting near Parque das Nações, a modern part of the city, and finishing in Campo das Cebolas, in the heart of Lisbon old town and historical center.

For this graffiti tour we will walk the end part of Av. Infante D. Henrique, in Lisbon’s old town. We start in Santa Apolónia train station and walk the avenue along the river towards the city center. You will find the first piece a few meters ahead from the train station.

Mural Lisboa – Santa Apolónia

By José Carvalho, Smile, Vanessa Teodoro aka Supervan, and Tamara Alves.

“Mural Lisboa – Santa Apolónia” is a graffiti mural painted under the project Pampero Public Art 2010, one of several initiatives promoting street art by the Pampero Foundation.

It’s a great, colorful, and bright piece composed of both nature and mythic elements, such as the brilliant depict of a careto, a figure from Portuguese folklore. It is a much needed splash of color in an otherwise sad abandoned warehouse.

A lomo-curiosity: one of the artists who participated in this piece, Vanessa Teodoro, aka Supervan customized a DIY La Sardina and decorated Lomography Embassy Lisbon with her art work.

Refill Me With Your Love and other pieces

By Vhils and Pixel Pancho.

Just a few meters ahead from the previous piece, you will find the work of the famous Portuguese street artist Vhils and the Italian Pixel Pancho, in another abandoned warehouse. This project was executed in 2013 for Underdogs street art gallery.

There are actually three works on the walls of this warehouse. One by Pixel Pancho, “Refill Me With Your Love”, using classic graffiti techniques. The other two mix Vhils’ famous carving technique with traditional graffiti spray by Pixel Pancho in a masterful way.

The steampunk theme and the nautical elements fit perfectly in the docks ambiance. It could be great sight for the tourists arriving in Lisbon by boat, but the only wall that has no drawing is the one facing the river. It makes me feel that this work of art was made for us, Lisbon folks, and not for the tourists, which is exactly the opposite of what is happening in the city’s riverside, where everything is made thinking about the tourists and less about the city’s inhabitants.

I don’t know if that was the artists intention, but that’s how I feel about it, so, thank you guys!

José e Pilar

By Ayer, Nomen, Nark and Pariz.

The last piece of this graffiti tour can be found at the end of Infante D. Henrique Avenue, in Campo das Cebolas. It is dedicated to the Nobel awarded Portuguese writer, José Saramago and his wife, Pilar del Río.

By the time I took these pictures, I haven’t read any of his books. I think it was probably Saramago’s brilliant sentences written on this graffiti that made me decide it was time to read his work.

This graffiti was sponsored by JumpCut, and Dedicated Store Lisboa, with the support of Lisbon official street art gallery, Galeria de Arte Urbana. It was inspired by the movie José e Pilar, directed by Miguel Gonçalves Mendes and produced by Jumpcut.

There is a reason why this graffiti was done here. Saramago Foundation is located nearby, in the building known as “Casa dos Bicos”. There is an olive tree in front of the building planted in honor of the brilliant writer, deceased in 2010.

The sentences that I love the most are “O heróico num ser humano é não pertencer a um rebanho” (The heroic is not a human being belonging to any herd) and “Sempre chegamos ao sítio aonde nos esperam” (We always arrive where we are expected). To me, Saramago became a true hero because he definitely didn’t belong to any herd.

That’s it, we got to the end of another Lisbon graffiti tour. I hope you had a good time and got to know a little bit more about my beautiful city and Portuguese culture!

Lisbon is becoming increasingly known for its street art and many foreign artists come here to paint. It’s great to see street art masterpieces and artists taking their rightful place in Lisbon, after so many years when this kind of art wasn’t socially accepted.

The Lisbon Graffiti articles are my way of saying thank you to all the artists who persevered. Paint on!

written by saidseni on 2014-03-30 #places #art #culture #street #graffiti #street-art #wall #walk #paint #tour #location #city #ink #art-and-culture #lisbon-graffiti