Street Art Treasure Hunt - Lisbon Lisboa

 

The crazy capital city of Lisbon in Portugal or Lisboa as the locals call it. It was hot (especially coming from 15c in Edinburgh), it was crazy full of tourists (of which we were two more), its built on the very steep sides of severn hills on the banks of the Tagus river. It has its very own Golden Gate Bridge (Ponte April 25th) and its very own Christ the redeemer statue and its the oldest city in Europe after Athens.

Its a good looking city, bustling and busy and I had heard there was a bit of a street art around. I was not disappointed. I have come back from my travels inspired and I got to see a few pieces by artists I have followed from afar which put a big smile on my fan boy face!

     

So where do we start? I guess it has to be the Lisboan "Bordello II" . He creates brilliant relief sculptures of animals out of trash and recycled materials and has pieces all over the world. I was first introduced to him in Porto where there is a fantastic hare on the corner of a building amongst the port warehouses. In Lisbon there was so many of his pieces, we made a good attempt to see as many as we could and still didn't see them all! We saw the Fox in Cais Do Sodre on our way to the hotel when we arrived. We then hunted down the pelicans, the racoon, the panda, the frog and the chimp. This will give you a pretty good tour of the city too. I also spied the whale in Cascais out the corner of my eye when we zoomed past it in the car. There are at least 3 or 4 more so that gives me an excuse to come back.

Whilst we were hunting down the trash animals, we came across Bisco Smith's studio which was beautifully painted in his classic B&W style. I quickly looked him up online to see if there was any more of his work which led us to the very glamorous pedestrian underpass leading to the Alcantara station near LX factory. Here we found the whole subway sprayed with artwork by several artists including Spraylover (new to me) and the aforementioned Bisco Smith, who had painted the pillars and a whole stairwell and escalator in blue an white. Every wall, staircase and escalator and pillar was covered in the entire underpass. I absolutley loved it!

The LX Factory round the corner is a very trendy place full of studios, small businesses, shops and restaurants, bars etc. This place also has a few big murals and lots of street art dotted around the complex.

We saw some great lino cut prints by Mr Greb. There is a stunning piece on the gable end wall of the smaller building and don't miss sticking your head into Ler Devagar - this is a book shop and record store in an old printing press. The machine is still in situ smelling of ink and there is a bicycle sculpture flying through the warehouse space.

 

Back in the centre there is plenty to look out for as you explore the cobbled streets of the old neighbour hoods. Every street and corner turn might reveal a small tiled throw up, a mini mosaic piece, a mural, or some dilapidated building adorned with graffiti. It was on one such exploration that we came across the mural 'Peace Guard'  by Obey Giant on a block of flats in Sapadores. This was in the company of a couple of other big gable end murals too. I also spied a classic Obey face in Bairro Alto.

We found many other pieces dotted about including the various "Who The Fuck is Henry?" slogans with their red dots (another local artist/collective). The truck below was parked in the street near our hotel. Stickers adorn street signs and fire hydrants and we even found carved tags on the giant succulents in the cactus garden of Park Necessidades.  

With a backdrop of stunning blue skies under the bright sun; the beautiful buildings with their Azulejo tiles; the bright blue, pink and yellow painted tenements; In a city that sits on the steep banks of the Tagus river and its massive inland bay; This is a city that is visually striking in its own right. Here the street art, perhaps slightly differently to other europeans cities, dresses the streets in a little more harmony. 

I left the city feeling inspired. For most tourists, of which there were so so many, Lisboa has much to offer. For me it was a week long treasure hunt, with finds around nearly every corner. The city is small enough to explore at ease, especially with the plethora of trams, buses, funiculars and the metro, but also big enough to entice you back again to see what else you can find. We scratched the surface pretty well but I will be back to tick off a few more of Bordellos animals, find a few more Henry slogans, hunt out another Spreylover piece or two and see if any more international artist have been enticed to the city to use its walls as a canvas.