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 Belgian-Congolese street artist
NovaDead, whose real name is Julien Crevaels,
completed the work in just over a week in a
suburb near the canal that crosses the Belgian
capital.
The mural on a street corner, stretching across
two buildings, features the face of Floyd, some
scenes of nature and two hands clasping a rose.
"For me this picture could be a reminder of the
absurdity, as I see it, of racism and the
absurdity of such violence over the difference
of colour," Crevaels told Reuters TV.
The Black Lives Matter protests have extended to
Belgium and sparked calls for statues of King
Leopold II to be removed. The king is known for
his brutal colonial rule in what is now the
Democratic Republic of Congo in 1885-1908.
There are flecks of vivid pink, purple and
orange on the face of Floyd but generally grey,
a colour city resident Crevaels says he uses in
all his depictions of people, whatever their
race.
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 "I always use the same range of
grey and it functions very well. It's really to
create this unity of human beings," said the
artist, whose work also features on walls in
France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Miami in
the United States.
The wall itself is the property of the Brussels
district of the Belgian capital, which wanted a
mural to honour all victims of racism. The
district, which includes the city centre, has
some 150 murals, including other NovaDead works.
(Reporting by Bart Biesemans and Christian
Levaux; writing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by
Gareth Jones)
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