Palestinian street artist to unveil new mural in the East End of Glasgow

A Palestinian street artist and the man behind the fake Banksy will unveil a new mural in Glasgow on Saturday.

Taqi Spateen has travelled from the occupied West Bank for the reveal of a large-scale artwork in the East End of the city on Stevenson Street West by the Barrowlands Gate.

It has been produced in collaboration with Ciaran Glöbe, who was one of the artists behind the fake Banksy in Glasgow - a rat wearing a union jack bowler and banging a drum emblazoned with the words 'God Save the King' - which appeared in the city last June.

The stunt was intended to highlight the hypocrisy surrounding street art and graffiti, where some artworks are praised and valued and others are dismissed and removed.

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Graffiti art is a major cultural force in Palestine. In August 2005, UK street artist Banksy and his team painted seven large murals on a section of the 440-miles-long West Bank Wall, also referred to as the Separation Wall. Since then, the wall has gone on to become a hotspot for the graffiti scene, a major tourist attraction and a powerful work of art in its own right.

Mr Spateen has created many murals on the wall including The Boy with the Goldfish Bowl, showing a child with what is left after the destruction of his childhood home, a series of portraits of George Floyd, and his collaboration with the brand The North Face, Walls Are Meant For Climbing.

Now creating and exhibiting internationally, Spateen draws inspiration from the Palestinian countryside, particularly the olive tree, one of the most famous of all Palestinian symbols. His more recent paintings also include depictions of mass urbanisation and colonial settlements on his homeland.

The Glasgow mural is his second in a run of five murals across the UK, in conjunction with the Bethlehem Cultural Festival.

The Festival’s creative director, Melissa Scott, says: "We are excited to be able to facilitate collaborations between Taqi and UK-based street artists.

"We hope the resulting murals will be a lasting legacy demonstrating our hopes to eliminate the walls and borders that divide us as humans. We continue to be devastated by the violence inflicted on all our friends, artists and cultural practitioners in Palestine.”