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

Now screening: Petro Wodkins Taking a P**s in Belgium, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada in Belgium, UnO in Italy, PROZAK in Poland, and Mr. Rogers Singing in Your Hood.

BSA Special Feature:
Art Culture Jamming with Petro Wodkins Taking a P**s in Belgium

In this video we see the very large success of artist Petro Wodkins in subverting (or extroverting) the famed statue Manneken Pis, originally done by Jerome Duquesnoy in 1388 and which still draws small crowds of onlookers in Belgium.

First off, who knew people were so interested in watching public urination? In New York that old statue would get a “quality of life” summons from the police, especially if he was behind a dumpster at 2 a.m. on the Lower East Side. Anyhow, the golden showering replacement of the cherubic original is all grown up with feet in boots firmly planted and trenchcoat opened and the artist says it is based on an image of himself, but that had not been verified as of press time.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada: Terrestrial Series. Mama Cash, Amsterdam

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada is an early culture jammer who has in more recent years created a number of large scale installations visible mainly by planes, including a giant Barack Obama made with 650 metric tons of sand and gravel in Barcelona. This installation in this video was made with 80  volunteers in December to celebrate the women who work hard around the world championing human rights.

UnO @ Mura Mura Festival. Italy.

Like hand puppets? Get bored sitting around while your cool artist friends are painting walls like we have the whole frickin’ night to sit around and watch their creative geniousness getting up? Let’s squish their head with our fingers!

Also, this is from Italy and the MURA MURA festival so it may not be a big deal to them and mos def was not meant to be malicious, but the initial musical accompaniment here says the N-word about one thousand times, which we feel extremely conflicted about in general.  Possibly the recording is meant to draw attention to its ubiquitous use in music meant for youth. But it’s a sad commentary.

But the video is jammin, yo!

PROZAK in Gdansk, Poland

In case you think this is easy – climb the scaffolding with Prozak and his friend to the top and realize the monstrous amount of work it is to paint a building this size. And to make it artful and compelling. Respect.

Hey Neighbor! Mr. Rogers Somehow Knows We Want to Sing Together

A newly auto-tuned snap happy smack you on the back clappy song from some of the neighbors in your hood. Well, maybe not YOUR hood but some hood in television land. Have a great weekend.