Amsterdam is unlike any other city for the Iranian activist-artist brothers Icy & Sot.
Amsterdam is where they had their first solo exhibition abroad in 2011, taking their first step into the international art scene. It was an internationally acclaimed first step at that, which eventually let them to escape the persecution and censorship they experienced in their home country.
Blessed by the sun, we made the most of this very “undutch” day by taking a tour of the beautiful gardens, the picturesque towns, and the historic castles and fortresses that once protected Amsterdam.
Those fortresses formed a 135-kilometre-long ring of fortifications that have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Everyone else would have simply moved just a little bit further. Everyone but the Dutch people.
Stubborn Dutch people have, instead, waged a war with His Majesty the North Sea, fighting, and eventually taming, the water with an impressive system of dams and dikes, which has been declared as one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
During my last street art trip, I’ve ended up spending quite some time in Amsterdam.