Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: Las Calles Hablan : Street Art in Barcelona, RONZO Goes pre-historic with Skatersaurus, SAMO© by Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan.
BSA Special Feature:
Las Calles Hablan : Street Art in Barcelona
“Las Calles Hablan is a story about discovering a hidden world, an extraordinary subculture and the struggle between an artistic community painting for freedom of expression and an increasingly restrictive dogmatic government,” says Justin Donlon as he speaks about this hour long documentary he made with Silvia Vidal Muratori and Katrine Knauer.
An educational and unpretentious study of the spectrum of Street Artists and techniques currently at play in Barcelona, the team traces the scene through personal observations and their network of local and international artists, local gallerists, and their connections globally via the Internet.
The film traces the trajectory from the Street Art/graffiti’s emergence at the end of the 70s following the Franco dictatorship and the rise of international hip-hop culture through the 90s into a sort of freewheeling golden era in the early 2000s. It also explains the current unease with the city, the professionalizing of the artists through a growing gallery practice, and the collaborative initiatives of some community leaders with artists.
Taking a straightforward documentary approach, the motivations and inspirations of current artists on the scene are presented without much of the exaggerated myth-making that more commercial hype vehicles often contain. Included in the examination are how community and local citizens and authorities have taken a constructive role in facilitating space and opportunities for some artists here and elsewhere, while the definition and appetite for illegal work ebbs and flows.
Featured artists:Zosen, Mina Hamada, Kenor, Kram, El Xupet Negre, Debens, Fert, Dase, SM172, Ogoch, Kafre, Aleix Gordo, Meibol, Eledu, C215, H101, Miss Van, Btoy, El Arte Es Basura, Konair, Gola, Vinz.
(Image above a screenshot of Vinz © Las Calles Hablan)
RONZO Goes pre-historic with Skatersaurus
A quickie with RONZO, who quickly demos how his latest charactor, the Skatersaurus, is created and installed.
By Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan
An electric train switch clicking and collaged short of distressed city clips paying homage to the free floating and cryptic phraseology of Basquiat as his street writing alter ego SAMO© . This new video directed by Aaron Rose and Thomas McMahan is a thrill cut to a New York graffiti era ever more cast in amber, a choppy popping scratching archival image soaked indictment/celebration of conformist chaotic consumerist culture and the struggle to pay the bills, backed by a mechanical nihlist beat you can pop and lock to while name-dropping like Fab Five Freddy. Don’t push me cause I’m close to the Vogue.
Music by N.A.S.A. featuring Kool Kojak, Money Mark and Fab Five FreddyAnimations by Maya Erdelyi and Alexis Ross
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Ahhhhh the sun! The sea! The cigarette butt stuck to my leg from last night. Also, did I wear ONLY this swimsuit and shoes, or did I originally go out with more clothes? Anyway this is Miami and t...
END OF FEBRUARY! HURRAY! For the most part winter can be a bit barren of street art in New York. But these days the street art explosion continues no matter what the weather! Despite the crushing ...
An anti-Banksy & Co. Street Art show opened in Bologna Italy the same night as its controversial bank-backed cousin with brand new works by 50 or so Italian and international Street Artists and op...
We return today to the streets of Paris for Dispatch 2 with Norwegian photographer Tor Staale Moen, who tells us that the streets are alive with stencils and aerosol paintings as much as ever. Ou...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Vermibus: Unveiling Beauty: New York . Milan . London . Paris 2. Earth Crisis by Shep...