Exclusive / World-touring artist "Mr. Seven" to visit Taiwan and paint with rural schoolchildren

▲ On the separation wall in Palestine, Mr. Seven painted a girl with her back turned, gazing into the distance, conveying a faint sadness that seems to tell the story of life's changes due to the imposing barrier. (Photo provided by the organizer)

Reported by Chen Ziying / Taipei

The world-renowned French street artist "Mr. Seven (Julien Malland Seth)" is coming to Taiwan soon. According to an exclusive report by ETtoday Ettoday News Cloud, in August, Mr. Seven will collaborate with local Taiwanese artists to create murals at three elementary schools in Hualien, Taitung, and Hsinchu. The news has excited art enthusiasts.

Since 2003, he has traveled across four continents, including more than ten countries and cities such as Argentina, Ukraine, Pakistan, Madagascar, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Shanghai.Mr. Seven has confirmed his visit to Taiwan in August and will paint school campuses together with Taiwanese volunteers and local schoolchildren.The inviting organization, Lishi Group, stated that in each of Mr. Seven’s mural works, one can feel the fusion of the artwork with the local culture. He excels at interpreting street art through the lens of the local cultural background, and Taiwan has yet to see such artistically intense and distinctly styled outdoor wall paintings.


▲ In a demolition site in Shanghai, Mr. Seven seized the opportunity during the demolition to create art, using the isolated remaining walls in the open space to depict local residents’ attachment to their generational homes and land. (Photo provided by the organizer)


▲ Mr. Seven incorporated local Argentine characteristics, combining the image of a tiger with children and specially using a boat as the canvas. (Photo provided by the organizer)


▲ In the ruins of a village in Indonesia ravaged by a volcano, Mr. Seven used the surviving walls and curves built from discarded materials to vividly portray children sleeping curled up on their sides, reflecting a collective yearning for comfortable living spaces. (Photo provided by the organizer)

Mr. Seven uses any large object on the street as his canvas — not just regular street walls, but also abandoned bars, crumbling walls slated for demolition, the sails of canoes that people rely on for their livelihoods, and even separation walls built due to war. All can become his creative canvases. Through graffiti, he tells the unique stories of each region. Before creating, Mr. Seven chats with local residents and tries his best to understand the local cultural features. For example, he once painted on the walls of a village after a volcanic eruption to encourage residents to rally and move forward; he created art in the ruins of walls about to be demolished to express residents’ attachment and reluctance to the land; and he painted deities on the walls of temples in Cambodia, conveying the inseparable bond between faith and daily life in the local culture.

This time, Mr. Seven will visit Jinping Elementary School in Jianshi Township, Hsinchu; Wan’an Elementary School in Chishang Township, Taitung County; and Rui Mei Elementary School in Ruisui Township, Hualien County, hoping to bring art into remote Taiwanese elementary schools and fill the children’s lives with love, joy, and color.