Sebas Velasco New mural in Warsaw 

Spanish artist Sebas Velasco visited recently Warsaw in Poland where he painted this amazing mural in the Praga neighbourhood, a lively area with a charming atmosphere that certainly captivated him.

Titled “Warszawa Wschodnia” the mural features the portrait of a local punk musician posing alongside an iconic FSO Polonez car. The colourful light bulbs in the background adding som warmth to the scene. Although the image of the man could be anywhere in the world, there are certain elements that link the scene to the neighbourhood and Poland; the car, the L poster for Legia Varsovia football club are two of them.

‘Velasco was always fascinated with contradiction between globalization and local identities, especially when he started discovering these non-places on my travels around central or eastern Europe. Seeing gas stations, night shops, neon lights and light adds as something very American, he finds it very inspirational to find such places around Europe, especially when accompanied with local people that belong and represent a very different culture and history. He believes that these images can question the benefits of globalization, the transmission of cultures and identities from one point to other. With these kind of works he is trying to achieve the atmosphere similar to Jim Jarmusch films, in which main protagonists are usually outsiders placed in places with similar aesthetics.

The piece was titled “Warszawa Wschodnia” using the name of a local song from a band called Płyny. Since Praga is located in the east Warsaw and the image features elements of eastern Europe while having an overall western feel to it, Velasco wanted to point out the contradiction and the irony of it.’ Sasha Bogojev

Images by Maciej Krüger.