Beginning yesterday and continuing through until next weekend, renowned Brazilian muralist and street artist Eduardo Kobra will be at Dubai’s Al Ghurair Centre for their annual Street Con Festival. Painting live, Kobra is part of a week-long series of events and activities surrounding Dubai’s oldest mall in the Deira district. Here is a Q&A with him to give you more of an idea why you should go down and check him out.
Q: When did you start painting? What was the first piece that you ever did?
A: I was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city and my involvement with the street art started when I was 12 years old. I was drawing in notebooks and also on the walls next to my house. At the beginning, everybody was totally against it, because this activity at the time was illegal, but with time, my family understood and started to visit constantly my exhibitions and murals.
Q: You’ve done murals of many famous people such as Tupac, Mother Teresa and Abraham Lincoln. Is there a story behind why you pick each one?
A: My work is based on the memory and history of the places that I visit - the characters I choose are not random. Abraham Lincoln, for example, was born in the state of Kentucky, so I portrayed him on the wall of a city theatre. My Mother Tereza mural was part of a sequences of important personalities who have contributed to World Peace , the project name is Olhar a Paz (Look at Peace ), where Marthin De Luther King, Mandela, Einstein were also portrayed, therefore, all have some kind of importance to history of the place where we are working. I also choose important themes such as as animal protection, environment and history.
Q: Where do you look for inspiration?
A: I am hyperactive, I have a few different projects, all with themes of my interest, like the project wall of memories, where I create portals to the past of the cities, I created this project because I am collector of books and old photos, I have the Project Greenpincel, where I show different types of man’s aggression towards the environment and nature, and other projects such as 3D paintings on the floor. Daily facts linked to these themes also became the reason for the drawings in my notebooks, which sometimes go on to become murals.
Q: What have you got planned for Dubai?
A: I have already created some 10 different designs and I am thinking of something connected to the founders of the city, or the different people that live in Dubai. I am also searching for interesting facts, cultural, old scenes of the construction of the city, but I did not decide yet which one.
Q: How do you feel about bringing your skills to Dubai’s growing art scene? Do you aim to inspire the youth with your art?
A: I have a project called Envolva-se (Get involved) - the idea is to provide an opportunity for young people with talent, since street art is a relatively new phenomenon in the entire world, I would like very much to have contact with local artists, and anyone who has an interest in this type of work. For me, it is sincerely a privilege to be able to see Dubai and best of all, to have my work on one of the walls of the city.
* Street Con at Al Ghurair Centre runs until May 2. For more info visit: www.alghuraircentre.com/streetcon