Focus Association from Vevey and message salon Zurich have invited Shamsia Hassani, Kabul’s best-known graffiti artist, and Zurich street artist Lisa Looser to a collaborative art event. The two artists will paint the Veli & Amos billboard on the Perla-Mode terrace on Sunday afternoon.
Shamsia Hassani wants to bring art to the streets and into people’s minds. Her blue Burka woman graffiti has become famous beyond the borders. Shamsia Hassani says: “Art can bring change, I am sure. If people see an artwork, it will perhaps only cause a small shock to their mind, but that can grow and grow.”
As a woman, it is impossible for Shamsia Hassani to paint in public spaces. A few walls in the former Russian cultural centre in Kabul offered her a protected opportunity for a short time. At present, however, the artist applies her graffiti almost exclusively to cityscapes on the computer using Photoshop. Her imaginative decorations and ornaments, typefaces and elegant burqa women with female forms fly like detached, liberated dreams over rooftops, around dusty street corners and grey-brown blocks of houses.
With this action, Focus Association is launching the transdisciplinary project “Sofa Kabul 2013/14”, which will take place with artists in Switzerland and Afghanistan.
Shamsia Hassani was invited by “Terre des Femmes” to be the main guest at the multi-day event “Voix des Femme”. “Voix des Femmes” is a platform for women’s voices and, with Shamsia Hassani as a guest, focuses on role models in the public sphere.