JMR Escapes to Hong Kong

 

Street Artist JMR has travelled far east from Brooklyn, where we first started seeing his work on the street in the 2000s. Coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong, the geometry loving abstractionist had a solo show called “Escape” with Joyce Gallery that drew a lot of new fans to his line based work. The really exciting gig for JMR was seeing one of his pieces driving around town as a double city tram – a sort of mobile wall installation on wheels.

JMR (photo © JMR)

Right now the former SVA student is showing the poppy Miro and Caldor side of his work along his more gestural monochromatic stuff, drawing on his early graffiti past and his art school education about mid-century modern expressionism and the processes associated with automatic drawing.  Check out some images of the trip exclusively for BSA readers.

 

JMR (photo © JMR)

JMR (photo © JMR)

JMR (photo © JMR)

JMR (photo © JMR)

A promotional video for “ESCAPE”, JMR’s new show at Joyce Gallery in Hong Kong.

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Pure Evil Gallery Presents: PROZAC “Multifaces” A Solo Exihibition (London, UK)

PROZAK

In this exhibition, the Brazilian artist Prozak presents prints and paintings in mixed media on paper, continuing his research on transparencies and overlays, exploring the levels of saturation and contrast between colors, and the reaction between the materials used.

These peculiar portraits, almost abstracts, contain multiple faces, skulls and masks mixed with expressions of euphoria, joy, anger, sadness and frustration, are a metaphor for the precarious balance of the human mind, and question the boundaries between the various layers of human emotion and complete insanity.

São Paulo is an epicentre for graffiti artists, and Mazu Prozak is one of the most prolific and influential Paulistan graffiti artists of his generation.

http://pureevilgallery.virb.com/prozak

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Culture Fix Presents: Bortusk Leer “Monsters in New York” (Manhattan, NYC)

Bortusk burst onto the street art scene in 2007 with naively spray painted and marker penned psychedelic monsters and characters. These characters have become a common sight on the streets of London, Amsterdam, Barcelona and countless other European cities. They have made their way around the globe by air, sea and land to far flung places such as India, Australia, Cambodia, New Zealand and of course the good old USA, (where they have popped up in New York, Seattle and Alaska to name but a few.)

http://monstersnyc.com/show/

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Images Of The Week: 06.02.13

Stoop sales, hula hoops, fire hydrants, ladders and paint. Get me one of those ices from that guy with the cart on the corner, will ya?

Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring A1one, Chris Stain, Creepy, Elbow Toe, Essen, Foxx Face, Icy & Sot, LMNOP, Maya Hayuk, Mr. Toll, Rubin, Sexer, Werds, You Are Beautiful, and Zimad.

Top image > Sexer and Zimad at work on the brand new mural for Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn’s Maya Hayuk just completed this new work in Cologne, Germany (photo © Maya Hayuk)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. What could they have been playing with? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain completed his second mural at Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A1one at work on his new mural on Essen, Germany. (photo © A1one)

A writer who has used Arabic lettering since 2003, A1one just completed this new piece and translates it for us. “The word is Love (Ishq). In all the Middle East they can understand the meaning of this word… It refers to the divine or clean kind of love,” says A1one.

A1one  (photo © A1one)

You Are Beautiful  abbreviates the sentiment this time. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin at work on his wall for Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Werds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Entes, Pesimo and Conrad for “Noche De Los Museos” in Lima, Peru

Last Friday Lima had their 5th Annual “Night of the Museums,” where the city welcomes throngs of people to walk through and see art in this metropolis that boasts an appreciable number of museums including Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Museum of Art of Lima, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of the Nation, The Sala Museo Oro del Perú Larcomar, the Museum of Italian Art, and the Museum of Gold, and the Larco Museum.

Naturally, there are a number of talented Street Artists who are currently working around the city also, and you’ve seen many of them here on BSA. On Noche De Los Museos, Street Artists Entes, Pesimo and Conrad collaborated on some walls together for the non-commercial event, painting directly on walls inside the gallery Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland (see the video below).

Entes in Lima, Peru. (photo © Entes)

Entes y Pesimo.  Galeria Miroquesada Garland de Miraflores. Lima, Peru. (photo © ALQA photography)

Entes.  Galeria Miroquesada Garland de Miraflores. Lima, Peru. (photo © ALQA photography)

Pesimo.  Galeria Miroquesada Garland de Miraflores. Lima, Peru. (photo © ALQA photography)

Entes, Pesimo and their buddy Conrad paint gallery walls for “Night Museum Walk”

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BSA Film Friday: 05.31.13

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.

SAMO© – Jean-Michel Basquiat
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 Freddy
Animations by Maya Erdelyi and Alexis Ross

 

 

 

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All Female Power on the Bushwick Tip, Sis

We received a roaring response from BSA readers about yesterday’s post on Bushwick and the changing nature of the scene on the street and its relation to this artists neighborhood that feels like it is on the cusp of full-throttle gentrification. With all the factors implied for a maturing giant cultural moment years in the making, clearly for us dear old dirty Bushwack is soooo HOT. Also, the thermometer will be in the 90s this weekend  so we were showing off some incredibly clever wordplay. We’ll pick up this conversation with you a little later, but thank you to all the thinkers and feelers and opinion makers who write to us. We love you too.

But today we want to put a little sunshine on a handful of the women who create work for the street, including this new stuff that popped up this week in Bushwick. The casual passerby doesn’t normally have a clue who has put work on the street or their gender and they either like it or don’t – the work has to stand on its own and its fate and duration is determined by a complex set of every changing rules and factors. But if you want a non-sexist review of your work, then do it anonymously- which the vast majority of Street Art is outside its immediate peer group.

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This group of artists – Alice Mizrachi, Cake, Elle, Gilf!, Sheryo, and Vexta – is local, national and international, just like the rest of the scene, and was pulled together by Gilf!  She took a few minutes to tell BSA readers about the motivation for this project and the experience.  And there was one woman Street Artist who was present in Gilf!’s mind – can you guess who she is referring to?

“As a woman who was solely inspired to begin working in the streets by another female artist, I have felt the need to bring a group of women on one wall together for some time. While we tend to be few and far between in the chaos of the street art world I feel our messages can be empowering for women of all ages. When we show work all together in one place that power can be exponential.

I was really excited to see how each artist interpreted the concept of honoring women in her own unique voice. Our struggles and victories can sometimes be very different than men’s, and to create that discussion all together was truly a unique experience. I have to say I was impressed at how quickly and hard these ladies worked to create such great art. There is typically an aura of support and community that tends to be universal in our world of creating art for the public, and this wall had that in abundance” – Gilf!

Cake. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! and Elle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! Tribute to The Mothers Of Plaza De Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elle. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vexta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo (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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Bushwick Is Hot Now. Hurry!

Bushwick Open Studios is Paved With Street Art

Brooklyn’s already percolating artists neighborhood called Bushwick continues to thrive despite the circling of real estate agents, lifestyle brands and celebrity chefs. Born in the mid-late 2000s as it’s older sister Williamsburg to the West began to professionalize, this noisily industrial and dirty artists haven got a reprieve from gentrifying forces when the deep recession slowed the rise of rents for artist spaces, which remained still relatively cheap by Manhattan’s standards. Today the area boasts a diverse influx of artists, students, cultural workers, and entrepreneurs who are experimenting and collaborating on projects and shows.

Spagnola (photo © Jaime Rojo)

That radical economic downturn probably also nurtured the nascent Street Art scene here, which was one of the early outliers of a cultural influx as artists and explorers began to skateboard to the local delis and stare at laptops for hours in the one or two cafes that offered  Wi-Fi. Outcroppings of this new art movement combined with old-school graffiti to pop up on selected concrete and corrugated walls, signposts, and deteriorated blocks where the authorities were disinterested and the neighbors only partially curious in their activities.

It’s an age-old New York story by now; a neglected or winding down post industrial neighborhood reacts to the incoming and odd-looking artists with a sort of bemused affection, happy that at least the block is getting some attention for a change. Puzzlement eventually leads to familiarity and then buying you a sandwich – and then asking you to paint a mural inside his foyer. While national and international Street Artists were already making Bushwick a stopping point thanks to some of the earliest galleries like Ad Hoc and Factory Fresh, the scene recently got newly shot in the arm by a local resident who is facilitating much desired legal wall space to a crowd of artists who otherwise would be hunting and hitting up less-than-legal spots.  Not to worry, there are plenty of aerosol renegades and ruffians scaling walls at night too; this is New York after all, yo.

Zimad (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But for now the Bushwick Collective, as it is newly christened by wall-man Joe Ficalora, has infused an adrenaline rush of creativity inside and outside the area that is roughly bordered by Flushing Avenue, Starr Street, Knickerbocker Avenue and Cypress Avenue.  The Collective has guidelines on content (nudity, politics, profanity) so the works are not completely unfettered in the true spirit of Street Art/graffiti, but most artists are happy for the luxury of time to complete their work and not look over their shoulder. With a selection of murals that are densely gathered and easy to walk through, the new collection has attracted attention from media folks (and tour guides) on the main island brave enough to venture into the gritty wilds of Brooklyn for a Street Art safari.

As Bushwick hosts its 7th annual open studios cultural event this weekend, intrepid pedestrians who march through opening parties, rooftop DJ jams, dance performances, live bands, transcendent costumery, sidewalk barbecues, open fire hydrants and more than 600 open artist studios will also be buffeted by a visual feast on the streets themselves. As long as the L Train is running (fingers crossed) you can just get off at the Morgan stop. From there it should be pretty easy for any curious art-in-the-street fan to be regaled with big and small works of graffiti, Street Art, tags, wheat-pastes, stencils, rollers, murals, and ad hoc installations all day and night.

Trek Matthews (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A shout out to Arts In Bushwick, an all volunteer organization that has steadily grown and fostered an open sense of community inclusiveness each year for Bushwick Open Studios and to the many volunteers who have contributed greatly to the success of many of the cultural workers here.  Without an open studios event many of these shy and quirky artists and performers would simply have stayed unknown and unknowable.

So far Bushwick still has the unbridled imperfect D.I.Y. enthusiasm of an experiment where anything can happen, but grey ladies with kooky bright colored spectacles have already begun to flip it over to inspect it with one hand while pinching their nose with the other, so savor this authentic moment.  Ethereal by nature, you know the Street Art scene is never guaranteed to you tomorrow – neither is the mythical artists bohemian hamlet of New York’s yesteryear.  For now we’re hopping on our bikes to catch a golden age of Bushwick before it’s repackaged and sold back to us at a price we can’t afford.

The first series of images are walls from the Bushwick Collective, followed by a series of walls that you may also see in the neighborhood.

MOMO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Pasquini (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly and Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billy Mode and Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder and LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brett Flanigan and Cannon Dill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo and The Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here are a series of walls not related to Bushwick Collective.

ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A portion of a wall by the 907 Crew, Sadue. Don Pablo Pedro, Smells, Cash4, and Keely (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phetus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peeta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BR1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apolo Torres (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris, Veng, RWK and ECB (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cruz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Keely and Deeker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kremen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full list of activities, studios, schedules and directions for Bushwick Open Studios 2013 click HERE.

 

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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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Open Walls Gallery Presents: Various & Gould “The Pressure of Printing” (Berlin, Germany)

Various & Gould

VARIOUS & GOULD | THE PRESSURE OF PRINTING

OPEN WALLS Gallery cordially invites to VARIOUS & GOULD‘s upcoming show, opening on June 8th from 20:00 onwards, in our showroom in Stattbad.

For VARIOUS & GOULD the collage technique is a principle of creating common ground. Testing and experimenting with methods of collaborative printing, was the aim for their residency at the Frans Masereel Centrum, in Belgium, at the beginning of this year.

As an introduction into our program, VARIOUS & GOULD will present the “Belgian Houses” series. This particular body of work is build up from many little bits and pieces, such as patchwork figures, body parts, objects & patterns combined and reassembled together. There are alternately printed by the two artists, in an impressive manner, on paper-sheets. The artists reversed their workflow and implemented the method of collaging directly into the printing process, revisiting previous templates and thus composing new pieces. The result is a series of twelve “collage-prints”.

http://openwallsgallery.tumblr.com/

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Royce Bannon, Alice Mizrachi, and Bluster One on Piano in NYC Streets

Street Artists Among those Painting Pianos for “Sing for Hope” this Year

Out in New York streets and parks and public places will be 88 pianos for you to play starting on Saturday, so it is time for you to practice your stunning rendition of “Chopsticks”, that Stevie Wonder jam in your head, or that sweeping sonata that your Aunt Winifred is so fond of.  Sing for Hope is an artists’ “peace corps” project started by two Julliard sopranos Camille Zamora and Monica Yunus in 2006 and every year since has brought pianos out so the all of the public can plunk their keys for two weeks in June and have a truly interactive experience.

That Royce is such a playa, right? Royce Bannon (photo © Royce Bannon)

This year among the visual artists invited to custom design a piano are some street artists among the mix and they went on display at a private event last week before they make their debut throughout the 5 boroughs on June 1. Here we show you newly designed pianos by 3 of the grand participants and names you might recognize, Royce Bannon, Alice Mizrachi, and Bluster One. Together with the 85 other artists, they are part of a program that hopes to be a “nation-wide movement that activates artists as agents of transformation in under-served areas and promotes the ideal of art for all.”

Royce Bannon. Detail. (photo © Royce Bannon)

See some of those pearly whites got some gold caps!. Fresh. Royce Bannon (photo © Royce Bannon)

Bluster One. Detail. (photo © Bluster One)

A helpful bit of directions from Bluster One. Detail. (photo © Bluster One)

Bluster One. Detail. (photo © Bluster One)

Bluster One. Detail. (photo © Bluster One)

Alice Mizrachi (photo © Laurie Markiewicz)

“I have been working with Sing for Hope for the past 2 years as both an artist and teaching artist,” says Alice Mizrachi, who worked on sculptures for the gala and participated in the project in 2011 also. As a teaching artist Mizrachi aims to bring arts and activism to classrooms, which have included NYC neighborhoods in Harlem and Bushwick.

Of her baby grand this year, Alice says she wanted it to reflect the struggles of rebuilding after the hurricane over the last half year and to reflect stories she heard from many of the students whose families have been facing adversity since Sandy.

“Since my year was focused on community building through my arts education residencies, I wanted my piano to depict a teacher and student in their NYC environment,” Alice explains, “Building community by empowering people to express through an arts practice is one of my life long missions.”

Alice Mizrachi (photo © Laurie Markiewicz)

For a full list of participating artists and locations map click HERE

 

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Colorful Character Jim Avignon Paints in Peru and Brazil

Solo in Lima and with Carlos Dias in São Paulo

Today we have photos from two new projects by Berlin based Street Artist and fine artist and Renaissance man Jim Avignon that he just completed in the southern hemisphere.

São Paulo, Brazil

As part of a cultural exchange project for the Goethe Institute, Avignon and Brazilian graffiti/fine artist Carlos Dias  (aka ASA) painted the exterior and interior of a truck that will be traveling throughout the streets of many cities for a year to do educational classes and workshops with children in different neighborhoods.  “I don’t speak Portugese and he doesn’t speak a lot in English but it wasn’t really necessary,” says Jim as he describes the planning and painting they did for a week or so inside a large warehouse before its debut. Aside from a map on the back that shows all the cities the truck with tour, he says it has “all kinds of cultural stuff inside; a small library, a public address system, film and music equipment.”

Jim Avignon and Carlos Dias collaborate on a traveling arts education truck for Goethe Institute (image © Jim Avignon)

Speaking of music, its notable that both of these visual artists have solid track records in composing, recording, and performing as musicians. Jim said he really enjoyed painting with ASA even though they didn’t talk a lot because the both of them also have experience performing music live in front of an audience and they felt like they really understood each other on that level. It all sort of culminated at the opening party in front of an old theatre. Jim said he felt right at home with ASA because, “He also has a band and likes to jump around on stage.”

Jim Avignon and Carlos Dias collaborate on a traveling arts education truck for Goethe Institute. A map on the back shows all the cities the truck will be taking its programs to over the next year. (image © Jim Avignon)

Jim Avignon and Carlos Dias collaborate on a traveling arts education truck for Goethe Institute (image © Jim Avignon)

Jim Avignon and Carlos Dias collaborate on a traveling arts education truck for Goethe Institute (image © Jim Avignon)

The artists pose with their truck. (image © Jim Avignon)

Lima, Peru

“I was invited to paint this wall for a big fiesta in a nice neighborhood called Barranco,” he says of the long wall that reminds of the huge one he did in Brooklyn a little while ago. “I had only 2 days to do it all,” he explains as the opening for the party loomed. “Luckily it almost never rains in Lima and there were nice people to help me.”

 

The preliminary sketch going up for this wall by Jim Avignon in Lima (image © Jim Avignon)

Jim Avignon at work in Lima (image © Frank Kalero)

Jim Avignon in Lima (image © Jim Avignon)

The opening night party filled the street in front of the new wall by Jim Avignon in Lima (image © Jim Avignon)

The full panorama of the new wall by Jim Avignon in Lima (image © Jim Avignon)

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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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Arts In Bushwick Presents: Bushwick Open Studios 2013 (Brooklyn, NYC)

BOS 2013
Arts in Bushwick is pleased to announce the seventh annual Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival. A cultural phenomenon, BOS2013 will take place Friday, May 31 – Sunday, June 2, 2013 and will include over 500 individual studios, shows, and exhibition involving thousands of artists. This free event invites visual artists, performers, musicians, designers, and the public to celebrate creative expression in one of the most vital arts districts in the world.

 

http://artsinbushwick.org/bos2013/2013/01/31/hello-world/

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