Street Art Cities

This year, 40 years of partnership is being celebrated between Tilburg and the Nicaraguan city of Matagalpa.

As part of Tilburg-4-Global-Goals, the mural is a gift from the Tilburg-Matagalpa City Partnership Foundation to the city of Tilburg as a "Thank You" for all the support over the past four decades.

The mural was created by Nicaraguan muralist Manuel Alániz Gamez (FUNARTE) and Tilburg artist Paul Watty. Together the artists have painted the side façade of the Pijnboomflat at the Hart van Brabantlaan.

In the joint design you see a combination of styles. Visible are Latin American influences and Tilburg's industrial character.

The artwork shows Tilburg's partnership with the South and at the same time criticism of the trade system. A system in which countries like Nicaragua (Global South) can export their raw materials (here cocoa and coffee beans) to the European Union, but not their end products (chocolate bars and roasted coffee). The end products are stopped by means of import tariffs.

The partnership that Tilburg and Matagalpa have for 40 years now, can also be seen in the artwork. After all, we drink coffee from the mountains of Matagalpa. This is arabica coffee, produced by small coffee farmers (m/f). They cherish the ecosystem in which they live and work and they receive a fair price for their coffee. This means a sustainable future for their families.

The mural calls for a fair and sustainable world!