Mural “Our demands (sun, hugs, space)” by Alexandros Simopoulos

Can kid’s drawings function as public art? Why and how? What could be their relationship with the aesthetics and tools of graffiti? When creating public artworks, how do we share space and/or interact with the communities that get to experience them daily? What is a conceptual drawing, what is a representational one and what is a replica? What is the distance and/or hierarchy between scribbles, tags, murals, and public artworks?

Thinking about how we hold or share public space as muralists, Alexandros Simopoulos decided to ask the children of this public kindergarten to collaborate with him. He invited them to create their own designs/ statements for the facade of their school. Becoming only their tool/ mouthpiece, Alexandros just replicated, enlarged, and painted their designs on the wall. No design or idea was rejected or altered. They all share equal space on the wall. He also added one of his own designs that was initially made when he was their age and found recently in the basement storage of his parents.

Our demands (sun, hugs, space), acrylics on wall, 12x12m, 2021 Agios Nikolaos, Crete

Commissioned by the Culture and Sports Organization of the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos and
curated by Theofilos Tramboulis and Eleni Koukou
Thanks to Haris Alexakis and Georgia Kaliva

*Alexandros Simopoulos is SNF ARTWORKS Fellow (2018)