Millo and Hera Paint Murals in Stavanger Transport Hubs

Millo and Hera are two of the latest international artists to paint in the international street art hub of Stavanger. Part of Nuart’s ‘Plane, Trains and Automobiles’ project. The idea being to create works in the city based in places of transit.

Hera, who is also one half of the German street art duo Herakut, painted at the central train station. Italian artist Millo meanwhile created his mural at the airport. The two artists are well known for their work internationally. Herakut back in 2017 even creating a mural in Stavanger’s sister city of Aberdeen. That piece lasted until 2022 when it was demolished as part of a regeneration project.

Hera & the Narwhals

Covering a large wall running along the length of a railway platform. Hera’s work features a young girl swimming along with a pod of Narwhals. A sea creature known for their distinctive screw like noses, they are generally found in arctic waters. In the mural they are joined by some birds, together making a convoy to wherever they are going.

We Are All Birds of Migration

Written along the mural, the words ‘We All Are Birds of Migration, With Feathers or Without‘. Hera describes the piece as a love letter in spray paint. A message to the “natural impulse to take yourself to greener pastures”. To move, travel and search. It is a piece that talks of freedom and the wish that “there was a way that allowed for less borders”. The Narwhal’s, birds and the girl all moving along as one against the wall, ready to move and migrate.

Millo’s Baggage Carousel

Millo’s work dominates the baggage carousel of the Stavager International Airport. His cartoon style often painted huge and featuring imagined city scapes often with large childlike characters. This time the characters, two young boys sit either side of the city. Between them runs a baggage carousel though instead of bags the conveyor carries experiences.

Begin and End

“I’ve imagined the baggage carousel as a flux of experiences” he explains. The artist himself reflecting that his own life is made of travels. Airports often being the places where those journey’s begin and end. Representing either a return home or the travelling to somewhere else.

Gateways

The idea of painting in transport hubs was one inspired by Nuart Director Martyn Reed’s own experiences of travel. Born from his first trip down to London from his hometown of Leeds in the early 80’s. “I was arriving at a run-down coach station which stunk of wee, broken lights and poverty. All my dreams of ‘London’ were destroyed in 5 minutes”. It was an experience that stayed with him. That sense that these gateways from city to city, were important scene setters in how a person sees a place.

Stavanger has a strong history when it comes to street art and muralism. Nuart started here back in 2001 and since then has had an almost continual presence. The legacy it has created ensuring that Stavanger is at the forefront of the medium. These new murals in places of transit will add to this legacy further. A warm welcome indeed to this Norwegian street art city.

The murals from Hera and Millo were painted over two weeks in November 2023. Millo’s work can be seen at the baggage counter of the Stavager International Airport. Hera’s can be seen inside the Stavanger Railway Station. The artworks have been curated by the arts organisation Nuart who have a long history with muralism and street art in Stavanger. All pictures in this post are courtesy of Brian Tallman.

For more Inspiring City articles you might like, take a look at…

• Nature inspired Street Art in Ultsira and Stavanger from Snik
• Prie Dieu Capatalist Worship at a Cash Machine in Norway
• Interview with Italian artist Millo at his ‘Nero’ Exhibition
• Street Artist Edwin calls out dangers of Climate Change at Nuart
• Robert Montgomery Mural at Trondheim Airport

---

Hera & Millo Stavanger Gallery