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The Moganshan Lu Graffiti Wall Is Back (For Three Weeks). See It Here.

Where there's art, there's life. And life is back at the section of Moganshan Lu where, historically, street artists have been covering (legally and freely) a brick wall with layers of murals. They ha...
Last updated: 2019-11-15
Photos: Brandon McGhee

Where there's art, there's life. And life is back at the section of Moganshan Lu where, historically, street artists have been covering (legally and freely) a brick wall with layers of murals. They had to stop about a year ago when the wall was torn down for the construction of Heatherwick Studio's 1000 Trees building. But now it's back!

Last week, because of an initiative of Urban Art United (UAU), more than 30 artists went back to the street to paint over a new wall, this time made of temporary plastic slats. It is probably their last chance to paint there since, in six months, this wall too will be removed for the inauguration of the complex.

French graffiti and street artist Dezio, the founder of UAU, has been painting on Moganshan Lu since 2007 and grew attached to it. "When I started, there wasn't much graffiti around, so I saw it grow and become one of the graffiti walls of fame in China," he says. "It became a place where artists gather and paint in public just for the fun of making art. To see it come to an end is somewhat sad."

This time Dezio painted in three different sections. In two of them, in his iconic style, he depicted native flowers from the Suzhou Creek area that are, in reality, tiny but XXL size in his art.

Russian artist FEAT also had a few murals along the street in the past. This time, he painted a 9-meter long wall mixing Chinese and western elements such as traditional fishing boats and Roman busts.

A regular in the old days, Creative Director Siu Tang couldn't help shifting his focus from his commercial murals to say goodbye to the wall. Inspired by the mountainous Chinese landscape, he painted 'the eyes of Moganshan,' that in a fairly abstract way, represents the ever-moving and changing city of Shanghai.

The art duo Yeah Wang Lve and Lin Yuwei, or simply L+L, thought it would be cool to discover an ancient fossil in the nearby Suzhou Creek. So they painted an 18-meter dragon skeleton to represent the historical city of Shanghai. Bystanders were invited to contribute and apply flower stickers anywhere they wanted in the painting.

Tian An, the investment company behind the 1000 Trees project, invited 17 artists from all over the world to paint on the upper levels of the building that face Moganshan Lu. Big names include VHILS, DALeast, and Mode 2. But on the street level, all the murals will soon be gone, an ephemeral tribute to the street's art history.

The graffiti wall is located on Moganshan Lu between the intersection with Changhua Lu and the m50 Art District.

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