Muralism was born in Mexico, acting as an extension of the country’s early 20th century revolution. It is a figurative pictorial art that uses public space to express social and political aspirations. Since then, it has spread throughout Latin America and the world, taking its inspiration from local folk history, escaping into pure poetics, or crossing over into graffiti.
For one month, roughly twenty artists from all over Latin America and Europe, either direct heirs of muralism or influenced by its aesthetic, took over the Mutualité building (an important site in the city’s social history, slated for destruction in 2015). Painting, graffiti, installations, drawings… From floor to ceiling, they created La Villa Ocupada: a vast and ephemeral exhibition space, and an open window on this narrative, naïve and emotional world.
http://www.levoyageanantes.fr/fr/