On July 22 this year, the French duo Monkeybird released a wrap up vid of their mural painted in Decazeville, France painted as part of the Murmurs festival of street art. Sponsored by graffiti artist Jo Di Bona, the festival ran from May 25 to June 29 when a host of internationally renowned artist transformed the old mining town into an open air art gallery.
Their work titled, “Le Pêcheur” – which translates to Fisherman – comes as one of many murals in a busy year for Monkeybird. During Murmurs the tight crew spray painted the 12m x 9m stencil artwork onto the side of an apartment block. Since the colour-filled scenes in their mother country, the pair have since painted an 8m x 7m mural titled, ‘Le Pantographe’ (The Pantograph) in the Fanzara Valley, Spain as part of the MIAU Fanzara cultural production of urban art.
Some time between Decazeville and Fanzara Valley, Monkeybird constructed a piece for the first centre of floating art in the world, Fluctuart located in the heart of Paris. However, this is not the first time Monkeybird have painted in Paris, when in May 2018 they painted 20m x 7m mural for a collaboration between Nanterre University and the Musée du Louvre, as reported by Street Art News.
While this flurry of activity may come across as quite the wild ride, it is the result of a considered and premeditated push in a joined direction. As reported by Widewalls, Monkeybird is formed by the two contemporary artists Blow the Bird and Temor the Monkey. Formed in 2010, the pair met on the streets and came together to alter their framework and identity.
Inspired by monuments, religion and art nouveau, Monkeybird work with stencils, collages, spray painting, drawing, carving, silkscreen and engraving to depict social themes through the use of symbolism and animal totems.