Today we’d like to introduce you to Enrique Chiu.
Hi Enrique, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Mural de la Hermandad, I started the project 5 years ago, it started on the day of the elections, I was always looking for a big wall, to paint to make a mural. Once I saw the opportunity right in front of me, I had to take the chance and just go for it. At the beginning I thought it would only be a few days, I told people around me and published it on Facebook, the first day the neighbors of the community started to come by, with brushes and paint, suddenly we were around 50, then 100, I was amazed, and moved. Then every weekend for a year we were painting the wall, and the word started to spread, I think it was the people who made me keep going to the project, how It was slowly changing people’s perspective of “the wall”, It started to become a place where people took pictures, played, saw hope, and brotherhood, how people from different nations, that did not understand each other joined and worked together in this project. At 2019 before the US took down the old wall, and put a new one, even higher, 6 feet total, we had painted over 2km straight in Tijuana, 1km in Tecate, and 1km in Mexicali, and other from the actual painting, one which I’m really moved by, it is how many people from all over the world has given me their support by coming by, making interviews, news, photographing the movement that is taking place at the border, new social groups spreading the word and painting,
It has been around 5,600 painting all these years. I’m an activist and artist promoting the social causa using the art, creating the fusion and link between the society with art, I’m around 290 murals around the world, promoting the human right, migration, defending kids, women, and any cause I can help.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I have experienced many forms, attitudes of varied people, people who believe that what I do is good and others that what I do is useless, but I think it depends on how you see it and how far you want to go with that proposal or idea, most of the people just see what they want to see, but I think that art is a source of research on a topic using it in the social issue, as an activist. My proposals are based on societal issues, from migration, child abuse, cancer, HIV, human rights, and other causes that affect the communities where I participate
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a painter, activist, esculpturist, and Cultural Promoter I have carried out projects that stand out, creating a human concept, and in masses with many people, linking art with society with the aim of promoting peace and human rights in 14 countries so far, working with ambassadors, rulers, princes and thousands migrants and artists that I have met.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I like the border, binational coexistence, and expanding ideas between cultures. and what I don’t like is the waiting time at border crossings
Contact Info:
- Email: enriquechiu@hotmail.com
- Website: www.enriquechiuarte.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enriquechiuarte/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/enriquechiu
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/enriquechiuarte
Image Credits
@enriquechiuarte
