Day 12: September 28, 2023 (A Day of Art in Glasgow...)

Meret, Alessandra & Viktorija.

Today we met in the hostel lobby at 9:00 am. Although some of us thought that we meet only at 9.15 so we had to hurry a little. We walked together as a class for about half an hour through the city of Glasgow to our meeting point next to the lighthouse, where we met our tour guide Caron for our Street Art Tour.

During a short introduction, Caron informed us that street art has actually existed for a long time, although not as we know it today. The Egyptians already painted the walls with hyroglyphs, followed by the Greeks and Romans. What was new to us is that stickers can be street art, too. Our tour guide explained that they are a form of peaceful and safe protest. 

At the moment, the protest in Glasgow is mainly for the lgbtq+ community in Scotland, because they want to fight against transphobia. During Brexit, there was also a lot of protesting, with stickers to be found in random places around the city.

We then found out that there is a difference between graffiti and street art: graffiti are illegal whereas street art is commissioned. The artists are asked by the city to spray on chosen walls and get payed for it.  Especially during the Corona Pandemic, these artists were able to earn good money, since one had could produce street art without social contacts. Unfortunately, there are still no "legal walls" in Glasgow where you can let your creativity run free without permission from the City.

There is something very democratic about street art. Everyone can see it and change its message by drawing over it. Scottish people don’t have paintings of politicians and royals on the walls. They would rather picture a comedian. Looking at street art more closely, they all tell a story. This can be seen well with grafitti artists such as rogue1 or smug1.

In May of 2020, when George Floyd was killed by a police officer, Scotland was still in lockdown. To protest for "black lives matter", some artists have joined forces to earn attention. 

Since our tour guide is a very active citizen of Glasgow, we found out a lot about how Scotland feels about Great Britain. She explained to us that the national animal of Scotland is the unicorn because it is the only animal that can defeat the lion (national animal of England) in fairy tales. Our guide also casually made the following statement: “I hope that the sun will set on Great Britain”. We know this from our history class “The sun will never set in the British Empire”. We think that's what she meant to say was that she hopes that Great Britain will no longer exist and control Scottish politics.

After a lunch break, we were able to visit the various exhibitions in the Modern Art Gallery individually from 1.30 to 2.30 pm. The exhibition was very diverse, some works of art by Andy Warhol were on display, but also art on more current topics, such as women's wages, were represented as an art work. After the Art Gallery we had some time off. While some explored the city or spent their time in cafés, the others went back to the hostel to relax. At 7.00 pm we all met again for our last dinner together. We went to a Mexican restaurant and really enjoyed the meal. Now some are packing their bags for tomorrow while others are enjoying their last evening in Glasgow.

See you tomorrow.