Today streetpainting.tv is speaking with Rosa Maria Leal, Coordinadora General (General Coordinator) for Festival Bella Via in Monterrey, Mexico. This year marked Bella Via's 5th year anniversary and Rosa Maria discusses how the festival has grown and what to expect in the future!
Rosa Maria Leal at Festival Bella Via.
What is the purpose of Festival Bella Via?
The main purpose of the Festival is to get people closer to the art and at the same time to entertain the public, and for people to know more about this great art called STREET PAINTING.
Why is it important to have a competition as opposed to just an exhibition for the public?
In Mexico we like competition. To work for a prize is always a challenge. In our Festival we cover all areas.
For the exhibition we have the Maestros Madonnari, we have children, and we have young people under 18 years old. For the contest, we have people above 18 years old to 99 years old.
Is the competition open to international street painters?
Yes, the competition is open to all people who want to participate. It does not matter if they are not Mexican, on the contrary, we would like to welcome other countries to our Festival contest.
Festival Bella Via just had its fifth year anniversary in Monterrey, Mexico. How has the festival changed over the years?
More than change, it has grown in the last years. We also include all ages while in the past we just had children and the competition contenders. In the beginning we had around 50 contenders and 30 children. This year we have more than 500 people of all ages street painting.
What kind of artists compete in the competition…are they professional artists or university students?
Most of the contenders are from Monterrey and the metropolitan area. This year we had a few artists from other states in Mexico. We have all kinds of participants, local artists with good reputations, art students, university students, and amateurs.
We noticed that there were some originally designed and contemporary themed street paintings at Bella Via this year. Do you think this will be a growing trend at future festivals and why…or will most artists want to do traditional Renaissance work? We want to give the same importance to both categories and we had the same prizes for both of them, lets say two first prizes, two second and two third prizes. The people’s choice award was for both categories. We are fond of the Renaissance because street painting comes from Italy, but at the same time we wanted to grow as a festival with new proposals. That is why we opened it to all categories. I think that new contenders have to investigate more and more for new authors (masters or known painters whose work is re-produced as street paintings). We received more than 170 proposals to enter the competition and only had space for 120 art works or pieces. It was a very difficult decision for the Bella Vía Committee to select the works that had participated. At this moment we cannot think of having more works, because we do not have the space. The decision of having 60 pieces of Renaissance and 60 of universal art was taken and it worked very well, but I do not know if in the future it will be same formula. Now, let me come to your question…yes, I think that in the future we will have more originally designed and contemporary themes. Were there any artists this year you were impressed by, even ones who did not win a place in the competition? There were many surprises! I like very much El Lamento de Icaro and La Reve from Lempicka. They did not win. I also agree with the judges on the Renaissance selection. But it is so difficult to make a choice. I really like all of them. Please tell me about the different ages of young people who participate in the festival. Why is it important to expose young children to this art form? We published the bases of the contest in the newspaper and internet sites; we have 120 pieces to reproduce with about 180 contenders of 18 through 99 years old. It is free. For exhibition we have 15 Maestros Madonnari. This year they came from the USA, Italy and Monterrey. For the first time, we went to High Schools to invite 40 youngsters from 15-18 years old to paint in teams, working with squares of 3 x 3 m. From Junior High School we had 30 children of 12-15 years old paint a smaller individual piece of 1 x 1 m. Also by invitation we had 130 children under 12 years old from all over the state of Nuevo León. This year we had a special area for “spontaneous artists” where children of all ages had the opportunity to street paint.
For us it is very important that people from all ages are near the culture. Some of the little children that painted in this festival will have a special memory of it forever. They will never forget and they will be more interested in arts in when they grow up.
A group project by one of the High School teams that particiapted in Festival Bella Via. What kind of feedback do you get from the community about Festival Bella Via? All the community is very happy with the Festival, because we include everybody in it. Also the people that come to see it had a great time with the actors, they learned of art, and they had a great day with their families. Some of them do not want us to erase the paintings. Personally, I feel very proud to work on such a generous project. Many ask us to organize more Festivals in the state, not only Monterrey.
Actors and entertainers delighted the crowd with their bright costumes and outgoing personalities. Where do you see street painting going in Mexico?
Next November we will go to Durango ( The president of the Bella Via Committee, Rosy Loyola, must feel very proud of the success of the Festival and the introduction of the street painting practice in Mexico. El Lamento de Icaro by artists Ricardo Garz Licona and Miguel Angel Cardenas Ovalle.
La Reve from Lempicka by artist Ana Maria Juan Quintero.