Sheikha Al Mayassa Visits Salawa Road Tunnel

Doha, January 28 (QNA) - HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums Authority today visited one of the tunnels on the Salwa Road, where French-Tunisian Graffiti artist eL Seed has finished working on some of the murals within the "calligraffiti" murals project as part of an assignment by Qatar Museums Authority's Public Art Department Programmes and Qatar Public Works Authority of ArtisteL Seedto decorate four tunnels on Salwa Road. Artist eL Seed arrived in Doha earlier this month to start implementing the murals project which lasts for four months as part of the Salwa road development project. Artist eL Seed began decorating four tunnels with fifty two uniques and different murals depicting Qatari culture tales and other landmarks of life in Qatar. The project also aims at sheding light on the interest in Arabic calligraphy blended with the contemporary street art called graffiti. The murals in the first tunnel follow the "Liquid Alphabet" calligraffiti style and touch on the national theme. eL Seed uses this style to construct calligraphy writings on top of each other giving the impression of travelling calligraphies. In this series of murals, some of the calligraphy writings are verses from the National Anthem of Qatar including the ones that translate in English as "Travel the high road; Travel by the guiding light of the Prophets" and "Doves they can be at times of peace, Warriors they are at times of sacrifice". Commenting on the significance of this project, Mr Jean Paul Engelen, Director of Public Art at Qatar Museums Authority, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Ashghal on this creative project that will change people s perception of street art. We believe that through Arabic calligraphy and authentic, culture-specific themes in creating the murals, eL Seed will help the Qatari community accept and admire unconventional graffiti artwork. It is great to see so many volunteers from Qatar and other nationalities participating in this project. We also would like to thank the artist and his team for their work and cooperation." For his part, Eng. Nasser Ali Al Mawlawi, the President of Ashghal said the calligraffiti murals project which is one of largest infrastructure projects in the State of Qatar confirms the efforts Ashghal efforts to promote heritage, culture and traditions of Qatar. "We thank Qatar Museums Authority, led by Sheikha Al Mayyasa bint Hamad Al Thani for her cooperation with us to accomplish this project which aims to highlight the art of calligraphy and we look forward to the adoption of such innovative initiative efforts to promote Qatar's cultural fabric," Al Mawlawi said , referring to the interest of Ashghal in the decoration of all the streets of Qatar. Meanwhile Artist eL Seed thanked Sheikha Mayassa and Qatar Museums Authority for choosing him to accomplish these murals, and expressed the hope that they would impress the viewers. Born to Tunisian father and mother eL Seed lived in France where he began drawing using spray paints in the late nineties, and when he moved to North America he merged his attention for the Arabic calligraphy with the grafitti art to draw and started drawing calligrafitti murals. (QNA)