Turning Penang into a city of art through Urban Exchange

GEORGE TOWN, Nov 10 — The phenomenal success of Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic’s wall murals in George Town has triggered something larger and more significant: the heritage city’s potential to become a city of art.

The upcoming Urban Exchange project will further position the city as an international platform for open public art exchange.

This is not merely an art exhibition but a programme designed to open up public art avenues to local and international artists.

The aim is to show that art is no longer confined within the spaces of art galleries and exhibition halls.

The Urban Exchange, a brainchild of the Hin Bus Art Depot team and Urban Nation, aims to bring artists together while enabling a cultural, artistic and social exchange throughout the month of November.

A total of 14 artists will showcase their work around the heritage city. These include an outdoor “canvas” of 34 metres in height by renowned street artist Rone, to vibrant, colourful renditions of nature and delicate and detailed sculptures by Mr Toll between November 11 and 23.

These artists from Malaysia, Denmark, Lithuania, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore and Germany will be adding more wall murals and public art installations to Penang.

Hin Bus Art Depot curator Gabija Grusaite said the huge success of Zacharevic’s works, commissioned as part of George Town Festival 2012, had inspired more public art in the past two years.

This showed that the city is indeed receptive to becoming a real city of art and it is time to continue spurring the interest with an international art exchange project like Urban Exchange.

“We want to create an artistic international cultural exchange so that local artists can learn from international artists who will be here for the project while the international artists will get exposure to the local culture and art scene when they are here,” she told Malay Mail Online in an interview.

Each artist will be allocated a public space – usually a large expanse of  wall – which they will paint on between November 11 and 22.

Under the Urban Exchange project, each artist will be allocated a public space – usually a large expanse of wall – to paint on. Seen here is a wall mural by Danish artist Don John. — Picture courtesy of Don John.

Locally-based artists will start work on their murals from November 11 while all international artists will only start work when they arrive from November 15 onwards.

“We expect all of these murals and sculptures to be fully completed by November 22,” she said.

Only “Mr Toll” – an artist from New York – will be creating lifelike clay sculptures of colourful Malaysian birds to be placed around the compound of Tropical Spice Garden in Batu Ferringhi.

Zacharevic will also be participating in this event. This time round, he will be working in Balik Pulau and places outside the Heritage Core Zone such as Nagore Square off Burmah Road.

Grusaite said that the whole purpose of her and Zacharevic starting Hin Bus Art Depot was to provide a platform for contemporary artists to push them towards the international art scene and also to put Penang on the map as the main city of art in Asia.

“Ever since Zacharevic’s wall murals were completed, we have been thinking of coming up with a platform to have different artists paint for public art. Then we found just such a platform in Berlin-based Urban Nation,” she said.

Hin Bus Art Depot then partnered with Urban Nation to realise the Urban Exchange project – the first ever in Asia.

Urban Nation is an organisation that supports contemporary artists by hosting workshops, events and exhibitions at non-profit public spaces to encourage participation and creative exchange.

Throughout the whole week, while the artists work on the walls all around Penang, there will also be free-to-attend talks, forums and art workshops at the Hin Bus Art Depot.

“We want to also encourage local artists to attend workshops by international curators so they can get advice on how to promote their art outside of Malaysia,” she said.

There will also be an indoor collaborative exhibition under the Urban Exchange project right after the outdoor murals are completed.

The exhibition at Hin Bus Art Depot will be officially opened on November 21 and the exhibition will be open to the public until December 17.

Artists participating in the Urban Exchange project are Antanas Dubra (Lithuania), Bibichun (Malaysia), Don John (Denmark), Donald Abraham (Malaysia), Elle (United States), Ernest Zacharevic (Lithuania), Fauzan Faud (Malaysia), Karl Addison (Germany), Kenji Chai (Malaysia), Rone (Australia), Sk10 (Singapore), TankPetrol (United Kingdom), Black Fritilldea (Malaysia) and Mr Toll (New York).

Urban Nation’s director and curator, Yasha Young, is co-curating the project with Grusaite and Eeyan Chuah, Hin Bus Art Depot’s gallery manager.

Find out more about the project at the Hin Bus Art Depot’s Facebook page.