International Festival for Pavement Drawings
International Festival for Pavement DrawingsYoni Kempinski

For the first time in Israel, Bialik Street in the central region city of Ramat Hasharon will transform into an urban art district with 3-D pavement drawings.

The International Festival for Pavement Drawings is a one-of-a-kind international festival which will present a variety of artwork and 3-D drawings by famous artists from Israel and abroad.

As part of the festival the grey concrete sidewalks will become 3-D urban artworks, statues and exhibits will be displayed on the streets, and the audience will enjoy a range of cultural events and performances open to the public, including a new show by famous Israeli singer Rita.

Arutz Sheva’s Yoni Kempinski visited Bialik Street and spoke with some of the participating artists.

“The art of street painting it’s a really old tradition. It’s 400 or 500 years old and made using anything from bits of chalk to pigments, water, or anything like that,” said Julie Kirk-Purcell, co-director of the We Talk Chalk company, which specializes in street painting using chalk. “In the last 30 years it has become very popular due to 3-D painting.”

She explained that 3-D painting is all about proportions.

“You stand from a certain viewpoint and the painting will be drawn so that when you look at it from that viewpoint, it’ll look the illusion of something coming up or something going down into the ground.”

The festival’s purpose is to be a unique platform for training and cultivating artists that are focusing on plastic art and outdoors art, and spreading the innovative street-art culture. This festival is the initiative of the Ramat Hasharon Municipality, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary. This is the first time such an event is taking place in Israel, and the municipality promises to make it a tradition.

The festival will take place along Bialik Street in Ramat Hasharon between Wednesday and Friday of this week.