This "park" is not an official place where this sort of thing is allowed although I wish the city actually would make a place like that. I recall being in some other city where they had a bit of a problem with graffiti and rather than set up a police unit to punish these people they instead set up an area of the city where people were allowed to do this. Because of it, there was a certain bond of respect between the artists and the municipality and people stopped tagging random buildings and instead got together with other artists, made some relative masterpieces of street art, and from that point forward tagging on private property dropped dramatically. It got to the point where it was actually frowned upon in the spray artist community towards anyone that tagged or did spray anywhere EXCEPT the official area.
Sometimes a solution to a problem is simply to not fight it but to at least try to accommodate it. The people doing the spray are going to do it with or without permission so why not at least help them? The quality of the art and the artists themselves improves and a lot of people really enjoy this sort of art.
So before I go off on too much of a rant about that an the politics about it let's get back to this unofficial park that just kind of popped up near where I live. The work there isn't world-class or anything but it is a lot better than the stuff where the people have to always be looking over their shoulders for authorities that will get them in trouble.
Like I said, this isn't world-class or anything but it is loads better than the garbage that people do really quickly on some wall that they aren't allowed to do it on. In all actuality I don't think they are allowed to do it here either but this piece of land hasn't been used by anyone for anything the entire time I have lived here. This temporary fencing that is around the plot of land was put up before I got here and mostly it was just a place that people dumped their trash. For whatever reason, people just started doing spray here and it has become a bit of a tradition. Now people do their spray in broad daylight and because of that, the quality has seriously improved.
I wish some Vietnamese person would set up an official area where it is made clear to the artists that they are indeed allowed to do it here and something like once a month the existing stuff would be painted over so people could start again. It could be a showcase of sorts and could even be a tourist attraction.
There's nothing particularly special about this stuff but just imagine how much better it could be if the people doing the spray knew that there was no chance they were going to get arrested or fined for doing it?
The area is used for literally nothing so why not allow it?
I was walking through there one day and saw a guy, a foreigner, that was spending a lot of time on what he was doing and it was really impressive. There is a real opportunity here for the city to create something special instead of just the usual crap where people quickly spray their "logo" in a rush so as to avoid detection.
If they knew they were allowed to do it, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the artists themselves would beautify this otherwise just kind of junk filled area and keep it clean. At the end of the day I don't think that street artists are criminally-minded and are good people. The few artists that I have met that do this sort of thing are normally very intelligent and successful people... the world is their canvas and I think that the city as a whole would benefit greatly by simply setting up an area and allowing them to do it.
It's worked in other places and since I don't think very many people like vandalism, giving the artists a place where they can do this without fear would benefit everyone. Perhaps it could even attract truly talented artists from around the world to come over and showcase their craft. People could learn from other artists and hell, the city might even benefit from added tourism.
It's just an idea, but I think it is a good one. I have no clout here and don't even know a single government administrator but I wish someone that does would at least ask if something like this could be possible. The owners of this land aren't doing anything with it but if they wanted to be compensated to allow it, I know that I would chip in some of my own money to make it happen.