Street Art Initiatives Bring New Life To Mexico City Neighbourhood

Mexico City youth street art collective Iztapalarte are making it their mission to spruce up the Iztapalapa borough which they call home. Through the Arte Monumental project, this band of intrepid young artists hopes to repurpose unused and unsightly public space, filling this southerly Mexico City district with a total of 100 unique and vibrant murals and paintings over a period of approximately two years.
Street art is as much a part of the Mexico City backdrop as the ubiquitous taco stand and torta de tamal seller, with visitors to this beautiful country lapping up the opportunity to Instagram these beautiful urban murals to their heart’s content. However, while for many visitors to Mexico and Latin America alike, Acción Poética is the most instantly recognizable and diffuse example of a street art movement, there are plenty of smaller but equally as significant street art revolutions taking place across the continent. One such movement is the aforementioned Arte Monumental project which finds its home in the Mexico City borough of Iztapalapa, and is spearheaded by the Iztapalarte collective.

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Having made a name for themselves in the national press earlier this year – they provided 28-year-old artist Enrique García Bruno with the materials he needed to paint a portrait of Pope Francisco, in the hopes they could then present it to him during his February 2016 visit to Mexico – Iztapalarte is an impressively put together youth art collective that has also presented work at the Asamblea Legislativa. Their latest project project will focus on creating murals about childhood, which incorporate messages regarding the environment, education and bullying.

In conjunction with the Iztapalapa government representative Diona Anguiano, members of the Iztapalarte collective began the inaugural mural of their most recent project on September 3rd 2016. A mere six days later Anguiano tweeted the large-scale, impressive and colourful finished piece, whose quote translates to ‘The love of my loved ones brings brightness and colour to my life’. If you want to check it out, it can be seen on the side of Unidad Habitacional Morelos II, and reports suggest that upcoming murals will be located in Ermita Iztapalapa, Tláhuac and Eje 6 Sur.

This most recent project goes beyond the members of the collective though, as the borough is appealing for residents to make suggestions regarding where they think the movement’s upcoming murals should be located. So, if you’re heading to Iztapalapa any time soon and see a wall that just screams blank canvas, head to the Delegación Iztapalapa Facebook page and pitch your location. Equally, if street art is right up your street, the Iztapalarte collective is always on the lookout for new talent to join their ranks.

About the author

Lauren Cocking

Northern England Writer

Yorkshire-born food, drink and travel writer based out of Mexico, you can find my work at Nat Geo, CNN, Extra Crispy and OZY, amongst other publications. Everything Mexico is my niche, but I also dabble in spewing my unsolicited opinions about teabags and pork pies. Find more of my work at northernlauren.com.