Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic participated of the Made Corrections project which aims to help young offenders through art projects so they use their talents for positive change.
Invited to contribute to this great initiative, Zacharevic created a series of funny and witty pieces painted at the Kaunas Youth Correctional and Interrogation Facility. The artist describes the teams experience as follows:
We went to the facility without any ideas what to expect in a place where boys as young as 14 are imprisoned for serious crimes like murder, serious bodily injuries, rapes and organised crime. Ernest wanted this to be a collaboration between him and the inmates (5 volunteers from the Strict Group), so we brought stencils and the boys have stenciled 35m long wall imitating the ornaments of the main perimeter wall. Meanwhile Ernest has painted his figures trying to break out, cutting the fence and just playing with it. Everybody, even hardcore security guards were amused and really supportive. Inmates were practical boys so they used the opportunity of paints available and painted their soccer gates and other exercise areas (gold was a color of choice obviously). By the end of day 3 we all became relaxed around each other and boys wanted to know more about our lives (they have never seen or talked to an artist before), so Ernest made a sharing session. In pictures you can see us and the boys (faces have to be covered for legal purposes) playing around with the murals.
Pics via the artist, SAN and Made Corrections
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
