As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Mexico City based writer and cultural interlocutor Maria Enriqueta Arias studied journalism, acting, and communications before landing gigs with PangeaSeed Foundation, Juxtapoz Latin America, and her current position as managing editor at Instagrafite. Maria Enriqueta’s enthusiasm about the scene is infectious and her eye well attuned, so it’s good to learn what image she chose to share with us for the year-end.

Artist: Ericailcane
Mexico City, Colonia Roma
July 20th, 2016
Photograph by @enriquetarias

I love this picture of Ericailcane’s most recent mural in Mexico City because it is not only located in my neighborhood, but because he’s one of the most committed artists and urban artists nowadays.

His work in Mexico always has an amazingly touching message about the social and political issues occurring in Mexico at the moment. He cares about the country and he’s so involved with Latin American culture that his pieces reflect perfectly his position and his critiques of this system.

As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Curator at this years Urban Art section for Berliner Liste, the first time for the traditional art fair, Guillaume Trotin is used to breaking new ground in the Street Art scene. Co-founder of Berlin’s OPEN WALLS gallery with partner Elodie Bellanger, the Frenchmen have championed innovative, edge-pushing artists such as Vermibus, OX, and Thomas Marecki aka Marok (founder of Lowdown magazine). An avid fan of urban art and photography, Guillaume tells us why he selected this image by the photographer Thomas von Wittich shot at this iconic Berlin location.

“The F Word”
Berlin, Germany
2016
Photograph by Thomas von Wittich

This photo is from the Berlin Kidz series. It shows Berlin Kids (on top on the rope) and Alaniz (on the bottom with a pole) painting over the wall that Blu covered in black.

To me this wall is the most iconic wall of Berlin, it’s been on the cover of every single edition of Kai Jakob’s Berlin Street Art book for a decade, and what happened on this wall this year summarizes the challenges we currently face in Berlin

The action took place the day after Blu recovered his large scale mural with black paint as a protest against gentrification and the monetization of street art. The property management painted everything black again the next day & this photo is the only documentation we have. It’s a piece of Berlin history.

As a side note it features some of the very few people that are still authentic in the scene (in the sense that they do large scale mural illegally and spontaneously): Berlin Kidz and Alaniz. Being a careful observer of the street art and graffiti scene in Berlin for a decade, I consider Berlin Kidz to be what’s currently the most relevant in the streets of Berlin, as well as in German graffiti as a whole.

 

As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Marcelo Pimentel and Marina Bortoluzzi are the couple behind the wildly successful Instagram account called Instagrafite where they post events and artworks sent to them by Street Artists, curators and festivals around the world as well as their own photos. With an omnibus collection of skills and experiences in effect during the last five years that touch on marketing, branding, curating and urban-cultural revitalization, Marina and Marcelo have a unique perspective that very few can claim on the Street Art scene today.

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Location: Ilha do Combu, Belém, Pará, Brasil during #StreetRiver project
January 2016
Photo by @instagrafite

We love this picture by two reasons:

First, it reminds us that mural festivals are much more than walls. They impact and transform, we hope positively, cities and most of all, people. So for us the community is what really matters; the community of a local village or our community of art.

Secondly, the picture represents what we believe at Instagrafite and what we want still for our years to come, including 2017:

To always see the world through the eyes of a child where nothing is impossible and everything can come true!