The Bogside Artists are a trio of

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

painters from

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, consisting of brothers Tom and William Kelly, and Kevin Hasson (b. 8 January 1958). Their most famous work, a series of outdoor murals called the People's Gallery, is located in the

Bogside The Bogside is a neighbourhood outside the city walls of Derry, Northern Ireland. The large gable-wall murals by the Bogside Artists, Free Derry Corner and the Gasyard Féile (an annual music and arts festival held in a former gasyard) are pop ...

neighbourhood of Derry and depicts the events surrounding

sectarian violence Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion ...

and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

protests in

during

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

Career

The Bogside Artists first began working together in 1993 to document the events surrounding the Northern Ireland

Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

. With supplies donated from local residents, they painted several murals on the walls of Rossville Street buildings commemorating the Battle of Bogside and

Bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday may refer to: Historical events Canada * Bloody Sunday (1923), a day of police violence during a steelworkers' strike for union recognition in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia * Bloody Sunday (1938), police violence aga ...

. From 1994 to 2008, they painted a total of twelve murals on this street in the Bogside, which they named '
The People's Gallery
''. The People's Gallery spans the entire length of Rossville Street, which runs through the centre of the

. It is a unique visual display – an entire street devoted to the history in art form of over three decades of political conflict in the province as it affected the city and it occupies no less than four pages in the Lonely Planet (2012). The gallery has never been promoted either by the local council or by any other body including the tour bodies or arts bodies many of which are run by Sinn Féin. It was in the Bogside on 30 January 1972 that 13 civilians were killed by

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

paratroopers in the

disturbances (an additional civilian died later). The murals were officially inaugurated in August 2007 and an additional mural dedicated to

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

Laureate and retired leader of the

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

John Hume John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Irela ...

was completed in 2008. The Bogside Artists have exhibited their work widely in various cities, including

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Sydney, Brisbane, Chicago, London and Washington, D.C. They have painted a number of other works, most notably a mural of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

in Washington D.C. In September 2011 they painted a mural for the town of Vordernberg Austria on the controversial theme of the New World Order. More recently they completed a mural for Europe's City of Culture Maribor, Slovenia that was unveiled by the Dalai Lama. They see their work as humanitarian and human as "men speaking to men" ( Tom Kelly, spokesman) and have little time or interest in contemporary art. "All real art is contemporary as it has its origins in the truthful state of mind which is timeless". On thei
website
you will find their manifesto.

Art and peacebuilding

The Bogside Artists design the murals of The People’s Gallery are not as "political propaganda, declarations of identity, or territorial markers." The murals of the Bogside Artists are supposed to make its audiences "think about the past and process painful memories" and "enable and facilitate cross-community conversation around shared experiences seen from different perspectives and contexts." They hope that this will foster mutual understanding, reconciliation and the building of peace. In addition to their work as muralists, the Bogside Artists also conducted numerous art workshops throughout the years with local

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

children to promote cross-community understanding. They were also featured in many documentaries ''What You See Is What You Get'' and ''Window on the West'', etc.

Controversy

In November 2005,

Walter Momper Walter Momper (born 21 February 1945) is a German politician and former Governing Mayor of Berlin (West Berlin 1989–1990, reunited Berlin 1990–1991). Whilst Governing Mayor, he served as President of the German Bundesrat, President of the B ...

, president of the Berlin State Parliament, cancelled a planned exhibition of the Bogside murals in the parliament building. He criticised the artists for their "partiality" in only representing one side of the conflicts in Northern Ireland. The artists stated that the murals are intended to be "a human document" rather than a political or sectarian statement.

Mural gallery

File:WestlandFromWall.jpg, Westland Road in the Bogside, viewed from the city wall (31 July 2007)

References

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External links