Underground art is getting the “Back to the Future” treatment in the three-day Outloud International Street Art Festival kicking off today with graffiti artists making their marks on a train installation in Si Ta Hau in the Inner Harbour area.
It is the third year the festival is taking place, and also marks the finale of the city’s first-ever Art Macao event that has gathered and promoted different forms of art from various countries and regions over six months.
Based in the quaint Praça de Ponte e Horta (Si Ta Hau) neighbourhood, the Outloud International Street Art Festival’s theme this year is inspired by the 1985 fantasy sci-fi film “Back to the Future” that starred Michael J. Fox.
The festival’s organisers Lam Ka Hou, known to many as Pat, and Carr Chan Ting Ting told MPD Weekender earlier this week that the original idea of the theme was inspired by how trains transport graffiti and allow art to be taken to different places.
“Graffiti is done on walls, but if you don’t live in that city, it’s hard to see it, and when people do graffiti on trains, it makes the whole thing from something static to something active,” Pat said, adding, “It’s like transporting your name from one place to another, it’s a process of transition, a continuation.”
Pat explained that this chain of thoughts got them to think of “Back to the Future”, and instead of the film’s famous car to travel through time, they’re using a train as a medium to present to people the origins of the street art culture, and also as a way to look back on how the festival has grown from “nothing to something”, reflecting on why the festival was started in the first place.
It started three years ago when a group of friends wanted to do something about street art, and from that the festival has become a way to show people the street art culture, and that it is a genuine art form rather than being associated with vandalism, violence and gangsters.
Golden era
Pat, a graffiti artist himself, said that they are setting the festival in the 1980s theme because that’s the golden era of street art culture.
“Many mainstream cultures were born in the 80s. Sci-fi films, toys, hip hop... they are all from the 80s, and it’s a generation where people chased dreams, because technology wasn’t so advanced, so people realised their dreams through creative ways, and what was rebellious then becomes accepted now and becomes mainstream,” Pat explained, adding, “It’s quite a good teaching tool because a culture has gone through 20 to 30 years to become something influential to mainstream art today.”
Similarly, the festival has grown from just a group of friends wanting to do some street art to a platform not just to promote the culture but also gather enthusiasts to showcase their skills and inspire each other.
Activities over the three days of the festival include an underground roller disco decorated with graffiti, live graffiti painting by local and overseas artists, a photo contest, lowrider bike show, street market selling vintage goods, free wall for anyone who fancies having a go at drawing on a wall, a pillow fight for charity, live DJ, and an 80s dress-up party to wrap it all up on Sunday.
All activities are admission free, while the pillow fight is a fund-raising event where for 100 patacas people will get a cushion with the cover depicting the design of this year’s festival theme, and then take that cushion and go and have a pillow fight. This entrance fee proceeds will be donated to the Macau Association for Community Care Children.
For more details of the festival, please check “Outloud” Facebook page.
Photos about Outloud International Street Art Festival provided by the organisers.
Outloud festival organisers Lam Ka Hou , aka Pat (centre) and Carr Chan Ting Ting pose for a photo with local illustrator Charles Chao Chin Fei after speaking with MPD Weekender at a hotel in Si Ta Hau earlier this week. photo: Monica Leong
