The mural of the Walloons finished this Saturday – Namur
The scaffolding will be removed on Monday and the people of Namur will be able to see it in the middle of next week. Passers-by in the mayor’s gardens may have seen the huge scaffolding placed in front of the Walloons’mural, one of the city’s buildings. Five artists are restoring it. They will have finished this Saturday, but it will take a few more days to see it until the scaffolding is removed.
The mural of the Walloons was inaugurated 14 years ago to the day, on 18 September 2004, on the occasion of the “party Wallonie”… However, it was not intended to live so long without being restored. As a result, the colours faded, characters were erased, tags appeared… The City decided to restore it to its former glory. But more than just a refreshing facade, it is a real refurbishment accompanied by an update of the fresco that is currently being carried out by CitéCréation, the Lyon-based company that created this monumental painting.
The five famous characters who appear in the windows – Blanche de Namur, Dominique Pire, Ernest Solvay, François Bovesse and Georges Simenon – were repainted on canvas in the workshops of CitéCréation in Lyon and mounted in place of the old canvases on the gable of the Town Hall. Four other windows made of trompe-l’oeil are repainted entirely in situ. The vegetable part at the bottom of the canopy, Charlemagne’s stained glass window, the mountaineer, Muriel Sarkany, Marsupilami, Smurfette, Walloon rooster and flying witch Macrâle are also completely renovated. The slate roof surfaces are retouched, in order to permanently remove the ghost of the old dove.
In the process, the City wanted to integrate new characters. Thus, athlete Nafissatou Thiam appeared at the foot of the mural in a victorious attitude. At the windows, the Namuris’ favourite priest, Abbé Malherbe, appears, wearing a cap, a small smile on his lips and a benevolent look, while an Amazon by Félix Roulin proudly stands on the right of the fresco. New names are integrated on the book slices: Willy Peers, Namur in May, Pairi Daiza.
A true open-air book located in a public garden in the heart of Namur, the Fresque des Wallons continues to tell a story, stories, 14 years after its creation. The history of a city, a region, a country, through known characters (historical, scientific, industrial, sports, artists, sportsmen and women) or anonymous. A source of pleasure and discovery, this monumental painting made in trompe-l’oeil is still a cultural, tourist and educational tool today.
Even before a street art journey developed in Namur under the impetus of Namur Confluent Culture, the Walloons’ mural anticipated the idea that art must be integrated into the public space and into our daily lives in order to be accessible to all and at the same time strengthen the dynamism and attractiveness of the city’s heart.
