Bethlehem Cultural Festival has announced a new international graffiti art project,  Palestinian street artist Taqi Spateen is coming to the UK to create large-scale murals with local street artists in five locations. So far, Jimmy C and Ciaran Glöbel confirmed, more artists to come. Spateen has been liaising from Palestine with the artists about the plans, both logistical and artistic, for the murals they will create.

The locations are still being chosen, factoring in visibility to the public, footfall - and vitally how long each mural will stay in place before being painted over. Depending on light and weather, the artists plan to paint every day working towards a public unveiling on the final day in each location. Palestinian artist and activist Taqi Spateen is in the UK to work with work with artists and communities in Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Stroud and London to create five large-scale murals.

Street artists Ciaran Glöbel in Glasgow and Jimmy C in London are already confirmed. More artists and the exact locations for the murals will be confirmed in the coming weeks. Glasgow-based Ciaran Glöbel, with fellow artist Conzo Throb, was behind the fake Banksy - 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. Glöbel was the subject of a 2018 BBC Arts short film, Hands On, about his work as an artist, graphic designer and signwriter. Australian-born and London-based, Jimmy C (James Cochran) was a vital part of the development of the graffiti scene in Adelaide, known for his aerosol art murals and his work in city and regional communities across Australia.

His urban realist narrative paintings often depict marginalised humans in the context of the urban environment. On 8th May, Spateen arrives in Leeds to begin working with a group of local street artists in collaboration with East Street Arts and the Leeds Palestine Film Festival. On 17 May, he travels up to Glasgow to team up with Ciaran Glöbel, one of the artists behind the recent fake Banksy in the city.

On 27 May, he heads to Bristol to work with a team of artists as part of Upfest, Europe’s largest street art and graffiti festival. On 1 June, he goes to Stroud to work with Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) and the Picturedrome Theatre, Gloucester. From 6 to 15 June, he will be teaming up with Jimmy C in London. Taqi 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 precious homeland. 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. 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.”

For up to date information about the murals in each location and the street artist involved, please got to https://www.bethlehemculturalfestival.com/

Images Taqi Spateen (below); Jimmy C (above)