Huangjiaoping street in Chongqing, China

Huangjiaoping street in Chongqing, China

About a month ago we published an article about Cool Murals and Painted Buildings - but looks like we underestimated the audacity of some urban designers. In the high-density area of Chongqing, China (home to some 4.1 million people) they took an entire 1.2 km street - and turned it into a masterpiece of the exceptional graffiti art.






(images credit: Thalia Kwok, via)

The Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts has come up with a titanic group effort, involving more than 300 artists (mostly students) and covering more than a kilometer of apartment blocks with the colorful cartoons and graffiti - more info. You can see, however, that some buildings remain in dire need of renovation:



(images credit: David Barrie, Newsyc)

Artists are using powerful projectors to display designs on the walls during the painting process:



The Huangjiaoping street is expected to be completed this summer. I'm wondering if it may not become an on-going project, spreading madness of color from block to block, until the whole city is covered in radical and unavoidable designs, with citizens desperately trying to find a gray spot...

Chongqing's urban landscape has been quite an intense experience in itself, even before the start of this project (see photos below). But now the gaudy Huangjiaoping street will become a wonder to behold - if and when the collective art project will be completely finished.