Lebanese artist Yazan Halwani has attained global fame painting the streets of Beirut. He talks branding, branching out and his fear of turning Beirut into a billboard with Eleanor Dickinson
Like many street artists, Yazan Halwani began painting walls because he wanted to be a bit of a teenage rebel; a David defacing the streets of Beirut in defiance of the authorities’ Goliath. Taking the lead from his peers, Halwani began ‘tagging’ graffiti on the walls of the city, hoping to be arrested for vandalism. But as he soon learnt, to be a vandal in Beirut you need to work a lot harder.
“I have this really distinct memory of painting and hearing police sirens,” he says. “It was on a hig
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