Lima Street Art Tour

It’s no secret that I love street art.  It’s one of my favourite things to see when I travel to a city as I love the colour and atmosphere that it creates.

Despite my love affair with street art, I’ve never been on a street art tour (until now), even though I’ve read so many blog posts about amazing tours in different cities around the world.  So, before going to Lima, Peru, I searched out a street art tour in the city and found Tailored Tours Peru, who offer a variety of the coolest tours in Lima from gallery tours to art workshops to gourmet food experiences.  I opted for a street art tour and booked onto one for our third day in Lima.  I’m so glad I did as it was my favourite thing we did in the city and I felt that I not only got to learn so much about the art, but also the city too!

Carlos and I met our trip curator and founder of Tailored Tours Peru for our tour one morning.  Brenda took us around the most Bohemian part of Lima and showed us the best street art that this area has to offer.  Many of which I never would have found for myself as some were hidden away on residential streets.  The amazing thing about the tour was getting to learn about the history of the murals, the significance behind them, the history of street art in Lima and whats more, Brenda is a friend of lots of the street artists so she really knew her stuff!

I’m not going to tell you the secrets about every mural we saw, as that would spoil it for you if you ever get to go on this tour 😉  Instead, I’m going to share my favourite facts I took away from the tour and of course, my favourite murals.

The history

Brenda started off by telling us that last year, the mayor of Lima painted over sixty (yes sixty!) murals in Lima with the yellow colour of his election campaign.  As you can imagine, for the street art community, this was a huge blow and something that they are still coming back from.  And they are coming back in the best way they know how to, with new murals!  The hashtag #BorraronUnoPintaramosMil (You erased one, we will paint a thousand) in support of the new murals.  A competition was even put on to find the best new mural.  One of my favourite new murals that was painted was a collaboration by artists from Colombia (the left), Argentina (the top) and Chile (the right).  I just love how the three artists have such different styles but they collaborated together to produce such a colourful and detailed piece.  This was also really special as the owner of the house volunteered to have her house painted in support of the new murals.

The change

The great thing about street art is that it is constantly changing and evolving.  New murals are always popping up, old ones are being added to and changed constantly.  Styles evolve too.  We were so lucky to see this seriously amazing mural (just look at those colours!) as it was painted just four days before we took the tour.Fania is the artist and she is known for using thick black lines around her murals to create boldness – I just love the vibrant colours mixed with the lines.  Later on in the tour, we then got to see another incredible mural by Fania, again using the same style.  I think I could look at her work all day long!

Change can also be applied to existing murals which are changed by other artists, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.  I loved this mural with the contrast between the bright colours and the white wall.  But in order for this whole wall to be white, part of an existing mural was painted over.You can see how a small part of this totem pole was painted over to allow the new mural to be painted.These murals below have also been ‘tagged’ on, showing how changes is always occurring and not always for the best.  The messages

Street art is often used to portray a message, a belief, a political idea and beyond. It can portray the strongest of messages, sometimes hidden and other times not. Brenda was able to tell us lots about the messages behind lots of the murals that we would otherwise have totally missed.  Of course, you can always guess what the artist wanted to say, but it’s so interesting to hear about what they really wanted to portray.

‘Eat fruit’This piece of street art really took advantage of the cracks in the wall and placed it straight through the Americas… a message that makes you think.  Only the artist knows what it really means.This was a beautiful mural even before you knew what the message was.  It’s very striking and you can even see how the lamp post has been painted too. The mural means even more when you hear that the mural is about peoplewho went missing in the last couple of decades, these people have not been found so the picture shows a mother with a torn up photo.  Such powerful imagery.The styles

Another great thing about taking the tour was getting to see different styles of street art and noticing a trend with certain artists.  Just like how Fania has her unique style of creating murals, one of my other favourite styles that we saw on the tour was by Yandy Graffer.  The lines he used create such an individual style that just draws you in.  These two murals centre around the theme of fishermen, as his relatives were fishermen by trade.  Knowing that makes you look at the murals in a different way and get instantly drawn into them, knowing that he was painting a part of his family history and traditions.

Community

Just like the painting of new murals after sixty were painted over, street art and murals can create and bring together a sense of community, just like this colourful mural painted in a children’s playground.  The colours immediately draw you in and create a cheerful feel!  Such a colourful cat!

I took away so much from the tour, learning about the individual artists and the street art culture of Lima.  So, if you are ever in Lima, you should check out Brenda and her team’s incredible tours here.  I already want to go back and take an art workshop with them as well as their street art at the port tour!  🙂

Which one is your favourite? What are the lessons you’ve learnt from street art?

Tailored Tours Peru: Website | Instagram | Facebook

I was given a discount from Tailored Tours Peru but all opinions are my own and I would never recommend anything that I didn’t truly love!

Marcella xx

Follow along:  Bloglovin | Instagram

Welcome to the Wanderful Wednesday Link-up!

Click here to enter your link 

Consider yourself a wanderer?! Well then, this Blog Hop is for you!

Meet your hosts: Lauren of Lauren on Location, Van of Snow in Tromso, Isabel of The Sunny Side of This and me, Marcella of What a Wonderful World.

Here on Wanderful Wednesday we hope to promote an open and supportive community for like-minded bloggers- expats, travelers and all kinds of wanderers!  The linkup will take place every Wednesday at 8:00am GMT.

Wanderful Wednesday Guidelines:

1. Link up a wanderful travel related post below! One per blogger per week please!
2. Spread the LOVE! Blog Hops are all about hopping around & getting to know others within the community! At the very least please try to comment on one other post before you go!
3. Let’s get Social! Really liked a post you read? Don’t be shy! Share your favorites on Social Media! You can use the hashtag: #wanderfulwednesday
4. Don’t forget to grab the button and link back to your wanderful hosts! Help us spread the word and let’s get others involved!