Street art in Aarschot: on eagle wings

This walk through Aarschot takes you past the history of legal graffiti and street art through the city. The more beautiful murals – and we immediately speak of street art – are the result of various campaigns set up by the city. 'Demerspray' in 2015 was the first convincing action. The event was part of the new graffiti policy that the city would draw up together with the youth service De Klinker. "The bridge on the Demersprong, close to the swimming pool of Aarschot, is a place where ugly tags with graffiti are often applied. We want to refresh the bridge with the work of real graffiti artists to combat surreptitious graffiti," said Kris Vuerinckx of youth centre De Klinker at the time. Earlier, in 2014, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of De Klinker, experiments were already carried out with drawings by graffiti artists and that turned out to be a success. "It is a kind of code among the graffiti sprayers that there is no spraying on the work of others. Since then, there has been less nuisance at De Klinker." In order to reach the interested youth audience, an artist visited each Aarschotse school to promote the event. All kinds of initiations around graffiti were also held during a weekend. The idea of setting up a legal graffiti wall where young people can come and tag themselves, without it being punishable, was not realized for the time being.

A year later, CC Gasthuis celebrated its 25th anniversary with the event 'Exxposed'. Five artists were invited to use the walls as a canvas in various places in the city. Stencilist Kaagmans even gave a real lecture on the subject.

And then it seems as if the dust settles around street art and little happens. We have to wait more than five years until a surprisingly unexpected beautiful painting is realized under the green wall between Grote Markt and Demerparking. The performer was the artist collective Treepack. This time no popular event, no event, no cooperation with the youth, but an action by the municipality: "To surprise the Aarschottenaar." The mural was quickly followed by one at city hall. By the same artist Sam Billen. This time, the inhabitants of Aarschot were able to participate in the decision-making process and make a choice between two designs. The fact that 1500 inhabitants participated in this says something about the interest of the Aarschottenaar for his living environment. And recently another eagle appeared, this time from TUZQ, in the alley of the Demer to the Theophile De Beckertstraat. But what we didn't immediately understand is that there is more to this story of an eagle than just a reference to an urban legend. In this way, municipal policy hopes to stimulate the identity of the inhabitants as inhabitants of Aarschottenaar.

Start point parking Demervallei, 3200 Aarschot, Belgium
End point: town hall Ten Drossaarde 1, 3200 Aarschot, Belgium

The route is about 2.6 kilometers long and easy to walk.

We start at the Demerparking - convenient for those who come by car -. We end at the town hall. We are then close to the Grote Markt so you can still enjoy in a café or on a terrace.