This pages shareable link is: tinyurl.com/artduis
Following the December virtual meeting with the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, The Deputy Bürgermeister of Duisburg and the Deputy Mayor of Caen in charge of International Relationships and various members of the twinning committees of Caen, Portsmouth and Duisburg...
We have been offered the opportunity for people who are artistically minded to join in a project in Duisburg to paint on the bridges of the A59 Motorway that runs past Duisburg.
The theme is "Heimat". Heimat is quite a global word in German covering many ideas, such as home; homeland or home town... For the theme in Duisburg, I am going for home town as the best fit.
In discussion with people in Duisburg, we are initially looking for people who are experienced with producing street art in the city of Portsmouth (of which there are many) to participate.
Initially, this will be to virtually meet with people in charge of the project in Duisburg and talk to them directly about the project with any questions and ideas you would like to discuss.
In order to arrange the meeting(s) the people in Duisburg would require an idea of initial interest from artists in Portsmouth. You can do this by contacting them directly (My friends there are quite able to communicate in English, so don't worry too much about German).
They are particularly interested in hearing from people whose art features in this article that they found themselves on street art in Portsmouth. However, they are so impressed with what we have in the way of talent here in Portsmouth I am sure that anyone who is interested will be welcome to participate in any way they can.
I have an initial virtual meeting on Sunday, February 14th 2021 with some of the people who know more about the project in Duisburg. I have found a couple of press articles in German which I will feature here if I cannot get a press release or better link to the project in the form of a website following this meeting.
So far I know that the question in German "What does 'Heimat' mean to you?" was posed online in November to the citizens of Duisburg and the results had to be in by the 31st December 2020.
These ideas will be used to help form the ideas for painting on the bridges. Now ideas as to how Portsmouth artists can participate are all to be determined, depending on who shows an interest and what they can bring. Some will, most likely, be invited to go out to Duisburg (pandemic permitting) and take part in the painting process... There is much to be discussed and you have the chance to get in at the inception.
The City of Duisburg and the local government in North-Rhine Westphalia is putting some funding towards this project. How much money there is for Portsmouth artists will only be ascertained once we have an idea of interest, if there is some and how logistical problems can be overcome...
Following my initial posting on Facebook - I have had a very positive interest from the artist known as 'My Dog Sighs'.
If you would like to be kept in the loop as to further developments on this project, or for any other help, then please do contact me
16.03.2021
Here is the information provided by the city of Duisburg and how you, as an artist from Portsmouth, can contact them directly to become involved with the project. If you do need any further support, do contact me, but you should be able to negotiate and talk with them directly.
The Word document 'artist contact sheet' is the one to fill in. The details of where to send it all is in the document 'call for artiits'
Do, however, let me know how it all goes!
These documents contain all the information you need, including contact details and details about payments and costings...
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Further artistic projects:
We are also hoping to launch a project to connect artists in Portsmouth, Duisburg and Caen (our French twin town) and we began in mid-March 2020 to set this up, then the pandemic happened! However, we can still add information and links so that once movement is easier, a collaboration between artistic people in all three cities might become easier.
We have a page here for this project and if as an artist in Portsmouth (or Caen or Duisburg) you would like to be featured just send a photo you would like to represent you with either a few lines about you and your work and a link to your website / online gallery OR some photos of you and your work you would like to be featured.
Eventually, this blog page can serve as a great way of opening up collaboration and work for you with our twin cities (and eventually on to the other Sister and Friendship Cities we have around the world. For more info on these see here.
Below is an image shared with my by Harald Küst who is a member of the Duisburg based Portsmouthfreunds and one of those involved in the promotion of the project.
Below is of a piece of street art in the city of Duisburg. It is of Gerhard Mercator - one of the first very famous cartographers born and raised in Duisburg.
He is going to use the photos I have taken of Portsmouth's Strand Mural (by Mark 'Rocky' Lewis) to write an article on this piece of street art in Portsmouth for a local newspaper in Duisburg soon (he tells me)
Here are Harlad's words sent to me with the image...
Hi Andrew,
I am referring to our last video conference. You told me that you can also present images in your video blog. Maybe you can present the attached picture in your video blog?
It is a portrait of Gerhard Mercator, the famous geographer who lived in Duisburg. He was a study friend of the Englishman John Dee. Gerhard Mercator developed the ingenious world map for sailors, which allowed a true-angle course determination. This is an interesting connection between Duisburg and the port city of Portsmouth. As a writer of historical articles, I intend to write more articles about the relationship between Duisburg and Great Britain.
Could you send me the historical street art picture with the history of Portsmouth? We talked about it. The historical figures had faces of current people living in Portsmouth. I would like to use the picture to illustrate an article for the newspaper.
Thanks for your support in advance!
For further information on the twinning association here in Portsmouth please visit our landing page filled with many more links to further information about us, our partners and our projects.