瓦尔帕莱索的墙绘 Murals in Valparaiso

2022年12月6日，星期二，从南美洲之旅归来的第二天 – Day two after South America

今天还是在倒时差，不过算是可以静下心来整理在瓦尔帕莱索拍的墙绘照片，并在这里分享。瓦尔帕莱索的两日短游算是这次南美洲之旅最精彩的部分。虽然这个小港口城市充斥着不整洁的街道，横七竖八的电线电缆，看起来凶狠狠的流浪狗，令人担忧的治安问题等等，这个城市还是用它的千奇百怪的，眼花缭乱的，有创造力的墙绘吸引并征服了成千上万的游客，我俩就是其中之一。

Though I’m still jet-lagged today, I can relax now and sort out the wall mural photos that I took in Valparaíso and share them here. The two-day excursion to Valparaíso was clearly the highlight of the trip to South America. Although this small port city is full of dirty streets, criss-crossed wires and cables, ferocious-looking stray dogs, worrying security problems, etc., the city still uses its strange, dazzling and creative walls to attract thousands of tourists like us who are captured by the murals.

瓦尔帕莱索就像是一个露天街头艺术馆，角落，墙面，大门，窗口，阶梯，小巷，不经意间，你就会被一副副独特的艺术作品撞个满怀；不经意间，你也会因为就走在它的脚下而错过了一副巨大的画幅。我相信任何一个热爱或是不热爱绘画的人都会享受在这个看似粗糙却震撼人心的艺术殿堂。每一副画都应该被认真欣赏，并花时间理解作者的表达。

Valparaíso is like an open-air art museum where corners, walls, doors, windows, stairs, and alleys will inadvertently hit you with unique works of art; also, if you aren’t careful you may inadvertently miss a huge mural just because you are walking under its feet. I believe that regardless of whether or not you love the walls paintings, you will enjoy this seemingly rough but shocking art palace. Each painting deserves to be carefully appreciated and time taken to understand the artist’s expression.

网上看到了一点儿瓦尔帕莱索的历史，出生于瓦尔帕莱索的一位外交官巴勃罗·聂鲁达 (Pablo Neruda) 被任命为智利驻墨西哥城总领事。受到墨西哥的艺术运动的影响，在1943年返回智利的时候，他把街头艺术带回了瓦尔帕莱索，从而瓦尔帕莱索的街头艺术运动悄然兴起。1973年智利政变，在军事独裁禁止一切政治艺术的压制下，涂鸦是表达抗议的一种完美的形式，瓦尔帕莱索的艺术家们可以完成他们的工作并在不被发现的情况下离开，当然他们的壁画会在被宪兵发现时涂掉。在1990年智利民主回归后，瓦尔帕莱索当地政府将街头艺术合法化，以庆祝言论自由。现在当地政府直接支持，并且也出资雇佣艺术家创作新的作品，酒店、商店和餐馆竞相在墙上画壁画吸引游客，街头艺术团队之间也展开了友好的竞争，这也就形成了现在这个五彩缤纷，独一无二的瓦尔帕莱索。

I read a bit of Valparaiso’s history online and learned that Pablo Neruda, a diplomat born in Valparaíso, was appointed Consul General of Chile in Mexico City. Influenced by the art movement in Mexico, when he returned to Chile in 1943, he brought street art back to Valparaiso and the street art movement in Valparaiso quietly emerged. During the 1973 Chilean coup d’état, under the repression of a military dictatorship that banned all political art, graffiti was the perfect form of expression of protest. Valparaíso artists could finish their work and leave without being detected. Of course, their murals were always painted over when found by the gendarmes. Following Chile’s return to democracy in 1990, the local government of Valparaíso legalized street art in celebration of free speech. Now the local government directly supports and also commissions artists to create new works. Hotels, shops and restaurants compete to draw murals on the walls to attract tourists, and there is also friendly competition among street art teams, which has formed the current unique and colorful city of Valparaíso.

这座城市是坐落在43个山丘之上的，所以这里有很多很多的阶梯，这些阶梯也被马赛克或是绘画艺术覆盖着，与墙绘完美地融为一体。

The city is canvassed over 43 hills, so there are many, many steps covered with mosaics or works of art blending in perfectly with the painted walls.

我出生和生长的地方几乎没有见到过涂鸦，小时候经常见到的是被称作城市“牛皮癣”的一张张贴在墙上或电线杆上的招租或找工作的小广告。PJG2018年第一次带我去欧洲旅行的时候，看到一些城市的涂鸦，当时我会对那个城市有破落不整洁的感觉。现在我非常欣赏并敬佩能看到涂鸦艺术的地方，因为那是自由的象征。（此处省略千万字）。 所以我相信当世界各地的人们来欣赏这些艺术作品的时候，也是这些艺术家，这个城市，城市里的人们想要发出的声音被听到的时候，这让看到的人更关注了这里的历史，人们的挣扎和现在在这里生活的人们的现状。

Where I was born and raised I saw very little graffiti, if any; what I often saw as a child were many small ads for rent or a jobs posted on walls or telephone poles and they were called urban “psoriasis”. When PJG took me to travel to Europe for the first time in 2018, we saw some graffiti in the various cities. But at that time, I often felt that because of the graffiti the city was dilapidated and worn down. Now I really appreciate and admire the places where you can see graffiti art, because it is a symbol of freedom – thousands of words are omitted here. So I believe that when people from all over the world come to appreciate these works of art, it is also when the voices of these artists and the people in the city are heard, which provokes people who see it to pay more attention to the history, to people’s struggles and to the plights of the people living here now.

这里的大多数作品都没有署名，我没有花时间来查询每个画作的作者， 只能感谢他她们的创作吧。

Most of the works here are not signed. I didn’t take the time to look up the artist of each painting. I can only thank them for their creations.