This girl is the central image in a mural in the coastal town of Durres Albania. Under her there is text which reads: “An uneducated society can be more catastrophic than a natural disaster”.
books, education, and society
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Tanini’s colours and shapes
As I walked around Tirana I saw several examples of murals by Albanian artist Eljan Tanini. This blog post features three – a whole building covered by his shapes and colours, a tall vertical mural, and last, a wall with four panels.
below: All sides of the building are covered with whimsical playful shapes in Blloku.
below: Street scene on Rruga Myslym Shyri with the bottom part of Tanini mural showing. This mural was painted as part of MurAL Fest 2018.
below: Four panels in a concrete wall have abstract paintings by Tanini (one on the left, with a blue background, is not shown).
stripes, and others, near the corner
On the southeast corner of the intersection of Bajram Curri Blvd and Rruga Sulejman Delvina in Tirana there is an apartment complex that has been painted in bright coloured stripes.
The stripes change to shapes on the other side.
below: In the middle of the complex is a small structure with one wall painted as part of MurAL fest one year. The title is “Visual Diary” and it the work of Albanian artist Mariola Mocka.
below: Another side of the structure is this abstract painting by noreason.
And here, either the stripes fade away or else they have been partially repainted.
Nikola Jorga’s portrait
He was born Nicu N. Iorga in Romania on 17 Jan 1871. He was a prolific writer and cultural historian. His biography is long and it gets complicated when discussing his scholarly works and opinions so I will leave that for you to read on Wikipedia (or similar) if you are interested. I haven’t figured out why he is featured on a mural in Albania. He was murdered in 1940 by the Iron Guard, a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party.
The text is written in Albanian (or Romanian, google translate had trouble with this) but the first few words translate as “When two quarrel, the third wins”
This mural was painted by Irlo Doidoi for MurAL Fest 2019.
Pray for Rain
Kadikoy – Pixel Pancho and the globe
A large mural by Pixel Pancho on one side of the street and a small mural preaching kindness on the other.
Playing with a mechanical toy while sitting in the lap of a larger machine (robot?)
her zaman anytime
her yerde everywhere
Einstein, strange birds, and some teddy bears
Three murals in Vilnius
below: Einstein by ettoja (aka Artur Širin) titled “It’s Never too Late”. A tattooed Einstein has his bling and his backpack and looks ready to hit the road (now that Covid seems to be waning?).
On Kauno (just around the corner from Einstein) is this large mural. It is a collaboration between Polish artist SEPE (aka Michal Wrega) and Lithuanian artist CHAZME (aka Daniel Kalinskiego).
Walking slightly farther west brings you to another mural. The words in the umbrella say Už Saugią Lietuvą which is the name of a campaign to fight domestic violence, “For a Safe Lithuania”
Writing on the mural is: “Do vanos? Za islai? O gal seima? Isileisi mane.” which loosely translates to: Do you have? Toys? Or maybe the family? Let me out.
out of the jungle
Helevius map of the heavens
at Helevius Square, near old town, Gdansk
“Hocce Hemisphaerium Firmamenti Sobiescrium Boreale” = Star chart of the Northern Hemisphere. 
Helevius Square was named after Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687). He was a beer brewer in Danzig/Gdansk. He was also interested in astronomy and built a telescope on the roof of his house. His contributions to the study of the constellations are many including the descriptions of ten new ones. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are depicted above – that’s the big and little dipper. So are Cassiopeia, Aquarius, Cancer (Cancri), and Andromeda. Some of the others you might find are Hercules, Draco, Serpenterius, Cerebrus, and Camelopardalus. Three of the constellations described by Helevius are no longer in use!
30 years of the V4
This mural was painted last year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the V4 alliance. V4 is shorthand for the Visegrad Group, a group of four countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia. and Hungary,
A similar mural was painted in the three other capitals as well – Prague, Bratislava, and Budapest.
The mural was created by Magda Miszczak (and of course…. in collaboration with the National Centre for Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport, and the participation of the Polish Institutes in Bratislava, Budapest and Prague).
Photos taken May 2022
Eyes on the Streets 