A gang of grandmas in Lisbon, Portugal is wreaking havoc on the idea that art has an age limit. No longer just leaving lipstick marks on your face, the grandmas of Lata 65 are tearing it up by tagging the streets of Portugal.
According to The Guardian, the idea was born out of the mind of Lara Seixo Rodrigues, who started graffiti workshops at an art festival in her hometown of Covilha in 2011. She noticed that elderly people took a particular liking to the medium. “Each year we ran the festival I noticed it was the older people, not the younger ones, who were really engaged,” said Seixo Rodrigues. “They were our companions at all hours, day and night, asking us questions about how it was done and commenting on what the paintings represented. I realised there was a real interest in street art among this age group….And for them the elderly graffiti artists to have that self-esteem, the joy, the strength when they finish the workshop. After all, this is really fantastic.’”
The project is a way to show people that “art can remove barriers like age and bring young and older people together, showing them that street art is not confined to one age group.”
The group’s ages range from 59 to 65 and Lara teaches a two-day workshop that includes the history of graffiti, from tagging to the stencil-based work of British artist Banksy and others.
“It’s best,” says Seixo Rodrigues, “to use a nickname when you write on the walls, just so the police don’t find you.” But arrest is not on their minds when doing the graffiti. “The walls they will paint are supplied by Lisbon city council’s Galeria de Arte Urbana.”
Photos via Facebook/Lata 65
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