By Tlalana | Coordination Team
Zekuollaz is a collective of young people that uses art as a way of developing their community in Chimalhuacán, State of Mexico. They consider that art can generate meeting spots that the people living there can use and benefit from, which is why they called their methodology "community walls" where the canvas used is the neighborhood's walls. Cristina and Julio, plastic artist and local graffiti artist, create and give life to this project and have already taken it to Oaxaca and Mexico City.
This time around they tell their own story of work and community experience in an interview, a tale where they share with us how they promote their local development through street art and how they live it.
Q: What do you consider to be the most interesting, amusing and exciting thing that happened this past year?
A: I think the most interesting thing this year was doing our "community walls" project for the first time and the positive response from our community.
Q: What is your "fill the neighborhood with colours" project about?
A: Chimalhuacán is a community that has really grown in numbers these past years. Most of the houses are under construction and have been for a long time, which means cement, bricks and metal sheets are what constitute 80% of the landscape, making it look almost completely grey. Filling the neighborhood with colors is transforming this grey space into a more colorful one, we relate color with life which means that we are filling the space with life and energy.
Q: How does this change the life inside the community?
A: Different aspects are improved. First we have the visual impact. When you paint a grey wall with colours and forms, the image that the street shows is very different. A painting that portrays what makes a little child from the community happy changes everything for the better for the people living in that street and people that pass by. Another aspect of this change is that it promotes communication between neighbors, which has come forward as a starting point of more complex ways of dialogue within the community.
Q: What was the response of the people in Chimalhuacán to the "community walls" project?
A: At first they thought it was a little weird that we wanted to start painting on their walls with a bunch of children, but the response was very positive. They immediately took part in the activities and they even brought refreshments and helped to look after the children. Some adults were even bold enough to paint alongside the young artists. Something cool that happened was that we started a friendship with some kids that we always saw pass by our street without saying anything. Now they always participate in our activities.
Q: What do you have planned for 2016?
A: This year we will continue painting walls around the neighborhood and have more workshops. We also plan on expanding the collective and maybe legally registering it to help the growth of the projects with resources from international and local programs.
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