Street Art: 'This is not a Magritte'

‘Muha’ is an internationally renowned artist. His murals can be found all over the world. It is particularly special to see a work by the artist here. ‘Muha’ was invited in 2015 along with many other international artists by the Maison des Jeunes des Récollets for a week-long workshop as part of a project on human rights. Interestingly, Muha has a unique connection with the concept of a youth house. During the Bosnian War in the early 1990s, the youth house was a stable beacon for him in difficult times, and he learned artistic skills there.

It is not immediately clear how this work and human rights are connected, but we find many elements in it that are characteristic of Muha and Belgium. Muha is an admirer of the Japanese artist Hokusai and his depiction of ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ (1831). Muha has the ambition to paint 100 variants around the world. The fresco in Verviers is number 11. The connection to Belgium is the surrealist painter Magritte, and both the figures with the bowler hat and the title of this work are a nod to the great Belgian artist. The tentacles emerging from the bowler hat refer to an erotic print by Hokusai. And the fact that the wave comes from the figure's nose is an absurd inspiration of the artist after he saw a sketch by Monty Python in which Michael Palin plays the Marseillaise with one finger in his nostril.

Artist: Muhamed Kafedžić « Muha » (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

More can be found on the site of Muha himself.

Jan Rymenams