Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. RED VAPORZ – Russian Graffiti and Street Art
2.Last Breath III – Cambodia
3. ETNIK at Memorie Urbane Festival
4. Ernest Zacharevic at Memorie Urbane

BSA Special Feature: RED VAPORZ – Russian Graffiti and Street Art

Russia has a growing Street Art and graffiti movement – in select cities, under certain circumstances. But it is ALIVE and these mostly young animated and excited artists are eager to take the scene in a new direction.

This brand new documentary travels and interviews a variety of artists working in the public realm today, brandishing cans and balancing instincts to do illegal work versus legal work – which makes it sound rather similar to other scenes around the world.

Yes, there appears to be political repression, and content needs to steer clear of political opinions, and in the end we are really just talking about a growing muralist movement. It is also interesting to see the various western influences as interpreted and filtered through local tastes, traditions, styles.  While hip-hop culture is likely to have been the lever in the 90s, the international Street Art aesthetic is here as well as the global branding of youth culture. Pre-Internet, they wouldn’t have known about us, and we wouldn’t have known about them. When it comes to grassroots movements fed by the open exchange of culture, does it increasingly appear that there is no “us and them’?

Last Breath III – Cambodia

The Last Breath initiative that installs art inside condemned architecture is taking a detour through Cambodia. Is this evidence of the strengthening of “spraycations” or interactive extreme art tourism? Let’s keep an eye on this.

ETNIK at Memorie Urbane Festival in Italy by The Blind Eye Factory

Ernest Zacharevic at Memorie Urbane Feastival

It’s Friday Ya’ll – Let’s Get up and Dance!