Last time I was in Mauritius was in 2019. Now I am finally back. One of the first things I usually do, is to take the bus from where I live and go to the capital, Port Louis. I am always excited to see what's new. Since the first 4-5 murals appeared in 2015, the number has only completely exploded since then. I do think that Port Louis was colorful and lively before the first murals appeared, but the street art scene has added a completely new dimention to the city.
I had planned to start in Chinatown and then walk towards downtown, but I did not get further than Chinatown. So it's going to be another day. My first stop was Venpin Street. An amazing «street art alley», that must have come been decorated recently (2020 /2021). I see that this must be a «manga» street as the characters here seem to be inspired by Japanese cartoon art.
Venpin St. is just a little alley connecting two larger streets. As soon as I passed it I saw the paintings and made my first stop here. It's not an alley I usually go through. I remember it as grey an dull. Half way to the end of the alley there is a small shop (the two red doors). Last time I was here I actually bought some Chinese sweets here.
I haven't managed to find out about all the artists, but I have tried to check the instagram profiles to some of them. This beautiful piece is done by an artist named Urmila Narsiak. When I checked instagram, I found a video from when she did the mural.
Link to the video from when she did the painting:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCfn1uOAbfK/
A non-profit organization called the New Chinatown Foundation is behind the initiative of street art in Chinatown. They aim at making Chinatown more atractive and to preserve their cultural heritage. Chinatown can therefore boast of being that part of the city which by far have the largest share of street art.
This is only a small selection from Verpin St. The walls along this side of the street are almost completely covered with colorful paintings and a few on the opposite side. If I count all the smaller ones among the larger paintings, it might be more than 40! I will post more later. I have just startet exploring Chinatown.
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Latest street art post, check out :
STREET ART #104 – The small paintings that are easy to overlook (Helsingør, Denmark)
U.J
Kristiansand, Norway
All the photoes are mine, Ulla Jensen (flickr, Instagram and facebook)
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