The hard-to-find street art of Cusco, Peru
A donkey ignores a mural of a haughty parrot on a crumbling wall
While nearly every block in Lima, Peru had street art in the form of stencil, a mural, or tag, in Cusco, street art is a rare thing.
Most of the town has been cleaned up for the tourists. That or all the frustrated creative types are too busy hawking the tacky paint-by-number-style “art” in Plaza de Armas to find time to spray a little color around.
Stencil of a Native American on a horse seems to charge into Cusco from above.
But every so often, we discover a touch of color, an emotional bunch of lines, a little spark of contemporary creative energy creeping out.
Todd poses with a tag of a (probably) bull in Cusco, Peru.
Street art is controversial — the debate over whether graffiti is art or nuisance, beauty or blight is one I won’t be able to resolve. Though you can easily guess where I stand from the volume of street art I photograph while I travel.
Stencil street art of Peruvian taking a tourist’s photo
Art on the walls of a town proves to me that artists live there. The quality of the art, and what the artist is trying to convey with it, may be lacking. But street art is a sketch book open for all to see. No locked door when a gallery closes for business can keep me — or anyone — from seeing what someone thought was worth expressing.
Even if it kinda sucks.
Groove monkey mural on a van in Cusco.
Great post! I have grown fascinated with street art ever since I visited Spain and saw all of the beautiful graffiti throughout many parts of the country. And yes, I do mean beautiful. Graffiti in the United States does not seem as artistic and meaningful as what I saw abroad. You talk about street art in Peru–do you know of any cities particularly famous for street art in Austria or Italy? I am visiting Europe and would love to add locations to my sightseeing.
Spain was one of the best places for street art and graffiti, it’s hard to compare it to anywhere else in the world. We were in Italy not too long ago (and have some blog posts, stories, and photos still to share in the backlog) and found that Venice had some hidden street art, particularly stencil art. And, in Florence if you head to the Oltrarno, you can visit the studio of Clet, a famous French street artist who’s made a home in Firenze! Generally the further you wander from the tourist centers, the more street art you’ll encounter in any city.