Festiwall wrapped up this year’s annual festival with a brilliant mural by Australian street artist Guido van Helten painted around the stairs in the back of the Liceo Classico Umberto Primo school in Ragusa, Italy.
About The Mural
The title of this piece is “L’attesa” (The wait), depicting two teenagers pensive and waiting for something or someone. This mural is Guido’s signature style and gray-scale color palette, and would have guessed it with my eyes closed (…yes I have magic powers! 😛 ).
From talking to the the local youth, the artist wanted to reflect on the energy of this place that is generational and ingrained, knowing that it was the only location in Ragusa where teenagers and young people have met daily to play music, talk and hang out.
About The Artist
Guido van Helten, hails from Brisbane and now travels the world, working as an artist and large scale muralist. Guido paints striking, realistic portraits, in a unique “watercolour” style. Guido has shown a love for exploration, having taken his work to many challenging or isolated locations, such as Iceland, Svalbard, Ukraine, Chernobyl, and many areas of regional Australia. His Brim Silo project completed in 2015 caused a spike in tourism to a struggling town in regional Victoria. The artwork was nominated for the Sulman prize for 2016, and made national news in Australia, with major coverage on both television and in print media.
About FestiWall
FestiWall is a week-long street art festival which took place from September 24 to 30 in Ragusa, Sicily (Italy) For its third edition, FestiWall came back with five international artists who painted five different murals which were added to the ten walls of the past editions. As for the muralists, this 2017 edition reunited leading artists from five different countries including : GUE from Italy, Marat Morik from Russia, Guido Van Helten from Australia, Sebas Velasco from Spain and Zoerism from France.
Images by Marcello Boccheri
Guido van Helten: web | facebook | instagram
FestiWall: website | facebook | instagram
