I’m Marie and I come France in a small city called Brest. Now I moved to Nantes a bigger city for my studies, where you can also find a lot of street art. It's on the west coast of the country, by the sea. The weather is kind of the same as in Amsterdam. I really like it the atmosphere it is really relax but the winter are mostly rainy due to storms coming from the ocean.
This year I have started a tourism BTS after travelling and working threw Morocco and Portugal last year because I wanted to travel since a long, long time and I loved it, now I would like to find a job which would allow me to work in France and in other countries.
I grew up with my mother in the center of the “art” neighbourhood of the city, where a lot of different cultures and people meet each other. When you walk in the neighbourhood you can see graffiti on the walls, on the benches, on the sidewalk. I think it brings life and energy. We even have a small festival with music, food, ect on the main square to promote the art from the inhabitants so they can sell their creations. It’s located in the center of the town so you can always find things to do, go to the port or the beach.
During my free time, I like to spend time outdoor mostly surrounded by people. I like listening to music a lot. Every time I can I ty to move in other cities to meet friends. I like cinema and theater very much, I used to practice drama for years when I was younger now I don’t find the time to do it anymore, but I really like it it’s a good way to express yourself.
The first time I went to Amsterdam's city center, what impressed me the most was the architecture I’m not used to see it. I find it really beautiful, the black houses with huge windows and obviously all the lights on the bridges and in the little streets. The city seems to be full of life it’s also really enjoyable to cycle around town.
Nieuw-West, where the museum is and I live for 2 weeks, is quiet and more relaxed than the center of Amsterdam; it feels like another town next to the big city life, it’s only 20/25 minutes biking though. But here you see Street Art.
I always liked the different kinds of art, music, painting, drawing, drama. I used to have “history of art” classes when I was in school and I learned many things about art in general.
I liked the underground culture way of expressing themselves, the freedom even if the political environment wasn’t favourable. It gives an identity to the place, it helps remembering a place when the tags, graffitis speaks to you. I like Icy and Sot, the walking alone it was a gift to Anna, "the boys" are really small, and I like that I can make my own message.
I want to learn about how a museum like this one works, how the tours are made, the collection and more about the history of street art.
For now, my most impressive experience was to be around Cleaver, the Jamaican and his team all day long when he came all the way to the museum to tag a big portrait of Bob Marley. He stayed outside for hours while it was freezing outside, it was impressive to see the strength it requires.
I'm here for an internship of two weeks and I have another one of 2 months in May and June. I feel so lucky to have found this internship. And whilst it’s very particular it allows me to meet people from different cultures, to meet artists lie Bastardilla from Columbia or Kennor from Spain. It’s a very enriching environment and Anna really loves what she is doing, she brings a really good energy too the museum.
These 2 weeks, I’m learning about the collection, art in general and of course street art. I help welcoming customers and artists, I also do guiding tours in French and English. It’s helping me develop my English which I think is really important for my studies in tourism.
The concept of Street Art Museum is really interesting, as all of the collection is outside so I think that street art is a strong form of freedom of expression, some of the artworks are legal and some of them are illegal, it’s interesting to learn why some projects are accepted by people of the neighbourhood and why some art not accepted at all.