Mural Art: the Ephemeral Landmark
Leadership
Vassilis Sgoutas, HFUAP
LOUISE AM COX, HFUAP
UIA - Australia
UIA - Greece
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Arch. Vassilis Sgoutas graduated from Cape Town
University in South Africa. Since establishing his own
office in Athens in 1961, he has already implemented
several large scale projects in Greece and in the Middle
East which include pub lic buildings, auditoria, hospitals,
rehabilitation centers, landscaping, and urban design.
Arch. Sgoutas has served not only as President of the
Union Internationale des Architectes between 19992002, but also as member of the Experts Committees for
the European Manual for an Accessible Built Environment
and the European Concept for Access. The triennial
Vassilis Sgoutas Prize was launched by the UIA in 2007 to
honor “architects contributing to the improvement of living
conditions in areas below the level of poverty”. Sgoutas is
Honorary Member of the architects’ institutes in Australia,
China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Panama,
Philippines, Russia, South Africa and USA; Foreign
Member of the State Russian Academy of Architecture
and Construction Services; and recipient of the medal
of the Magnesia Chapter of the Technical Chamber of
Greece for his “lifelong contribution to architecture”.
Louise Cox is Immediate Past President of the
Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA). She was
UIA President from 2008 to 2011. Louise is a member
of UNESCO’s Historic Urban Landscape working group.
She represents UIA on the UN-HABITAT World Urban
Campaign steering committee and she chairs the Habitat
Professionals Forum. She has had wide experience
in heritage, conservation, institutional and health
planning, and contract administration of major health
and institutional projects. Louise served as President
of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects from 1994
to 1995. She is not only Patron of Emergency Architects
Australia but also an Honorary Life Councilor of Standards
Australia. In 1999, she became a Member in the General
Division of the Order of Australia and in April 2011, she
became a Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters of the
French Republic.
Abstract
Abstract
Mural art is a form or art and public murals, just
like all public art, have an interactive relationship with
the architecture of our cities. Mural art defines moments
in time—it disappears at it appeared, silently and
unobstrusively; it has the power of immediacy because,
more often than not, what the murals depict refers to
recent events and reflects the pulse and the current
anxieties of society. Taken one by one, their visual impact
is ephemeral but the wall, and other elements where
they are located become continuously changing mirrors
of life. Murals are not graffiti and they demand their own
particular way of designing as technology will undoubtedly
affect the evolution of public murals. Space and motion
are the framework within which we perceive street art
and public murals. The sometimes carefully studied and
sometimes truly spontaneous murals make our urban
environment friendlier and more convivial.
This is a strange title for one who is now a past
leader. I did not understand what leadership meant until I
realized that as a leader, people actually listen to one and
ask one’s opinions on architectural things and anything
else relevant at the time. Now I have to learn to listen
again and only answer when asked a question!!