Students Turning Kathmandu Into an Open Gallery

Nepal’s capital Kathmandu is known for its ancient temples and rich culture heritage.

Now some young Nepalese want to give the city a more modern look.

There is now a new attraction on this busy road in Kathmandu’s central Durbar Square.

It’s a mural that depicts how this city has changed over time.  In one section a clean blue river turns to black... and painting of Goddes...

The wall which was hardly notice before now has a group of people gathered in front of it taking pictures.

23-year-old Shramdip Purkoti heads a group of college students who did the mural.

“My profession is graphic designing. I am huge fan of Banksy. He is an amazing street artist from London. He is world renown and his works are highly praised. That's what inspires me to do street arts.

Team member Shristi stands on a ladder and paint some more faces on the wall.

“Now I am painting face of a woman which is a part of crowded corner of the mural, which is carried with people... a couple of masks representing different identities of people, faces creating diversities.”

“From past to now, so much things happening in Kathmandu. Its total chaos and mess, that's what people see. But what I see is Kathmandu is still a like city of God, temples, and beautiful people. That's what I put in my design.”

Graffiti or painting murals is not officially outlawed in Nepal.

But for years, the only ‘art’ on the city walls was political campaign posters or commercial pamphlets.

The project ‘Kolor Kathmandu’ wants to change that… it’s the brainchild of 27-year-old artist Yuki Paudel.

“As an artist, I would want to see Kathmandu oozing out the sense of community that support for art, culture and being proud of it, children can be proud of it. When they are walking around, let them see art more than commercials saying them to buy something or political slogans filled with lot of hatred for another political party.”

The project aims to transform the city by painting 75 murals across the capital – each represents different part of the country.

But it hasn’t been easy to convincing people to turn their walls into a giant canvas.

“We give them options. OK you have an empty wall. Would you rather people coming and put bad posters on your wall or would you want to see art that would inspire people that would make your house landmark for lot of people?”

Q. How difficult was that?

“It was super difficult (laughs). It was the most challenging part of this project. Basically for every twenty houses we went and asked, we would get one approval because we were competing against big billboards or commercial ads that would pay them instead.”

But shopkeeper Binod Mishra is proud that the wall of his shop is now a mural.

“I’ve been in this shop for 13 years. And this wall was always covered by political pamphlets and slogans. I haven't seen anyone even noticed and reading that. But now you see, every pedestrian stops, looks at the art mural and appreciates.”

Project ‘Kolor Kathmandu’ goal is to turn Kathmandu into a city of street art... a colourful open gallery.