International wall painting project with regard to a particular town quarter
Wall: Gable front of residential building in Simonsstraße 26, approx. 120 sqm,
Wuppertal, Germany, September 2000

organization: Information Bureau Nicaragua   co-operation: Municipal Youth Club Arrenberg (JutA) Arbeitskreis Arrenberg, Städtepartnerschaftsverein Matagalpa/Nicaragua, Wuppertaler Agenda Büro, Volkshochschule, Arbeitsgemeinschaft-Eine-Welt Wuppertal (AGEW), Stadtteilinitiative Arrenberg Artists: Jullissa Moncada Lopez und Jorge Morales Leclear from Matagalpa/Nicaragua; Heinz Velten, Andreas Junge, Wuppertal

Die Wand von der Schwebebahn

mural of wuppertal

Project outline:

the wall

As a densly built-up residential and industrial district with a high percentage of residents of other nationalities the Arrenberg shows the typical signs of impoverishment and desolation. The quarter offers hardly any attractive parks or retreats for teenagers and children.

Matagalpa, Nicaragua

In cooperation with the "Kinder- und Jugendtreff Arrenberg" (JutA) a group of youngsters and young adults will join to some kind "future workshop" to discuss the question how they would like to dwell and live in the 21st century. All topics, ideas and wishes discussed in this future workshop will be documented. They will serve as a thematic orientation for the outlines and concepts of the artists from Wuppertal and Matagalpa.

the team in Wuppertal

A long-standing relationship between Matagalpa and Wuppertal enabled the process of the mural project – from the choice of the artist to the designs for the mural - to be set up based on a widely-participative South-North basis.
In total, eight organisations, initiative groups and institutions in Wuppertal along with ”Movimiento Communal” (Communal Movement) in Managua were involved in the project. A suburb with particular need for renewal was purposely chosen for the location of the mural to act as a stimulus for urban development and better neighbourhood relations.

The gable front of the residential building No. 26 in Simonsstraße will be available as a painting surface. The wall stands at one of the busiest streets of the quarter and offers more than 100 sqm. Conveniently it is good to see from the suspension mono-rail, which is used by umpteen thousand passengers daily and will transport the message of the mural on its way into other parts of the town.

The institution involved: Kinder- und Jugendtreff Arrenberg (JutA) is one of the 15 municipal welfare facilities for children an young people. JutA was founded in the late 80s in accordance of a programme to improve the living conditions in the Arrenberg quarter. Now the youth club meets in a 630 sqm big "prefabricated" building which was assembled in October 1998. The new rooms are also used by other local societies, committees and initiatives or municipal institutions. They are opened for 30 hours a week. Every day about 50 to 120 children and teenagers of various cultural backgrounds take adantange of it.

Jugendtreff

Julissa Moncada Lopez

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