Cycle | Gaia - Haarlem

Gaia (born 1988) was born in New York City as Andrew Piacane and studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). He developed as a committed artist and specialised in murals. His StreetArt can be found all over the world, which landed him on the Forbes under 30 list for Art & Style in 2015.

In 2021, Gaia spent two weeks in the Netherlands at the invitation of HaarlemIcons in collaboration with 37PK Platform for the Arts. The theme of his visit was imagined communities. Two meetings took place with residents of the Haarlem district Schalkwijk. The following themes were addressed: respecting and understanding core values, residents' stories, the cycle of life, the connection between Schalkwijk and Haarlem and the history of the region.

With these themes, the artist set to work and created a large work on the building of MooiZooi. People with a distance to the labour market work here and they collect and recycle materials that artists can use. All themes can be found in this mural, which he calls Cycle. The glass bells have a connection to the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. In the background, you can see the map of the original Schalkwijk and in the torsos of the current generation of inhabitants you can see how things used to be.

Another HaarlemIcons project Gaia did was at the VMGH, association Marokkaanse Gemeenschap Haarlem. Residents painted the inside walls and Gaia applied the word "Welkom" (Welcome) to the outside of the building, together with pictures of the residents' stories. This work can be found on Stresemannlaan.