Stream of the Day
Giant painted hands reach across the world
Street artist Saype’s global artwork “Beyond Walls” shows a series of connected hands, representing mutual aid, kindness, and openness to others, linking continents. Now it has come to Istanbul.
Istanbul is the eighth step of the global “Beyond Walls” project that street artist Saype initiated in June 2019 in Paris. It was born from fortuitous encounters and a will of the people to bring the largest human chain in the world to Istanbul.
Saype is one of France’s best known street artists. Many know graffiti artists in an urban setting, but Saype is a “rural graffiti artist”, who creates massive biodegradable paintings on grass.
For a painter whose monumental work bridges cultures, the city of Istanbul constitutes an essential stage, at the crossroads of the worlds of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. After connecting Europe and Africa, the gigantic hands of the universal farandole created by the French-Swiss will pass through the European side of the Bosphorus and cross the strait to arrive on the Asian coast. Artists will continue to draw from city to city, from continent to continent, an immense fraternal chain that will intertwine West and East.
The work carried out in Istanbul has benefited from the support of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Kültür A.Ş, the Municipality of Beşiktaş, the Boğaziçi University, the Consulate General of Switzerland, the French Institute in Turkey and UPS.
For more information on Saype and his art, click here.
