Some people like airplanes. Others like encyclopedias. But, for Serbian muralist Artez, a bike is the best place to see the world from. The artist’s prolific portfolio has brought him around the globe, and his murals typically depict diverse citizens traversing the world for themselves, whether on a bipedal locomotive device or in the pages of a juicy text. Each work by Artez shows his love for humanity and his passion for curiosity.
In the press release for his most recent mural, titled “Riding Her Horse” in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the artist explains that his journeys have introduced him to “many different cases of people living in fear that family will abandon them if they don’t do as they are told.” With his egalitarian commitment to the equality of the sexes, Artez eschews gender norms that restrict people from becoming their best selves. “Riding Her Horse” features a man biking amid fiery mountains and a pale pink sky, rendered in the artist’s blend of photorealism and illustration. Despite his beautiful surroundings, the man’s face expresses unease. Further inspection leads the viewer to notice the bike’s frame. Its low-slung supporting stem means it’s meant for women.
With this piece, Artez entreats viewers to adopt a more modern, complex approach to understanding gender expectations. He explains, “he will ride her bicycle proudly, without fear of being judged, and she will choose a man she wants to spend her life with. He will be a ‘housewife’ if he wants, and she will pursue her career and become the ‘man’ who provides for his tribe. Their life will belong to them and their families will be there to support, not to exploit.” He believes in acknowledging the customs of the past with reverence, yet interjects that “if we choose to follow the tradition that we are proud of, we might as well do it while riding a ladies’s bike, just because we want to!”
The artist faced his own quandary with self-determination in completing this mural. He describes struggles with extenuating circumstances like weather and health issues, in addition to human problems such as a lack of funding and experience. “Long story short,” he concludes, “with a help of my friend Quam, [I] managed to paint this 600m2 large mural in just 7 days. During the project I felt manipulated, disappointed, tired and angry, but not for a moment did I think about giving up. I guess that my stubbornness won and the award was a finished mural on largest surface I have ever had a chance to paint.”
While Artez typically doles out wisdom with his murals, he participated in the learning while creating “Riding Her Horse”, noting “this project was a big lesson that will hopefully save me from struggle in the future.” In addition to help from his friend Quam, Artez also owes a measure of his success to Elodie and Dourone for sharing their experience painting in Kazakhstan, as “it helped me a lot (and yet not enough) to prepare for my trip and for the way how things work out there.” He invites other artists interested in painting in the country to reach out to him for help. Afterall, overcoming the various forces that keep our society locked in the status quo is not a singular person’s responsibility, but a concentrated group effort to be conducted by humanity as a whole.
