Calle del Arte – A street for the arts

While US-style skyscrapers dominate the affluent part of much of the Northern Venezuelan city of Maracaibo, colourful one-story colonial houses are the hallmark of the Santa Lucía neighbourhood. They give the impression of having been frozen in a bygone era. Most of its contemporary residents are poor, and they used to be forgotten by the authorities. It was against this backdrop that Hamburg-based, Venezuelan-born artist Clemencia Labin launched an unusual arts festival at the beginning of the millenium. It all started with just one home that Labin turned into an arts gallery, and kept growing. When director Viviane Blumenschein and her team turned up in 2012 to document what was happening, it was already the penultimate “Velada de Santa Lucía," and it was big. For the duration of a weekend, the Calle del Arte - Art Street - was heaving with people to see how artists had transformed living rooms, home fronts, even toilets into works of art, provoking a culture clash of sorts but also many unexpected encounters. Much like the festival itself, this celebrates the power of visions, and art in its purest form. As filming began, the people of Santa Lucía did not yet know that the spotlights on their neighborhood would soon be switched off again.