Kite scraped-paint wall piece by Pejac, Al-Hussein refugee camp, Amman, Jordan
Kite
Pejac · “Kite”, scraped into peeling wall paint, 2016 · stairway wall in Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp, Amman
Photo by Pejac, as published on Street Art Utopia
A tiny boy flies a kite shaped like a house, its roots still dangling, on a stairway wall in Al-Hussein, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman. Nothing was painted: Pejac scraped away flakes of the old white paint so the dark wall underneath forms the picture. It is one of four pieces he made in the camp in spring 2016 with the support of the Spanish Embassy in Amman. The newest dated record we found is from April 2016, when the photos were first published.
5 things to know
- Made by taking paint awayPejac told Hyperallergic: “I had the idea of partially removing the paint of the walls’ skin, almost like a surgeon, to obtain each of the images that I had in mind.” Hyperallergic adds: “Instead of adding color, the artist worked by subtraction: He carefully removed bits of chipping white paint to expose shapes in the dark wall beneath.” Hyperallergic
- A house on a stringGraffitiStreet: “‘Kite’ sees a boy playing with a kite in the shape of a house uplifted with its roots still attached.” In the photo, the kite is a small house shape with thin roots trailing from it. GraffitiStreet
- One of fourKite belongs to a set of four pieces in the camp. VICE: “Check out the artworks, entitled Kite, Migration, Palestine, and Throne, below.” VICE · GraffitiStreet
- On a stairway wallHyperallergic: “A stairway’s wall now features a silhouette of a boy flying a kite.” A second photo on Pejac’s own site shows the same wall beside a flight of outdoor steps. Hyperallergic · Pejac
- Backed by Spain’s embassyGraffitiStreet: “This project was made with the support of the Spanish Embassy in Amman, Jordan.” Street Art News says the works were made “in collaboration with the Spanish embassy.” GraffitiStreet · Street Art News
Check-in guide
- 📍
- On a stairway wall in Al-Hussein (Jabal al-Hussein) Palestinian refugee camp, Amman (Hyperallergic, GraffitiStreet, VICE). None of the sources names the alley or house.
- 🏘️
- The camp is the first refugee camp set up in Amman. It is laid out along one main street, Ein Jalout Street, with about fifty alleys crossing it (Palquest).
- 🧭
- The Maps button searches for the camp, not for the wall itself. The houses are people’s homes; Pejac says he chose his walls while “talking with the house owners and neighbors” (Hyperallergic).
Sightings
- 201620 Apr
Arrested Motion photos
- 201621 Apr
Street Art News photos
- 201621 Apr
GraffitiStreet photos
- 201621 Apr
VICE report
Every stamp links to the dated source. All four stamps are amber: they are dated publications of photos of the finished wall (GraffitiStreet credits them to Pejac), not photos with a recorded camera date. Arrested Motion posted first, on 20 April 2016, with a photo of a boy standing in front of the kite; Street Art News, GraffitiStreet and VICE followed on 21 April. Hyperallergic’s article of 5 May 2016 uses the same photos, courtesy of the artist. We found no photo or report from a later visit, so we cannot say whether the scraped picture is still on the wall. The photo at the top of this page is undated; the same picture is on Pejac’s website.
On the record
Streets: Pejac @ Al-Hussein Refugee Camp (Jordan)
“Not adding a single drop of paint, he managed to create these poetic works by removing small areas of the facade.”
The first report of the series, posted by SAL, with Pejac’s photos of the walls, Kite among them.
A Spanish Artist Subverted the Scars of a Refugee Camp [Exclusive Photos]
“With these four small interventions, I am trying to tell a minimalistic story about the Palestinian refugees in Al-Hussein,” Pejac tells The Creators Project. “By removing small areas of the ‘skin’ of the houses, I want to transform the paint chipping, produced by the passage of time, into evocative landscapes and transmit the pride of its inhabitants through the walls.”
Pejac’s statement on the series, as given to The Creators Project. By Beckett Mufson.
Transforming a Refugee Camp’s Walls into Subtle Silhouettes
“To find the perfect chipping walls, I walked all over Al-Hussein, studying, touching and testing countless walls to find the perfect chipping walls, talking with the house owners and neighbors, learning their unique stories and enjoying their overwhelming hospitality.”
Pejac on how he chose the walls, speaking to Hyperallergic. By Carey Dunne.
The facts
- Artist
- Pejac, Spanish artist based in Barcelona (Pejac, GraffitiStreet, Hyperallergic, VICE) Checked
- Title
- “Kite” (Pejac, GraffitiStreet, Hyperallergic, VICE) Checked
- Made
- 2016; first published on 20 April 2016 (Arrested Motion, Hyperallergic) Checked. The exact days he worked on it are not given Unconfirmed
- Technique
- Peeling white paint scraped away to show the darker wall beneath; no paint added (Hyperallergic, Arrested Motion, GraffitiStreet) Checked
- Place
- A stairway wall in Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp, Amman, Jordan (Hyperallergic, GraffitiStreet, VICE, Pejac) Checked. The exact alley or house is not published Unconfirmed
- Series
- One of four pieces in the camp: Throne, Kite, Migration and Palestine (GraffitiStreet, VICE, Hyperallergic) Checked
- Support
- Made with the support of the Spanish Embassy in Amman (GraffitiStreet, Hyperallergic, Street Art News) Checked
- Camp founded
- The 2016 art press gives 1948 (Arrested Motion, GraffitiStreet, Hyperallergic); Palquest and an academic article in ZARCH give 1952 (Palquest, ZARCH) Conflicting. We lean towards 1952: those two sources are about the camp itself, and 1948 is the year of the exodus that made its residents refugees.
- Status
- Seen April 2016: photos of the finished wall, published 20 April 2016 (Arrested Motion) Checked. Still there after 2016: no dated photo or report found Unconfirmed
Related
- On Street Art Utopia: Someone Got Creative (18 Photos) (11 October 2026), where the photo above appears as work no. 18, and Street Art by Pejac.
- Pejac’s two other works from the same 2016 trip to Jordan: “Mothers Artists” in Azraq camp and “Rotation” in Amman. Street Art News
- The history of Jabal al-Hussein camp, in the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question. Palquest
All sources (9)
This work
- Pejac: “Outdoor”, the artist’s site, undated. Two photos titled Kite, one of them the photo above.
- GraffitiStreet: “Pejac in Al-Hussein Palestinian refugee camp, Amman Jordan 2016”, by Donna Haden, 21 April 2016. The four titles, the house-shaped kite, the Spanish Embassy.
- VICE: “A Spanish Artist Subverted the Scars of a Refugee Camp”, by Beckett Mufson, 21 April 2016. The four titles, Pejac’s statement.
- Hyperallergic: “Transforming a Refugee Camp’s Walls into Subtle Silhouettes”, by Carey Dunne, 5 May 2016. The stairway wall, the technique, the Spanish Embassy, Pejac’s comments.
Dated photos
- Arrested Motion: “Streets: Pejac @ Al-Hussein Refugee Camp (Jordan)”, posted by SAL, 20 April 2016. Earliest dated photos of the series.
- Street Art News: “Pejac in Al-Hussein, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan”, 21 April 2016. Five Kite photos; “in collaboration with the Spanish embassy”.
Context
- Street Art News: “Pejac in Azraq Camp and Amman, Jordan”, by Sasha Bogojev, 28 April 2016. The other works from the same trip.
- Palquest: “Jabal al-Hussein Refugee Camp”, by Mazen Jubeihi. The first refugee camp in Amman, founded in 1952.
- ZARCH: “Ammán: Leer la ciudad a través del desplazamiento”, by Ayham Dalal, 27 June 2024. Al-Hussein camp created in 1952.
Artwork File · Last checked 11 October 2026 · Certainty labels follow How We Verify Art · All Artwork Files