All posts tagged: Berlin

BSA Film Friday: 02.22.19

BSA Film Friday: 02.22.19

February 22, 2019 ,

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

Now screening :
1. Escif: Magic Piano
2. Adele Renault: St+Art India. Lodhi Art Festival 2019
3. Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean Museum
4. OS Gemeos: Flying Steps at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin

BSA Special Feature: Escif: Magic Piano

Spanish Street Artist Escif creates a museum installation that uses irony, sarcasm, and deep truths that we’re not always ready to see.

By hi-jacking some of the current interactive nomenclature enabled by augmented/mixed realities and the normalizing of tablet use, he alerts viewers to the connection of age-old mineral mining that is just as contemporary as the hi-tech gadgetry many have embraced.

Since you can use the device to contemplate human suffering and make music, it is an indictment of modern attitudes that dehumanize and turn real stories into a video game.

From the artist:

“Coltan is a mineral, found specially in eastern Congo, used to make cells and computer chips. Violent rebel groups are exploiting coltan mining to help finance a bloody civil war which is now in its 12th year.

The link between the bloodshed and coltan is causing alarm among high-tec manufacturers slowly they are beginning to realise that their products may contain the tainted fruits of civil war. Since the outbreak of fighting in august 1998: an estimated 5.4 million people have died; 45.000 continue to die each month; Children account for 47% of these deaths.

Magic Piano is a music installation. With the help of a tablet (that obviously contains coltan) you will be able to play the piano. Use the device to navigate on the wall. When you pass on the screen over a charater, a sound will be activated. If you push the character with your finger a sound loop will be activated. You will also activate the animation of each character.”

Adele Renault: St+Art India. Lodhi Art Festival 2019

A couple of weeks ago we shared with you new photos by Adele’s mom of the Street Artist painting this wall for St+Art India in New Delhi. Today we share a video made of her installation.

📺Lodhi Art Festival 2019 || Adele RenaultAdele's imprints are visible in the winged beauties that now adorn the walls at Lodhi. Laying on a main arterial road know the colony, her birds now peek through the trees and woo passersby.Watch the film to get a closer look into her creative process! 📽 Pranav Gohill & Jay NuEdited by Filterkaypee Festival supported by Asian Paints.#artforall #startindia #startdelhi #startdelhi2019 #asianpaints #lodhiartdistrict #lodhiartfestival2019

Posted by St+art India on Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean Museum

“It lacks all the give and the breath of fresh art,” the bespectacled art critic intones with all the weight of a final damnation.

“We need haters out there. They are affirmations that we’re doing something right,” says the streetwise pop star with clever sunnies and sans big hat.

Taking a break from the Banksy beat, Doug appears to put forth that supposition that Jeff Koons is proving once again that as long as you are a white guy and you reference European art history you are 80% on your way as an artist whose work will be collected and exhibited.

OS Gemeos: Flying Steps at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin

A splendid hybrid that sends heartbeats racing, even involuntarily, here is a trailer for Flying Steps and Os Gemeos as they interpret Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the famous piano composition that has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. Good to see museums of contemporary art truly stretching, redefining the street and Street Art.

Another interpretation by ELP from December 1970.

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Berlin in Stations: The Music of the Streets (Video)

Berlin in Stations: The Music of the Streets (Video)

February 9, 2019

Contemporary Berlin is a city of many faces. It’s vibrant and intoxicating. It feels safe and welcoming. It’s raw and sleek, organic and planned, clangorous and calm. It’s also joyfully permissive, allowing space for you to create, discover and explore- even as the locals complain of the shadow of gentrification that is cast upon the bohemian enclaves.

While we can’t call Berlin a second home we can say that we have fallen in love with it. We especially treasured the friendships that we forged with many talented artists and creatives who have come to the city to explore their ideas and to take their risks, climbing walls (some of them literally) to make things happen.

Berlin, it seems to us, is teeming with energized young, middle aged, old people from all over Europe and beyond who have come here to this nerve center to open the creative power that we’re going to need to seize back the Earth from darkness.

Sweeping, kinetic, full of life and teeming with possibility, this is the Berlin that many find at this moment, a series of stations to discover and celebrate.

With direction by Diego Gueler (Sasho) and musical score balancing by Matías Córdova, here is their love letter to Berlin.

“Berlinstation is a ticket to enjoy and get excited with the urban art and street musicians of the capital of the cultural avant-garde of Europe. A trip of video art, photo-animations, timelapse, slowmotion and landscapes of the city intertwined with talents without borders.”


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Nils Westergard Paints One of “The Unforgotten” with Urban Nation, Berlin

Nils Westergard Paints One of “The Unforgotten” with Urban Nation, Berlin

January 30, 2019


“endangering the morality and purity of the German race”, said §175 of the Criminal Code when referring to gay people.

Lies like that persist in other countries today, as does persecution of sexual minorities. The World Economic Forum in 2018 said that 73 countries still outlaw homosexuality, despite the move to legalize same-sex marriage in 26 others.

Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)

This Sunday was worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Day and the new portrait painted by Belgian-American Street Artist Nils Westergard for Urban Nation  museum is that of a victim of the Nazis who was made to wear the pink triangle sewn onto his concentration camp uniform.

“I was digging through images of camps and prisoners for a few days,” says Westergard of his search for the right image for this 2 meter wide, 6-story high wall in Berlin.

Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)

“There are only so many that are classified as homosexuals or for sex crimes in general,” he says as he describes needing to incorporate a pre-existing sculpture of 200 metal origami birds that form a triangle into the composition by artist Mademoiselle Maurice.

He says that he ultimately discovered the image of this individual, a 32-year old locksmith named Walter Degen who was born January 4, 1909. While it is known that he was at Auschwitz and transferred to Mauthausen, it is not known if he survived the Holocaust.

Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Today we shout Walter Degen’s name from the rooftops and from this new wall to remind us how wrong we humans have historically been and how much we have learned, how much we still have to learn. We’re proud of Mr. Degen’s memory and honor his right to have loved another Mr.

Our thanks to photographer Nika Kramer for sharing her excellent images of this wall with BSA readers.

Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Nils Westergard. “The UNforgotten” Urban Nation Berlin. One Wall Project. Berlin, Germany. 2019. (photo © Nika Kramer)

URBAN NATION x Nils Westergard:
The UNforgotten – Edition 1

Thanks to Yasha Young, Urban Nation Director.

URBAN NATION MUSEUM FOR URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART.

With support of “Faces of Auschwitz” project.

About “The Unforgotten”
The wall at Bülowstraße 94 follows a very special leitmotif: it is a memorial for the victims of the Nazi regime, who were persecuted, abducted, imprisoned and murdered for homosexuality. This memorial wall in the LGBTQI-influenced neighborhood of Berlin-Schöneberg will over time transform again and again, as a reminder.

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Michelle Houston, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Michelle Houston, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

December 31, 2018

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.

Today’s special guest:

Michele Houston, enfant terrible, storyteller in the Queen’s English, curator at Monumenta festival Leipzig, at Zwitxhermaschine Gallery in Berlin, for this years very successful Wandelism, and co-founder of Berlin Art Society.

In times where the world seems to have gone mad, with segregation rather than inclusions and the unthinkable such as Brexit becomes a reality.

The photograph I selected is a night street view of the exhibition: “Bonjour Tristesse” by artist KITRA.

The show is titled after the infamous graffiti just off Schlesisches Tor (Berlin), which has crowned the building opposite the exhibition for the past 37 years, which translates to hello sadness and seems to embody the zeitgeist of now.

The public from all walks of life were invited to literally walk in to an artwork, as the walls, ceiling and floor were painted by the artist. It was an exhibition like a candy shop, where one could immerse themselves inside of an artwork.

In 2019 I wish for more colour and light to break through the impending darkness.

Artist: Kitra

Location: Berlin, Germany

Date: 29.04.2018

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Pascal Feucher, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Pascal Feucher, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

December 21, 2018

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.

Today’s special guest:

Pascal Feucher, Impresario, articulate thought-leader, badass Founder of the Urban Spree compound in Berlin, Germany

Pixação is a form of graffiti rooted in the São Paulo underground, a rough colonization of verticality by writers who are prone to take extreme risk on makeshift scaffolds but usually, as in the sub genre of balcony writing, without any form of security. It is the most extreme form of graffiti in a sense where you put your own life at risk for the thrill of the game, in a time where street art becomes more and more colonized by branding and consumerism.

The photograph is also important as it marks the first collaboration between São Paulo’s Os Cururu and Berlin-based Paradox (Berlin Kidz), two of the most important pixacão writers who united their skills to invade Berlin in the summer of 2018.

The photograph was taken In Berlin Kreuzberg by @cpt_olf, whose remarkable photographic work is based on documenting urban exploration in extreme altitude, and specifically the works of the Berlin Kidz.

Artist: Berlin Kidz

Title: Signal

Location: Kreuzberg, Berlin. Germany.

Date: Summer 2018

Photographer: CPT Olf (@cpt_olf)

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Strøk in Studio: Isometric Figures, Stencils, and Old Doors in Berlin

Strøk in Studio: Isometric Figures, Stencils, and Old Doors in Berlin

October 31, 2018 ,

Strøk! If you can say it you should shout it!

And you’ll have to shout it if you want Street Artist Anders Gjennestad to hear you from his perch 60 meters high above you upon the The Victory Column. Berliners call the bronze woman at the center of this six lane traffic circle Victoria, and Strøk has climbed the 282 steps up a spiral staircase to sit at her feet many times to shoot his models down below.

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I like to shoot there because it’s very open and you can move around and there are shadows going in many directions throughout the day,” he says as he shows you images of his subject on the ground on his computer back in the studio. “ He moved and then the shadows are going the other direction- the sun stays there quite late so it’s nice. You pay like three Euros to get in there but its usually not that busy.”

Sequestered in a high ceilinged room of a former school on a sleepy street in the city, the Norwegian transplant has found his home in Berlin for the last few years and he gladly shows you around recent stencils, his custom tilted cutting desk, a crushed car hood now readymade sculpture/wall hanging, and stacks of old heavy doors that he’ll be painting on sooner than later.

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“All of these doors are taken from abandoned houses,” he says amidst stories of urban and ex-urban adventures with friends on the margins of the city spray painting and salvaging.

“We rent a van and I go with my neighbor and bring all the power tools and batteries,” he says of the work that sounds a little like the harvesting he must have done back home on the farm in Norway. It occurs to you that the recycling of materials is also very ‘green’.

“Yeah we put on a fluorescent jacket and a little helmet,” he says as he shows you weathered and deteriorated slabs of wood with occasional metal moldings or hinges, patterns and markings. Like this one he found in a dumpster.

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I also just find things on the street like this one that a carpenter has used as a cutting board under his work. It has all these handwritten measurements on it – these are good canvasses as well. It wouldn’t be so interesting for me to paint it out of fresh canvas,” he pauses. “That’s why I am a fresh garbage collector.”

The deep baritone and thick shaggy mop add to the story as he narrates his way around the studio and a fall breeze wafts in through the casement windows that remind him of his early days shooting models out of them to the sidewalk a few floors below. His unique technique of capturing movement from above and transforming it isometrically onto other planes has distinguished his street works in countries like Lebanon, Portugal, Taiwan, Iceland, France, Denmark, Italy, and others.

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It has also brought his figures that are barely tethered to the ground except by their shadows to private collections and gallery shows like his most recent solo exhibition “Gravity” at Galerie Friedmann-Hahn here this summer.

A single image may result from 1,000 photos, he says, all shot overhead with an eye for unusual bending and foreshortening and a surprise. He used to shoot friends or strangers but now more often hires a model and gives them scenarios over the phone from above.

“I have an idea and I ask him to do things,” he says, “but it’s more of the stuff that they do in between when they’re not thinking about it that I find most interesting.” He walks over to a new piece with a figure in a striped shirt, his head obscured and his limbs hanging off the edge of the board that he is using as canvas. “Like this guy putting on his sweater. That was something I didn’t think about before I saw the photos. And I think that’s interesting. So I like stuff that just happens.”

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So it’s the unscripted moment that you are looking for?
Strøk: I try not to give too much direction anyway. I’m always kind of up in the tower and then I called him and I told him to do some things. But it’s the in between things when he is doing things that I didn’t think about or plan I always shoot and then when I come back and look at all the pictures I pick the one that I want.

It is a cyclical pattern he describes as his life in between special sculptural projects or commissioned installations; Salvaging garbage, shooting models, cutting stencils, spraying new canvasses.

“If I had a normal job I would find it hard to justify spending all this time digging in bins and finding garbage, dressing up like a construction worker-and cutting stuff off the walls,” he says with a satisfied expression.

“I love doing all of that and I like to paint so it’s good to have those two interests tied together.”

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anders Gjennstad STRØK. Studio Visit. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.14.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.14.18

October 14, 2018 ,

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Hope it isn’t trite, but don’t give up on your dreams – that’s what Street Artist AJ Lavilla advises in this piece on the sidewalk in Brooklyn. Dude and Dudette, this life can kick the stuffing out of you or just gradually wear you down, but we encourage you to keep you eyes on the prize! You can do it, in fact, you must.

In addition we have a Kiwi (Owen Dippie) in Brooklyn and an Australian (Lister) in Berlin this week. In fact, most of what follows is from a recent visit in that city we think of as a sister to Brooklyn – the chaotically beautiful Berlin. Special thanks to Various & Gould for helping us ID some of these works as well.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring AJ LaVilla, Anthony Lister, Crypoe, Hyland Mather, Marycula, Owen Dippie, OXOX, Pappas Pärlor, Styro, and Vyoky.

Top Image: AJ Lavilla (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Owen Dippie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Styro in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Styro standing on Push in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hyland Mather in Moscow for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VYOKY in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pappas Pärlor in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pappas Pärlor in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pappas Pärlor in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentidied artist in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OXOX in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crypoe in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

La Rouille at Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Care at Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (but it looks a lot like Carlos Mare’s B Boyz. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist memorial in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marycula at Urban Nation Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 09.23.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.23.18

September 23, 2018 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Biggie Smalls and Alfred Hitchcock open Autumn Equinox for BSA this week and we can’t help but think of that movie “The Birds” by the English film director where nature turns against man. Kiwi Street Artist Owen Dippie painted the mural in Brooklyn at the end of the summer and the mashup of references between the Brooklyn rapper and the dark cinematic thrillmaster in black and white may frighten you if you imagine those birds balanced at the end of their cigars began to peck their eyes out.

Friday night marked a new milestone for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin there was a preview of the newly completed and opened artists’ residencies put on display. We were treated to the creative environments of 11 of the residencies with the first group of artists in attendance including NeSpoon, Herakut, Li-Hill, Snik, Ludo, Mia Florentine Weiss, Quintessenz, Sellfable, Dot Dot Dot, Louis Masai, Wes 21 and Onur. The museum will open its doors again for the museum’s second exhibition titled “The Power of Art as a Social Architect”  this Thursday.  Check it out if you are in Berlin.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UPCrew, Adele Renault, AKUT, Berlin Kidz, BustArt, Dina Saadi, Exit Art, L.E.T., M-City, Mehsos, Owen Dippie, Snik, and Vegan Flava.

Top Image: Owen Dippie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adele Renault in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adele Renault in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adele Renault in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adele Renault in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tyson’s Corner. Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BustArt at Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L.E.T. Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L.E.T. Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SNIK. WIP and detail shot for the new facade at Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SNIK. WIP and detail shot for the new facade at Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vegan Flava. Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew at Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew at Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew and Berlin Kidz in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City at Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MEHSOS at Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dina Saadi at Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EXIT. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pizza Activism. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Akut. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. September 2018. Urban Spree, Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister Confronts Picasso At Urban Spree in Berlin

Anthony Lister Confronts Picasso At Urban Spree in Berlin

September 22, 2018

After three weeks of willfully thoughtful sprawling scrawling figural historical allegorical and emotional channeling, the cannon spray of creative expression that is Lister smashed across canvasses, sculpture, media art, and the highest profile wall in the crumbling Urban Spree compound.

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Australian Street Artist/fine artist completed his residency in his own tumultuous style – and took it seriously; perhaps because he posits an action-packed new confrontation with cubism that lurches at the master, and perhaps because director Pascal Feucher has the scholarly depth and street/graffiti/urban art cred to organize an environment that contains and liberates simultaneously.

Education and experience may prepare you to contemplate Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and “Guernica” re-addressed, but Lister brings additional friends to the party with raging erections, water ballooned bosoms, superhero costumery, Damian Hirst’s shark and of course a pregnant aboriginal transwoman playing a didgeridoo fashioned from Coca-Cola cans.

As you do.

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The surreal is an open manifestation, a lense to view the struggles and signifiers that pilot this vessel, whether it slides smoothly ashore or breaks apart on cubist jetties. No matter the angle it’s an exciting violently smashing sensual ride ripe with skullduggery, masquerade and skewed perspective.

While the early 20th century movements of cubism and surrealism have been present in his work previously, these direct references to Picasso have come to fore with force only recently, even since his New York solo show at Allouche this spring, which is a more classical “Pop” Lister with some urban references, says Feucher.

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“There is a clear transition in the last six months, and maybe this exhibition shows it for the first time, between his traditional presentation of superheroes and ballerinas and references to pop art to something that references more either idols of contemporary Art or classic painters in masters of the 20th century,” he says as we walk through this spare open gallery planted inside an urban playground for graffiti writers, rock climbers, pyromania displays, beer stein swigging and late night chain-link fence pissing.

“The need to confront oneself with Picasso is something that a lot of painters do – because you have to, I guess, strangle the master. So it has to be the right time for that. You don’t show paintings of you referencing Picasso that clearly if you’re not super confident about achieving something,” say Feucher.  “And I think he did something very important and it is very strong fight – and somehow out of the Street Art universe. There’s no self-reference here that leads into street art and that is maybe a good step forward for him as a painter.”

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Based on the numerous rawly stylized “Lister” tags on the street we witnessed over the last few days in Berlin, he’s not abandoning the street just yet. But borrowing a fire extinguisher from the 1UP crew to tag across his own works in this temporary studio and stepping across/upon multiple works spread on the floor – it’s definitely a hybrid of practices and references that coalesce.

The artist himself at times prefers the costume and the character, perhaps a clever subterfuge that protects his privacy from prying invasions, or annoying distraction. In the end as always, the work speaks for itself and these newest works are heralding a street hero fusion future we’re excited to witness as it permutates in the mind of Mr. Lister.

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister. Urban Spree. Berlin. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Anthony Lister’s “Sneaky But In” at Urban Spree Gallery  in Berlin is open to the public until October 20, 2018. Click HERE for more information about this exhibition.

 

 

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Urban Nation: The Power Of Art As A Social Architect

Urban Nation: The Power Of Art As A Social Architect

September 19, 2018

With Director as Curator, Urban Nation opens it’s second exhibition since last years’ inaugural opening show, entitled “The Power of Art as a Social Architect” next week on September 27th in Berlin.

“My curation is a play on Beuys and the idea or ‘radical theory’ that everybody by simply being a human is an artist which to him is the essence of what it means to be a human being: The deep need and fundamental ability to create and be creative,” says UN’s Yasha Young. But on the opposite end of the spectrum almost as a mirror I place the philosophy of Dr. Seuss and his approach and huge social impact via simplicity and compassion.”

In addition the museum is planning to unveil their Artists in Residency Programme with 11 artists invited to participate including “Nespoon, Herakut, Li-Hill, Snik, Ludo, Mia Florentine Weiss, Sellfable, Dot Dot Dot, Louis Masai, Quintessenz, Wes 21 and Onur.”

BSA is headed to Berlin to see what’s happening and will bring you an update soon.

Place : Bülowstrasse 7 Urban Nation
Time : 8pm
Date: September 29, 2018

Flyer artwork by Herakut
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BSA Images Of The Week: 09.16.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.16.18

September 16, 2018 ,

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Welcome to the beginning of fall in New York, hopefully not the Fall of New York – although you can never tell when monetary policy is incredibly loose and we’re living in an “everything bubble” about to burst. Here in NYC people used to say the major industries were FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) and it is probably still true to a large extent. You could add Casinos to the acronym today because the this falsely high-flying and treacherous economy feels like a giant windowless drunken room full of sparkly lights, laughter and speculative plays. CAFIRE! Totally made that up. Might stick.

Also this week Manafort flipped, NYC voters got clipped, Hieronymus Bosch’s “Triptych of Temptation of St. Anthony” is alive on the subway, and Loren Naji is living in an 8 foot ball of reclaimed wood from demolished homes on the street.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1312, 1UP Crew, Adele Renault, Adopt, Bailon, Ben Slow, Daze2, Dede, El Sol 25, Jonathan Allen, Marshal Arts, Mr. Joul, Nick Flatt, Nitzan Mintz, Not Pinky, Paul Punk, and Sandra Chevrier.

Top Image: 1UP Crew at Urban Spree in Berlin. Anthony Lister is preparing his show inside the golden windows. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Hi Art Machine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marshal Arts in Berlin for Paste Up Festival 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede and Nitzan Mintz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze2 in Berlin for Paste Up Festival 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze2 and Not Pinky in Berlin for Paste Up Festival 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1312 in Berlin for Paste Up Festival 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bailon for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NYC Subway ad take over by Jonathan Allen. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NYC Subway ad take over by Jonathan Allen. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adopt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adele Renault at work in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Slow for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Unsere Werte” (Our Value). Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Flatt and Paul Punk in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist…or is this an ad? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oh! One more thing. Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Joul in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sandra Chevrier for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Downtown Manhattan. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Film Friday: 09.14.17

BSA Film Friday: 09.14.17

September 14, 2018

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. “GIGANTES CERVECEROS” by Miquel Wert
2. Shepard Fairey and Johnny Cash on 50th Anniversary of “Folsom”
3. PasteUp Festival in Berlin
4. Yemeni Street Artist Murad Subay on Fifth Wall
5. Rocco And His Brothers Crash the the Party at The Police Station

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: “GIGANTES CERVECEROS” by Miquel Wert

A year ago we were watching artist Miquel Wert balancing awkward family dynamics in Barcelona and today he’s painting about beer.

We enjoy watching the progression of the portraiture across these vertical fermentation tanks over about 375 square meters of space. Part of a private gig with the client, the artist chose four tradespeople involved in the production of beer to adorn these tanks in Zaragoza, Spain.

Shepard Fairey and Johnny Cash go big in Sacramento, California.

“When I was just a baby, my Mama told me, ‘Son, always be a good boy, don’t ever play with guns.’ But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Johnny Cash sings with some bravado in Folsom Prison Blues on an album released 50 years ago this year. Street Artist Shepard Fairey honors the album and here in Sacramento, California to raise consciousness about the outrageously high rate of incarceration here. “The United States has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of it’s prisoners,” he says, making you question the system in the Land of the Free.

PasteUp Festival in Berlin

“PasteUp Festival” Brings 130 Voices to Berlin Walls is the article we wrote a few days ago about this streetside exhibition of international paste-up street art. Here is a full walk-by so you can see it all.

 

Yemeni Street Artist Murad Subay on Fifth Wall

Doug Gillen takes us to Yemen where Street Art takes on the politics of the region and the war-torn life that has been foisted upon its citizenry. A brief overview of geopolitics followed by an Internet interview with Murad Subay is accompanied by examples of his work and Mr. Subay’s own recounting of his experiences creating work on the public sphere – even while bombs are dropping.

 

Rocco And His Brothers Crash the the Party at The Police Station at Monumenta, Leipzig 2018

One of the installations in the new Monumenta exhibition in an old factory in Leipzig creates a car crash into a local precinct. The graffiti crew Rocco and His Brothers have mounted the scene and we were happy to capture it at the precise time that the building security alarms happened to go off – adding an additional audio track to the troubled scene.

 

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