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New and totally different mural coming to Dewey Square – Metro US

New and totally different mural coming to Dewey Square

Out with the old, in with the new and completely different.

Work began this week to replace the mural in Dewey Square, and big changes are coming to the prominent wall on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

For the past 12 months, the southwest-facing side of an air intake facility in the Financial District featured an abstract splash of color and circles and patterns by artist Shinique Smith.

Coming up: simply the words “A TRANSLATION FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER,” which is also the painting’s name, to be written in big block letters in blue and orange. Artist Lawrence Weiner designed it.

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“With Lawrence’s work, it has a text base, so we’re giving you a title to make up your own idea,” said Lucas Cowan, public art curator for the Greenway. “I think every day it has new meaning to me. It does not have one specific meaning.”

Weiner became a prominent conceptual artist in the 1960s. His text-based art projects have been shown around the world.

The Greenway conservancy collaborated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center to commission the piece.

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The wall was pure white with a faint stenciled outline on Thursday, but over an estimated four days, a crew of cherry-picker-riding painters plan to fill it in. A reception was planned for Thursday, Sept. 24 from 5-7 p.m., rain or shine.

This would be the fourth mural painted on the wall, which has become a landmark in the bustling Financial District near South Station and serves as the backdrop to Dewey Square’s weekly Boston Calling Block Parties (the last one was on Thursday night) and weekday farmers markets and food truck smorgasbords.