Preparations for the next edition of street art festival The Crystal Ship in Ostend (West Flanders) are well underway. Twelve artists are painting giant new works on building fronts. The festival faces an usual challenge. Ostend doesn’t possess all that many buildings that can be used for this purpose and in some cases the artists will be painting over old works.
The street art festival pulls in the crowds all year round. Preparations for the next edition are advanced. By 8 April all artists will have completed their new works on the sides and fronts of buildings in the seaside resort.
“Bringing people closer to art is the aim of The Crystal Ship” explains Mayor Bart Tommelein (Flemish liberal). “It happens at the heart of the city, on walls at the centre of neighbourhoods, where people live and work. In coming weeks it’s here artists will do their thing. Every day art lovers can swing by to see how the new works are taking shape!”
The new art created during the present edition will be added to the route of the existing open-air exhibition. The exhibition is completely free of charge and you can download a map from The Crystal Ship website .
However, Ostend is facing a problem that grows bigger with every new edition: the lack of building fronts where art can be created.
“Ostend isn’t a metropolis like London, Berlin and Paris” explains curator Bjorn Van Poucke. The number of walls available for street art is limited. All the interesting walls have really already been used. We’re having to recycle some walls and are creating new art by overpainting old works”.