The municipality of Habay has gained a new mural thanks to the #EuropeStreetArt project. The French artist Jordan Harang was inspired by the work and ideas of about 30 motivated high school students from the Saint-Benoît comprehensive school and their teachers. He then created this huge 100 m² mural on three facades of the Tourist Offices building, opposite the Saint-Benoît comprehensive school. The mural was realized between July 1 and July 10.
This is the first abstract work in the series. A beautiful evocation of an imaginary natural landscape. The elements can be interpreted in different ways. The yellow sphere resembles a sun standing at the top of a world to be climbed, as if it were sacred. The sun represents the search for a better future and reflects the students' desire to make Europe greener and more sustainable.
On Wednesday, July 3, a meeting was organized between the art students and the artist so that they could exchange ideas, ask any questions and see the different techniques used by the artist to create the fresco. The mural will be inaugurated in September 2024 in the presence of the young people who participated in the project, the management and staff of the Saint-Benoît comprehensive school, several local political figures, including Olivier Barthélemy, alderman of the Habay municipality and Tom De Smedt, deputy representative of the European Commission in Belgium.
Students from the Saint-Benoît school community shared their ideas on the theme of "Green Europe" during a brainstorming session. This session took place on Tuesday, March 26, together with representatives of the Commission and the artists' collective that guides the #EuropeStreetArt project. In the process, students also learned about the impact of climate change on our European environment and about the European Green Deal -- the package of European legislation that aims to make the European Union climate neutral by 2050. Students discussed the importance of protecting nature and biodiversity, particularly through the creation of more and more protected areas, such as Natura 2000 sites, of which there are many in the province of Luxembourg. The students then came together in small groups to elaborate, sketch, and shape their own vision of a greener Europe through large drawings. Some of the creative drawings they made reflected, for example, wild nature claiming its rights over emblematic European buildings. The students' desire for a greener and more sustainable future will reverberate for many years to come, thanks to the mural that adorns the tourist office building across from the Saint-Benoît school in Habay. The role of the young people was fundamental in the design of the final work, which expresses their voices and aspirations in a creative and abstract way.
