All posts tagged: Johannes Mundinger

Johannes Mundinger Goes to the German Countryside to do “Feldforschung”

Johannes Mundinger Goes to the German Countryside to do “Feldforschung”

It is not rare anymore, but certainly it is still unusual for street artists to take their talents in search of a barn in the countryside. Berlin’s Johannes Mundinger departed the big city this summer to do exactly that, calling his project “Feldforschung” (Field Research). It is a witty title for an unconventional artist who routinely splits reality into juxtaposing painted screens – sometimes patterns, closeups, textures, cut-outs and samples of nature all sitting in their frames next to or over top of one another.

Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Waltersbrück. Hessen, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

“In the motifs, I am inspired by the stories of nearby residents or the owners of properties,” he says. Like the most successful street art in an urban environment, context matters. “I take cues from what I learn about the building, its use, and the environment it is in.” But these are abstractions, so one does not worry if the original inspiration was a cow or a stalk of grain- you are permitted to interpret.

“I don’t want to paint beautiful half-timbered houses or wooden sheds. I like these simply plastered concrete blocks – windowless, in the middle of nowhere,” he says.

Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Waltersbrück. Hessen, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

Another departure for a street artists – getting permission is recommended in rural areas, if for no other reason than it is rather hard to run away and hide in a doorway or create a clever escape through the streets. Here Mr. Mundinger had to approach farmers directly to ask permission to paint their building, and not everyone was very excited to see him there and rejected his offer, even though he brought photos of his previous works.

“While it was still somewhat easy to find the venues it was harder to find the owners, he says. “I needed to ask neighbors, land registry offices, even the mayor. The hardest part though is to convince the owners to be open for this experiment, having their property painted. Most aren´t, but some were cool and open..” Eventually he had success, and he worked steadily to avoid getting distracted by the sound and movement of natural life going on around him.

Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Waltersbrück. Hessen, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

Gazing upon these new summer works in situ, they may seem incongruent, or they may look like they were naturally meant to be there. Transforming buildings that had such different purposes also contributed to the experience. For Johannes it has been an opportunity to consider his practice in an entirely new frame, so to speak.

“I like showing my work in environments far from established exhibition venues or big cities,” he says. “I’m hoping to bring some unexpected perspectives to viewers.”

Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Waltersbrück. Hessen, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Waltersbrück. Hessen, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)

“The two walls in NRW (North Rhine Westfalia) were organized by Eva Rahe, who also took some of these photos. The buildings had been built as cow shelter and milking parlor. Most small farmers now don´t have cows in the fields anymore and a lot of the barns were abandoned and in danger of being destroyed. One such barn was saved through the intervention of a local hunter; he discovered that it was home to a little owl and asked the owner to not to take it down. So it became shelter to lots of little animals and insects.”

“Here we see that photographer Rahe discovered two lovely visitors on the roof.”

Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. North Rhine Westfalia, Germany. (photo © Eva Rahe)
Johannes Mundinger. Feldforschung. Biesenthal, Brandenburg. Berlin, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

“Feldforschung” is made possible through a grant by Stiftung Kunstfonds/Neustart Kultur. Material support by Yes And… Productions.

Stiftung Kunstfonds www.kunstfonds.de
Yes And… Productions @yesandpro
Eva Rahe @eva_rahe
Culturim @culterimgallery
Johannes Mundinger @johannesmundinger / www.jmundinger.de

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Johannes Mundinger: Leave No One Behind / Dispatch From Isolation # 50

Johannes Mundinger: Leave No One Behind / Dispatch From Isolation # 50

#leavenoonebehind #savethem

That’s the message from Berlin based street artist Johannes Mundinger in his latest mural of melting slabs and abstraction and murky text. He tells us that he is thinking about the disparity of responses his government has toward immigrants when flying them in to harvest asparagus versus saving them from living in refugee camps in Lesbos.

Johannes Mundinger. “Leave No One Behind”. Urban Spree. Berlin, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

“While borders are closed due to the lock down the German government invited around 40.000 foreign workers to fly in and harvest German asparagus,” he says. “This decision was taken within days.”

Meanwhile, he tells, “it took almost two months to discuss inviting 50 children from the refugee camp Moria on the Greek Island.”

Johannes Mundinger. “Leave No One Behind”. Urban Spree. Berlin, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)

He says his new 700 x 1200 cm acrylic mural at Urban Spree made him open up artistically, made him feel free after so long in quarantine. That city is trying to open up, as it were, to greater social and economic opportunity’s and to move beyond Covid. Only time will tell us all, and places like this are leading the way. This is good, we agree.

Mundinger just wants to make sure that we leave no one behind.

Johannes Mundinger. “Leave No One Behind”. Urban Spree. Berlin, Germany. (photo courtesy of the artist)


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Johannes Mundinger Painting in Mexico City for “Wall Dialogue II”

Johannes Mundinger Painting in Mexico City for “Wall Dialogue II”

Berlin based Street Artist and abstract impressionist Johannes Mundinger just spent a month in Mexico City as part of WALL DIALOGUE II painting in collaboration with Blo and talking with other artists and the community mainly about the new president in the US and how it is affecting things in Mexico.

Johannes Mundinger . Blo. Tulum, Mexico. 2017. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

Starting WALL DIALOGUE in Berlin in 2015, this combination of artist residency and cultural exchange aims to “feature international urban artists and bring their various forms of expression into an international dialogue and to create a physical space of exchange,” Johannes tells us.

The project is funded by Goethe Institute and IFA and is interested in “discussing city development and promoting an exchange between the independent scene of Berlin and Mexico City,” says the ATEA statement.

Johannes Mundinger . Blo. Tulum, Mexico. 2017. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

The location this time was in the popular neighborhood of La Merced and included eleven artists from Europe, México and Argentina. The artists painted solo, collaborated, and all together for a wall painting jam in the independent art space ATEA.

Here are the walls Mundinger created so BSA readers can get a taste of the scene. Also participating were Pao Delfin, Libre, Vlocke, Said Dokins and La Piztola from Mexico, the artist couple Billy and Mernywernz from UK, Alaniz from Argentina and Nelio from France.

Johannes Mundinger . Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

Johannes Mundinger . Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leda Fenix)

Johannes Mundinger . Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Oscar Sandoval)

Johannes Mundinger . Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

 

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Said Dokins & Lapiztola : Gentrification in Mexico City’s La Merced Market

Said Dokins & Lapiztola : Gentrification in Mexico City’s La Merced Market

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

The writing is on the wall. Can you read what it says?

 

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

“Social Cleansing” is a term used by Said Dokins and Lapiztola when describing the process of a gentrifying neighborhood in Mexico City where the enormous and historical public market called La Merced Market is now gradually disappearing, taking the people who made it possible with it.

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

Their new piece looks at the destroying of a native culture by the forces of development that feed on its unique energy and character to sell real estate and investment opportunity but in the process negate its very authorship, its right to its formidable historical place in community.

Their new wall contains the messages from Said Dokins within his particular calligraffiti style that is both communication and ornamentation. The composition also features a stencil from Lapiztola of the face of a girl, perhaps from Oaxaca, where her dress would be typical.

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

The states of Oaxaca and Chiapis have provided the life of La Merced for many decades – the market itself a jewel and historical institution in this neighborhood that has hosted commercial activities for more than five centuries.

“This mural was made within the project called WallDialogue2, which took place in a parking lot where several vendors from La Merced Market pass through everyday,” say the organizers of the program that took place January 20-22.

“The intentions of this project were to generate a discussion site focused on the relation between urban art and gentrification processes.”

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

Appropriately, we have a poem written by Natalia Saucedo when she was 12 and a girl from this community of the market.

My MERCED (Fragment)

Alert in my heart the market that saw me grow up
Cruelly falls little by little
My life runs here
I can’t let it go.

From here I hear the noise of machines
Little by little
My market destroyed

Ladies and gentlemen, without a job have been left

Be strong
Those who love the market crying inside,
Smiling outside

Withered heart
Traveling hope.

~ Natalia Saucedo

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

Lapiztola & Said Dokins. Del Barrio / Mi Merced Mexico City. 2017. (photo © Leonardo Luna)

 

WALL DIALOGUE 2 – Nuestro Barrio Wall Painting Jam
ATEA Topacio 25, Centro Histórico, Mexico City
January 20 – 22
Featured Artists: Billy, Blo, Johannes Mundinger, La Piztola, Libre, Mernywernz, Nelio, Pao Delfin, Said Dokins 

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60 Artists at a Moscow Street Art Biennale: “Artmossphere 2016”

60 Artists at a Moscow Street Art Biennale: “Artmossphere 2016”

The Moscow Manege Hosts International and Local Street Artists for a Biennale

Moscow presents a Street Artist’s exhibition, but the streets have almost none.

When Street Art and it’s associated cousins move inside the possible outcomes are many. With exhibitions like this you are seeing urban becoming very contemporary.brooklyn-street-art-sozyone-jaime-rojo-09-04-2016-web

Belgian artist SozyOne at Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

The Artmossphere Biennale jump-starts the debate for many about how to best present the work of Street Artists and organizers here in Moscow chose a broad selection of curators from across a spectrum of private, commercial, academic and civically-inspired perspectives to present a solid range of artists from the graffiti and Street Art world inside a formal hall.

To be clear, unless it is illegal and on the street, it is not graffiti nor Street Art. That is the prevailing opinion about these terms among experts and scholars of various stripes and it is one we’re comfortable with. But then there are the commercial and cultural influences of the art world and the design industries, with their power to reshape and loosen terms from their moorings. Probably because these associated art movements are happening and taking shape before our eyes and not ensconced in centuries of scholarship we can expect that we will continue to witness the morphing our language and terminologies, sometimes changing things in translation.

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A working carousel provides wildly waving optics for riders in this room by The London Police at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

Definitions aside, when you think of more organic Street Art scenes which are always re-generating themselves in the run-down abandoned sectors of cities like Sao Paulo, New York, Melbourne, Paris, Mexico City, London, and Berlin, it is interesting to consider that this event takes place nearly on the grounds of the Kremlin under museum like security.

An international capital that ensures cleanly buffed walls within hours of the appearance of any unapproved Street Art or graffiti, Moscow also boasts a growing contingent of art collectors who are young enough to appreciate the cultural currency of this continuously mutating hybrid of graffiti, hip hop, DIY, muralism, and art-school headiness. The night clubs and fashionable kids here are fans of events like hip-hop and graffiti jams, sometimes presented as theater and other times as “learning workshops” and the like.

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Madrid-based Paris born artist Remed at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

Plugging into this idea of street and youth culture is not a singular fascination – there is perhaps an association with the rebellious anti-authoritarian nature of unregulated art in the streets that fuels the interest of many. With graffiti and hip-hop culture adoption as a template, newer expressions of Street Art culture are attractive as well with high profile artists with rebel reputations are as familiar in name here as in many cities. New festivals and events sometimes leverage this renegade free-spirit currency for selling tourism and brands and real estate, but here there also appears to be an acute appreciation for its fine art expression – urban contemporary art.


MOSCOW’S MANEGE AND “DEGENERATE ART”

So ardent is the support for Artmossphere here that a combination of public and private endorsements and financial backing have brought it to be showcased in a place associated with high-culture and counter-culture known as the Moscow Manege (Мане́ж). The location somehow fits the rebellious spirit that launched these artists even if its appearance wouldn’t lead you to think that.

The 19th century neo-classical exhibition hall stands grandly adjacent to Red Square and was built as an indoor riding school large enough to house a battalion of 2,000 soldiers during the 1800s. It later became host to many art exhibitions in the 20th century including a famous avant-garde show in 1962 that Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev famously derided as displaying ‘degenerate’ art.

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Polish painter Sepe says his wall speaks to those who would pull the strings behind the scenes. He finished it within three days at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

One of the artists whose work was criticized, painter and sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, challenged the label defiantly and won accolades afterward during his five decade career that followed, including receiving many awards and his work being collected worldwide by museums. Russian President Vladimir Putin is quoted as calling him “a recognised master and one of the best contemporary sculptors”. In January of this year at the age of 90, Neizvestny’s return to Menage featured an extensive exhibition. He passed away August 9th (The Moscow Times), only weeks before Artmossphere opened.

In some kindred spirit many of these artists at Artmossphere have done actual illegal work on the streets around the world during their respective creative evolutions, and graffiti and Street Art as a practice have both at various times been demonized, derided, dismissed and labeled by critics in terms synonymous with “degenerate”.


A CLEAN CITY

“Moscow is mostly very clean,” says Artmossphere co-founder and Creative Director Sabine Chagina, who walks with guests during a sunny afternoon in a busy downtown area just after the opening. “But we do have some good graffiti crews,” she says as we round the corner from the famous Bolshoi Theater and soon pass Givenchy and Chanel and high-end luxury fashion stores. Shortly we see a mural nearby by French artist Nelio, who painted a lateral abstracted geometric, possibly cubist, piece on the side of a building here in 2013 as part of the LGZ Festival.

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Barcelona based Miss Van had one of her paintings translated into a woven wool rug with artisans in Siberia. Here is a detail at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo.

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Miss Van at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

If there was graffiti here in Moscow, it was not on full display very readily in this part of town. In driving tours, rides on the extensive metro train system, and in street hikes across the city a visitor may find that much of the illegal street art and graffiti common to other global capitals is illusive due to a general distaste for it and a dedicated adherence to buffing it out quickly.

For a pedestrian tourist Moscow appears in many ways as fully contemporary and architecturally rich as any international world-class metropolis. One of the cleanest places you’ll visit, the metro is almost museum-like in some instances; the historic districts spotless, public fountains, famed statues of important historical figures. All is efficiently ordered and – a welcome surprise – most public space is free of advertisements interrupting your view and your thoughts.

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Chile-born, Berlin-based artist and sculptor Pablo Benzo curated by The Art Union at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow. photo © Jaime Rojo

Come to think of it, the sense of commercial-celebrity media saturation that is present in other cities doesn’t appear to permeate the artists psyche here at the Biennale – so there’s not much of the ironic Disney-Marilyn-supermodel-Kardashian-skewering of consumerism and shallowness in this exhibition that you may find in other Urban Art events.

Also, unlike a Street Art-splattered show in London for example that may rudely mock Queen Elizabeth or art in New York streets that present Donald Trump styled as a pile of poo and Hillary Clinton as Heath Ledger’s Joker, we didn’t see over-the-top Putin satires either. So personality politics don’t seem directly addressed in this milieu. According to some residents there was an outcropping of huge festival murals by Street Artists here just a few years ago but more recently they have been painted over with patriotic or other inspiring murals, while others have been claimed for commercial interests.

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Brazilian Claudio Ethos at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo


A REAL LIVE MURAL FROM L’ATLAS

Starved for some gritty street scenes, it is all the more interesting to see the one live mural painting that we were able to catch – a 6-story red-lined op-art tag by the French graffiti writer L’Atlas. Far from Manege, placed opposite a cineplex in what appears to be a shopping mall situated far from the city’s historical and modern centers, our guide tells us half-jokingly that he is not sure that we are still in Moscow.

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L’Atlas on a Moscow wall for Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

Here L’Atlas says that he has painted his bar-code-like and cryptic nom-de-plume with an assistant on a cherry picker for a few days and he says that no one has stopped to ask him about it, neither to comment or criticize. Actually one man early one morning returning home from a disco did engage him briefly, but it was difficult to tell what he was talking about as he may have had a few drinks.

This lack of public commentary is mainly notable because in other cities the comments from passersby can be so ubiquitous that artists deliberately wear stereo headphones to prevent interruption and to be more productive. Sometimes the headphones are not actually playing music.

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The inside installation by L’Atlas for Artmossphere features multiple abstract iterations of his tag in day glo. photo © Jaime Rojo


WALKING THROUGH THE OPENING

This Street Art Biennale nonetheless is gaining a higher profile among Urban Art collectors and its associated art dealers and the opening and later auction reaches directly to this audience. Included this year with the primary “Invisible Walls” exhibition are satellite events in association with local RuArts Gallery, Tsekh Belogo at Winzavod, and the Optika Pavilion (No. 64) at VDNKh.

The opening night event itself is wide and welcoming, a mostly youthful and populist affair with celebratory speeches and loosely organized group photos and an open bar. Added together with a press conference, a live DJ, virtual reality headsets, interactive artworks, major private business sponsors, government grants, ministers of culture, gallerists, and quirkily fashionable art fans, this is a polished presentation of a global culture that is filtered through the wide lense of the street.

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Wes21 from Switzerland is a graffiti artist blending reality and fantasy in this lunar-like landscape for Artmossphere features multiple abstract iterations of his tag in day glo. photo © Jaime Rojo

Perhaps because the exhibition hall is a cavernous rectangle with exposed beams on the ceiling and many of the constructed white walls that mimic vendor booths, it has the air of an art fair. There are thankfully no salespeople pacing back and forth watching your level of interest. People tend to cluster before installations and talk, laugh, share a story, pose for a selfie.


INVISIBLE WALLS

Similar in theme to the multidisciplinary exhibit about borders and boundaries curated by Raphael Schacter this spring in St. Petersburg at the Street Art Museum, Artmossphere asked artists to think about and address the “invisible walls” in contemporary life and societies.

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Domo Collective present “Fair Play III” an enormous world map functioning ping pong table with a triple razor wire fence right down the middle. “We play an unhealthy game in which nobody believed to be responsible.” At Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow. Photo ©Jaime Rojo

The theme seems very appropriately topical as geopolitical, trade-related, social, digital, and actual walls appear to be falling down rapidly today while the foundations of new ones are taking shape. Catalyzed perhaps by the concept and practices of so-called “globalization” – with its easy flow of capital and restricted flow of humans, we are all examining the walls that are shaping our lives.

With 60+ international artists working simultaneously throughout this massive hall, newly built walls are the imperative for displaying art, supporting it, dividing it. These are the visible ones. With so many players and countries represented here, one can only imagine that there are a number of invisible walls present as well.

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Domo Collective at Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow. Photo ©Jaime Rojo

The theme has opened countless interpretations in flat and sculptural ways, often expressed in the vernacular of fine art with arguable nods to mid-20th century modernists, folk art, fantasy, representational art, abstract, conceptual, computer/digital art, and good old traditional graffiti tagging. Effectively it appears that when Street Art and graffiti artists pass the precipice into a multi-disciplinary exhibition such as this, one can reframe Urban/Street as important tributaries to contemporary art – but will they re-direct the flow or be subsumed within it?

The work often can be so far removed from street practice that you don’t recognize it as related.

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Vitaly Sy created a visualization of “Fear” as the main causes of internal barriers. The pieces are built around a central axis with elements at right angle to one another, and the man’s head on a swivel. Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow. Photo ©Jaime Rojo

Aside from putting work up in contested public space without permission and under cover, an average visitor may not see a common thread. These works run aesthetic to the conceptual, painterly to the sculptural, pure joy and pure politics. But then, that is we began to see in the streets as well when the century turned to the 21st and art students in large numbers in cities like New York and London and Berlin skipped the gatekeepers, taking their art directly to the public.

Perhaps beneath the surface or just above it, there is a certain anarchistic defiance, a critique of social, economic, political issues, a healthy skepticism toward everyone and everything that reeks of hypocritical patriarchal power structures. Perhaps we’re just projecting.

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Moscow Manege exterior opening night of Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow. Photo courtesy of and © Artmossphere

Looking over the 60+ list of names, it may be striking to some that very few are people of color, especially in view of the origins of the graffiti scene. Similarly, the percentage of women represented is quite small. We are familiar with this observation about Urban Art in general today, and this show mirrors the European and American scene primarily, with notable exceptions such as Instagrafite’s home-based Brazilian crew of 4 artists. As only one such sampling of a wide and dispersed scene, it is not perhaps fair to judge it by artists race, gender, or background, but while we speak of invisible walls it is worth keeping our eyes on as this “scene” is adopted into galleries, museums, and private collections.

Following are some of the artists on view at Artmossphere:

ASKE

Certainly Moscow native ASKE is gently mocking our mutated modern practices of communicating with his outsized blocked abstraction of a close couple riveted to their respective electronic devices, even unaware of one another.

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Moscow Street Artist ASKE at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

NeSpoon

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“Precariat” by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with Urban Nation photo © Jaime Rojo

Warsaw based NeSpoon creates a sculpture of another couple. Heroically presenting her vision of what she calls the iconic “Graffiti Writer” and “Street Art Girl”, they face the future with art instruments in hand ready to make their respective marks. She says her work is emblematic of a permanent financial insecurity for a generation she calls the “PRECARIAT”.

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“Precariat” by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with Urban Nation photo © Jaime Rojo

“ ‘Precariat’ is the name of the new emerging social class,” says curator, organizer, and NeSpoon’s partner Marcin Rutkiewicz when talking about the piece during the press conference. “These are young people living without a predictable future, without good jobs, without social security. It’s a class in the making and probably these people don’t have any consciousness or global unity of interest. But they are the engines of protest for people all over the world – like Occupy Wall Street, Gezi Park in Turkey, or the Arab Spring.”

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“Precariat” by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with Urban Nation photo © Jaime Rojo

The artist developed the sculpture specifically for this exhibition and planned it over the course of a year or so. Born of a social movement in Poland by the same name, the sculpture and its sticker campaign on the street represent “a kind of protest against building walls between people who are under the same economical and social situation all over the world,” says Rutkiewicz.

 

LI-HILL

Artist Li-Hill says his piece “Guns, Germs, and Steel” directly relates to the divisions between civilizations due to a completely uneven playing field perpetuated through generations. Inspired by the 1997 trans-disciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond, Li-Hill says the Russian sculptural group called “The Horse Tamers” represents mankind’s “ability to harness power of the natural world and to be able to manipulate it for its advantage.”

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“Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Li-Hill at Artmossphere 2016 with Urban Nation photo © Jaime Rojo

“The horse is one of the largest signifiers and is a catalyst for advancement in society because it has been for military use, for agriculture, for transportation,” he says. “It was the most versatile of the animals and the most powerful.” Here he painted a mirror image, balanced over a potential microbial disaster symbol, and he and the team are building a mirrored floor to “give it this kind of infinite emblem status.”

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The artist Li-Hill inside his piece at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

M-CITY

Afloat in the middle of some of these walled areas M-City from Poland is choosing to be more direct thematically in his three dimensional installation of plywood, plaster, aerosol and bucket paint, and machine blown insulation.

“It is an anti-war piece,” he says, and he speaks about the walls between nations and a losing battle of dominance that ensures everyone will be victim.”

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The artist M-City at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

“It’s kind of a monster who destroys arms,” he says of this temporary sculpture with a lording figure crushing tanks below.

“He is destroying the tanks but at the same time he is also a destroyer – so it’s a big circle. Nothing is positive that can come out of this. There is always someone bigger.” He says the piece is inspired by the political situations in Europe today and the world at large.

HOTTEA

Minneapolis based HOTTEA usually does very colorful yarn installations transforming a huge public space, but for Artmossphere he is taking the conceptual route. The walk-in room based on the Whack-A-Mole game presents holes which a visitor can walk under and rise above.

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The artist Hot Tea at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

Visitors/participants will experience the physical separation of space, and perhaps contemplate facing one another and interacting or ignoring one another. It is something he says he hopes will draw attention to how many walls we have allowed ourselves to distract from human interactions.

 

SICK BOY

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Climb over a wall to slide into Sick Boy’s “The Rewards System”. photo © Jaime Rojo

Englands’ Sick Boy calls his project The Rewards System, where guests are invited to climb a ladder over a brick wall and descend down a slide into a darkened house, setting off a series of sensors that activate a variety of multisensory lights and tantalizing patterns. After landing and being rewarded the visitor is forced to exit on hands and knees through a too-small square door.

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A young visitor exits Sick Boy’s “The Rewards System”. photo © Jaime Rojo

“The concept of the show is about invisible walls so I was thinking about there being barriers in your life and I thought about the reward of endorphins one experiences for achieving a task – a small amount of endorphins. So I thought I would build a house that signifies the reward system,” he explains.

DEREK BRUNO

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Temporary installations : Slab Fence PO-2. Derek Bruno. photo © Jaime Rojo

Atlanta/Seattle based Derek Bruno reached back to the Leonid Brezhnev years and into Moscow’s Gorky Park for his series of site specific installations based on Soviet Cement Fence type PO-2. The iconic fence was re-created in a nearby studio and Bruno shot photographs of his 10-15 minute “interventions” in the park itself, revisiting a field of design called “technical aesthetics.”

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A photo on display for his installation from Derek Bruno “MOSCOW PO2 Escalator” for Artmossphere. Photo ©Derek Bruno

In a statement Bruno explains “Since the end of the Soviet Union, the iconic fence has become a persistent and ever present reminder of former delineations of space; while new forms of boundaries shape the digital and sociopolitical landscapes. “

REMI ROUGH

Remi Rough is known for his smartly soaring abstract geometry in painted murals and smaller scale works, and for Moscow he wanted to strip it back to the basics, approaching a white box with one undulating graphic composition.

“My idea was that Moscow’s a bit ‘over the top’,” he says, and he decided to strip back the audacity and go for simplicity, which actually takes courage.

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Remi Rough, “Fold”. photo © Jaime Rojo

“I said ‘you know what?’ – I want to do something with the cheapest materials you can possibly get. These two pieces literally cost 3000 rubles ($50). It’s made of felt, it’s like a lambs wool. I think they use it for flooring for construction.” Depending on the angle, the pink blotted material may translate as a swath of otherworldly terrain or a metaphorical bold vision with all the hot air let out.

“I wanted to do something peaceful and calming and use natural materials – something that’s different from what I usually do – but I use the folds in the fabric and the pink color – two things that I usually use a lot.”

ALEXEY LUKA

Moscow’s Alexey Luka is also challenging himself to stretch creatively by taking his wall collage installations of found wood and converting them into free-standing sculptures.

“For this biennale I tried to make something different so now I am going from the assemblages to 3-D.” The constructed media is warm and ordered, reserved but not without whimsy.

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Alexey Luka at Artmossphere Biennale 2016 photo © Jaime Rojo

“My work is made from found wood – I use it with what I found on the street and my shapes and my graphics – so it’s kind of an experiment with three dimensions,” and he confirms that most of this wood is sourced here in Moscow.

We ask him about the number of eyes that peer out from his installation. Perhaps these eyes are those of Muscovites? “They are just like observers,” he says.

MIMMO RUBINO AKA RUB KANDY

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Mimmo aka Rub Kandy at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

Torino’s Mimmo recreated the Moscow Olympic Village from the 1980 games in miniature presented as on a plainly brutalist platform. The sculpture is austere in detail on the hulking towers save for the tiny graffiti tags, throwies, rollers, extinguisher tags, and the like at the bases and on the roofs.

Curator Christian Omodeo tells us that Mimmo recreated the massive village based on his direct study of the site as it stands today; a housing project that has hundreds of families — and a hip-hop / graffiti scene as well.

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Mimmo aka Rub Kandy at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

It is striking that the scale reduces the impact of the graffiti – yet when experienced at eye-level it retains a potency. Even so, by recasting the relationship between viewer and mark-making, this graffiti actually seems “cute” because of its relative size to the viewer.

BRAD DOWNEY

Brad Downey and Alexander Petrelli hi-jacked the opening of the Biennale by circulating within the exhibit as a gallery with artworks for sale. With Downey performing as a street-huckster pushing his own art products, Mr. Patrelli showcased new Downey photo collages and drawings inside his mobile “Overcoat Gallery”

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Alexander Petrelli exhibits work by Brad Downey at Artmossphere 2016. photo © Jaime Rojo

A charming Moscow art star / gallerist / performance artist, Mr. Patrelli is also a perennial character at openings and events in the city, by one account having appeared at 460 or so events since 1992 with his flashing overcoat. The artworks also feature Patrelli, completing a self-referential meta cycle that continued to circle the guests at the exhibition.

International artists participating in the Artmossphere Biennale 2016 include: Akacorleone, Alex Senna, Brad Downey, Chu (Doma), Orilo (Doma), Claudio Ethos, Demsky, Christopher Derek Bruno, Filippo Minelli, Finok, Galo, Gola Hundun, Hot Tea, Jaz, Jessie and Katey, Johannes Mundinger, L’Atlas, LiHill, LX One, M-city, TC, Mario Mankey, Martha Cooper, Miss Van, Nespoon, Millo, Pablo Benzo, Pastel, Paulo Ito, Proembrion, Remed, Remi Rough, Rub Kandy, Run, Sepe, Sickboy, Smash 137, Sozyone Gonsales, SpY, The London Police, Trek Matthews, Wes 21.


This article is a result of a Brooklyn Street Art partnership with Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin and was originally published at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art


Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Artmossphere Dispatch 2 : Li-Hill, M-City, and Invisible Walls

Artmossphere Dispatch 2 : Li-Hill, M-City, and Invisible Walls

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This week BSA is in Moscow with you and Urban Nation for Artmossphere 2016, the 2nd Street Art Biennale, a group exposition introducing 26 Russian and 42 foreign artists who were shaped by street art in some way. Also present are international curators, museums and galleries who have significantly intersected with urban art in recent years.

Startlingly similar in theme to the multidisciplinary exhibit about borders and boundaries curated by Raphael Schacter this spring in St. Petersburg, Artmossphere has asked artists to think about and address the “invisible walls” in contemporary life and societies.

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Li-Hill. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The themes are understandable of course, and perplexing to us all as walls are falling down rapidly while the foundations of new ones are taking shape. Catalyzed perhaps by the concept/practice of so-called “globalization” – where capital flows easily and humans are restricted – we are all examining the walls that are directing our lives.

Artist Li-Hill says his piece “Guns, Germs, and Steel” directly relates to the divisions between civilizations due to a completely uneven playing field perpetuated through generations. Inspired by the 1997 trans-disciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond, Li-Hill says he combines it with pieces by the Russian sculptural group called “The Horse Tamers”. Together the forms represents mankind’s “ability to harness power of the natural world and to be able to manipulate it for its advantage.”

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Wes21. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The horse is one of the largest signifiers and is a catalyst for advancement in society because it has been for military use, for agriculture, for transportation,” he says.

“It was the most versatile of the animals and the most powerful.” Here he painted a mirror image, balanced over a potential microbial disaster symbol, and he and the team are building a mirrored floor to “give it this kind of infinite emblem status.”

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Pink Power. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With 60+ artists working simultaneously throughout this massive hall, walls are the imperative for displaying art, supporting it, dividing it. Many are being built in this exhibition hall as we speak. These are the visible ones. With so many players and countries represented here, one can only imagine that there are a number of invisible walls present as well.

Afloat in the middle of some of these walled areas M-City from Poland is choosing to be more direct thematically in his three dimensional installation of plywood, plaster, aerosol and bucket paint, and machine blown insulation.

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M.City. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It is an anti-war piece,” he says, and he speaks about the walls between nations and sense that it is a losing battle of dominance that ensures everyone will be victim.”

“It’s kind of a monster who destroys arms,” he says of the lording figure who crushing tanks below. “He is destroying the tanks – but at the same time he is also a destroyer. So it’s a big circle. Nothing positive can come out of this. There is always someone bigger.” M-City tells us that the piece is inspired by the political situations in Europe today and the world at large.

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Remi Rough work in progress. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For our part, we’re impressed by how quickly these walls are going up and the relative calm that the teams of artists and installers are working under, even as the deadline of the opening of this years’ Artmossphere draws perilously close.

See you tomorrow!

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L’Atlas. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Krzysztof “Proembrion” Syruc. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Johannes Mundinger. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Galo. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Johannes Mundinger “Below The Fog” in Berlin

Johannes Mundinger “Below The Fog” in Berlin

Indoor and outdoor merge in shifting slabs of memory that slip and stick in this new Berlin wall by Johannes Mundinger.

In work that similarly slides from representative and abstract, the work of the Offenburg born painter benefits from a sense of place and this new wall is especially good in these pictures when shot through by diagonal snow.

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Johannes Mundinger for Urban Spree. Berlin. February 2016. (photo © Lucky Cat)

Currently a resident artist at Urban Spree since 2012, Mundinger is preparing for his show opening next week at the galerie entitled ‘Unterm Nebel’. He tells us that it is an examination of memories first imprinted during childhood, somehow breaking and shifting during time, even crumbling and sinking deep into the subconscious.

Says Penny Rafferty in her description of ‘Unterm Nebel’ (Under the Fog), “The impressions we have aren´t reliable, it was a lifetime ago and now we have vague feelings of atmospheres, colours and smells; everything else remains inside a dense fog that psychiatry calls the consciousness.”

The exhibition will present a new series of large paintings, including a 8.5 meter canvas that he is painting in the gallery in the days leading up to the opening. Stop by if you remember.

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Johannes Mundinger for Urban Spree. Berlin. February 2016. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

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Johannes Mundinger for Urban Spree. Berlin. February 2016. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

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Johannes Mundinger for Urban Spree. Berlin. February 2016. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

 

Johannes Mundiger’s solo exhibition “Below The Fog” opens on March 4th at Urban Spree. Click HERE for more details.

Unterm Nebel

Opening: 4. March from 7pm

Introduction: Lars Hering
Finissage: 20. March from 6pm with a concert by Ori

Exhibition: 5.  – 20. March 2015
Tuesday – Sunday, 12 – 7pm

Urban Spree Galerie
Revaler Str. 99, Berlin
www.urbanspree.com

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.21.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.21.15

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Summertiiiiiiiiiiimmme, and the living is eaaaaassssssyyyyy. Yessir, today is the first day of Summer here in New York and the longest day of the year – which means you can take a nap under a tree in the park or on your towel at the beach and still have plenty of time to play when you wake up. There are abandoned buildings to explore, murals to paint, wheat-pastes to stick, interventions to engineer, stencils to cut, selfies to snapchat, potato chips to eat, beer to swig. That couch by the window is calling me even now, the big temptress, as she does so often on these languorous days, induced by the heat. But I will not heed her siren song.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bezt, Buff Monster, Dain, Dee Dee, Faile, Fra. Biancoshock, Free Humanity, Gold Loxe, Li-Hill, Natalia Rak, Okuda, Old Broads, Phoebe, Sophia Hirsch and Johannes Mundinger, and Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine.

Top image above >>> Okuda (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li-Hill for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li-Hill for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bezt (from Etam Cru) in Providence, Rhode Island for Avenue Concept/Inoperable Gallery (photo © Bezt)

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Dee Dee and Dain are BFF’s on the streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gold Loxe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faile with a remnant of El Sol 25. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faile. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Phoebe New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Phoebe New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Natalia Rak in Providence, Rhode Island for Avenue Concept/Inoperable Gallery (photo © Natalia Rak)

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Fra Biancoshock’s new installation in Vilnius, Lithuania features a speed checking camera refashioned in the fashion of an Instagram camera. He calls it #picoftheday (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

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Old Broads (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Old Broads (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sophia Hirsch and Johannes Mundinger installation at the former prison ‘JVA Magdeburg’ in Magdeburg, Germany.  (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

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Sophia Hirsch and Johannes Mundinger installation at the former prison ‘JVA Magdeburg’ in Magdeburg, Germany.  (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

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Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine interventions in an abandoned hotel someplace in Northern Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine interventions in an abandoned hotel someplace in Northern Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine interventions in an abandoned hotel somewhere in Northern Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

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Untitled. Coney Island, NY. Summer 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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