All posts tagged: Biancoshock

Subterranean Subversion: Biancoshock’s “Underground” Gallery

Subterranean Subversion: Biancoshock’s “Underground” Gallery

“The Crypt of St Pancras Church, now THAT was an underground gallery”—showcasing alternative and experimental art for the cool kids before it got popular, or not. Who can forget City Racing and The Approach in London? DIY outposts full of promise and feigned contempt for the blue-chip buyers, most of whom never came. New York’s Fun Gallery was hardly hidden, and Alleged Gallery nearly ushered in Shepard Fairey faster than Andre the Giant.

 

Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Oh, the fun of going where art shouldn’t be, discovering new ideas, minds, and manners of self-expression against a backdrop of modernity. It became a 20th-century tradition that kooky/angry white kids with art degrees always considered themselves avant-garde, living on the ‘edge’, stirring up a menagerie of pills, powders, and discontented privilege surprisingly well – before eventually growing up and moving on to the suburbs. Nonetheless, that early-mid-20s freedom from a need to make money often produced some of the most outrageous, angst-ridden, technicolor, jarring, and sometimes subversive art and shows.

Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

These particular off-beat gallery spaces may or may not have directly inspired the conceptual/street artist Biancoshock’s latest act of buried treasure, making it truly underground. However, his critical eye on the unsubtle gallery caste system at large and the perverting reach of commercialism on subcultural movements is not completely subterranean. More likely, his critique is directed at current events and accepted practices that all point to the commodification and blanding of street art culture.

“Current street art has become a media phenomenon,” he complains in his press release. “Many brands and institutions use this art to promote products or initiatives of fake redevelopment.” Certainly, you’ve seen moribund downtown areas transformed by mural projects and Street Art festivals hundreds of times in the last decade and a half. The soaring aerosol-painted results are often a far cry from the subversive, uncomfortably political, or anti-authoritarian sentiments more common during street art’s earlier years.

Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

“My ‘Underground’ project highlights the main features on which my way of experiencing street art is based: independence, its clandestine nature, and the ability to talk about social issues without having to censor oneself to promote brands or get permission from an entity.”

True to the word, Biancoshock’s ‘Underground Show’ takes place beneath the surface of the abandoned ex-Arsenale of Pavia. Transforming a grimy trap door used for machinery repairs into a mini-gallery, the artist created a hidden exhibit featuring photographs of his four site-specific installations. The pièce de résistance (for all you art-school kids)? The entire exhibition was buried forever, making it the most literal—and cleverly concealed—underground art show imaginable.”

Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. “Underground”. Pavia, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artist)
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Biancoshock: “Ready, Set, Go” Bridges a Divide

Biancoshock: “Ready, Set, Go” Bridges a Divide

Artistic Vision Transforms a Road Less Traveled

Today’s art intervention by Italian street artist Biancoshock is poignant and grand. It bridges history, geography, and the collective memory of migration with a thought-provoking project along the unfinished road stretching between Albania and Montenegro, beside the serene Shkodër Lake.

Intended to connect the two nations, the road abruptly halts at the border, serving as a silent witness to the aspirations of Albanian immigrants who once traversed this route in search of new beginnings. The intervention erases dividing lines on the Albanian side and installs a starting grid at the border, transforming the pavement into a potential symbol of hope and new beginnings.

Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)

“With this action, I aim to address the topics of immobilization and stasis, elements that hinder any form of restart—be it social, economic, or cultural,” Biancoshock tells BSA. “The starting grid symbolizes the initial point for a new beginning; it’s a call to action, an invitation to create the second part of the road that could connect the two countries more efficiently.”

More than an artistic gesture, this serves as a powerful commentary on the possibility of overcoming past barriers and envisioning a future filled with renewed connections and opportunities. An unfinished road becomes a canvas for contemplating the intersections of history, mobility, and the potential for revival.

Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. READ, SET, GO. Shkodër Lake. The border between Albania and Montenegro. (photo Google Maps screen save)
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Biancoshock Shot: Making Cameras in Lodi, IT

Biancoshock Shot: Making Cameras in Lodi, IT

The Italian street art interventionist named Fra. Biancoshock loves to reinvent space – especially public space.

Biancoshock. “Cannot – 2022”. Lodi, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

Always on the lookout for patterns in the piles of discarded urban detritus, he converts them with paint to match his imagination. Recently in Lodi Italy, he looked through the viewfinder of his mind and discovered a couple of cameras that looked suspiciously like classic Cannons.

He calls these “Cannot”.

 

Biancoshock. “Cannot – 2022”. Lodi, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. “Cannot – 2022”. Lodi, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)
Biancoshock. “Cannot – 2022”. Lodi, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)
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Biancoshock Targets Delivery Services: “Heavy Meal” Series

Biancoshock Targets Delivery Services: “Heavy Meal” Series

“In a democratic society, a person’s job is a basic tool for civil and economic progress,” says Italian street artist Biancoshock. “What progress can there be if the world’s jobs do not produce emancipation, growth, and gratification?”

Heavy questions.

Biancoshock. “Co-branding”. Milano, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

His repurposing of heavy blocks of concrete as delivery boxes here is called “Heavy Meal.” He says his point is to highlight the unrecognized burdens that delivery people of today are carrying thanks to sophisticated software. He describes situations of ever-higher pressure, lower wages, and an overall feeling of precariousness.

Increasingly across Europe and the developed world, he says, “food-delivery riders are dictated to by algorithms that extend the control and distribution functions – to become inaccessible, authoritarian and categorical.”


JUST NEET

Milan, 2022

Biancoshock. “Just Neet”. Milano, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

“The algorithm imposes a path, rhythms, distances to be bridged (those between the rider and the consumer) and other unbridgeable ones (those between the rider and the management of the company that produces the algorithm and the goods to be delivered).”

These huge traffic blockers make idea canvasses for the installation artist, who adopts the logos of well-known European food-delivery brands and slightly alters them for artistic effect. To see the growing number of protests against these companies by employees, you see that more sophisticated technology is lowering the standard of living for many of us.  

“The need to survive in this system transforms young people, students, and the unemployed into ‘new generation slaves,’” says the artist.


SLAVEROO

Milan, 2021

Old stone, new slavery.

Biancoshock. “Slaveroo”. Milano, Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

Some delivery brands in the news:
Glovo riders go on strike as European gig workers rise up
Just Eat, Deliveroo and UberEats delivery drivers to walk out in Belfast
Deliveroo unveils plans to pull out of Spain in wake of ‘rider law’

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“Apocalypse Trilogy” Begins in Milan : Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli Skewer Fast Food and Industrial Farming

“Apocalypse Trilogy” Begins in Milan : Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli Skewer Fast Food and Industrial Farming

The word “apocalypse” has such a ring to it.

“Late-stage capitalism”? Too heavy; sounds sort of industrial, like that Goth kid in college with the thick-soled boots and big words. “Apocalypse” sounds inspirational, aspirational, so NOW.

Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Super Size Flowers”. Apocalypse Trilogy #1. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

Now, from Milan, Italy, comes the “Apocalypse Trilogy”, at least the first two parts, courtesy of two other smart kids in your street art class, Francesco Garbelli and Biancoshock. Together this pair is staging a trio of uncommissioned, unapproved, and unapologetic public art installations featuring flowers as the protagonists.

“The series talks about issues related to the globalization era, the consumerism, and the imminent environmental disaster,” they explain. “Each installation presents paradoxical scenarios” – as we will see here. Aside from their symbolic visual messages that are on-target, you’ll also appreciate that in this age of co-opting and corporate green-washing, the artists also create fictional sponsors who can’t resist proudly taking credit – and shooting themselves in the foot at the same time.

Partly inspired by satire and movies, the first two installations of the “Apocalypse Trilogy” are called “Super Size Flowers” and “Engulf and Devour”.

Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Super Size Flowers”. Apocalypse Trilogy #1. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

Apocalypse Trilogy: #1 Super Size Flowers

“A series of flowers, handmade by the artists, that grows ‘obesely’ into a public green area directly,” is meant to welcome you to your favorite omnipresent fast food restaurant, sponsored and managed by the fictional Father of all Fast Foods.

With many western societies facing ever-increasing rates of obesity, they suggest that even the flowers have put on a little extra weight. The artists say they are targeting “a system that has transformed the eating habits of millions of people with no exclusion, thanks to strategies and services dedicated to all age groups; with menus containing surprises for the little ones, parties with entertainment, seats with video games, free Wi-Fi, drive-through service and so on.”

“The future pandemic has been served, without having to get out of your car.”

Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Super Size Flowers”. Apocalypse Trilogy #1. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Super Size Flowers”. Apocalypse Trilogy #1. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Super Size Flowers”. Apocalypse Trilogy #1. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

Apocalypse Trilogy: #2 Engulf & Devour

Inspired by the name of a fictional company in a 1976 Mel Brooks movie, this installation features hundreds of flowers “imprisoned in rusty cages.” A reference to intensive farming methods that surpass the past methods in ways that harm, effectively de-naturing and poisoning our natural systems to extract resourses – even flowers –  the artists say this simple installation “is configured as a metaphor for a certain – and dominant – way of interpreting the economy.”

Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

Sponsored and managed by the fictional Engulf & Devour company, the caged flowers represent “the idea of infinite growth that is in stark contrast to the correct perception of our planet which, on the contrary, is finite by its nature,” they tell us.

“The image of these herded flowers deprived of their living space inevitably recalls the theme of intensive farming – or the notorious wet markets, and their modus operandi.”

Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli. “Engulf & Devour”. Apocalypse Trilogy #2. Milano, Italy 2021. (photo © courtesy of the artists)
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City Takes Your Bus Stop? Biancoshock Will Help You Build a New One.

City Takes Your Bus Stop? Biancoshock Will Help You Build a New One.

“The citizens, using their artisanal skills, built a new bus-stop in the same place where the institutional one resided,” says street artist Biancoshock, “choosing the shape, the colors, the useful information and its name.”

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

This is community participation at its best and another route of inquiry into public space and its relationship to city dwellers for this Italian conceptual artist.

“The old bus stop was removed many years ago because it was damaged. The transport company never replaced it,” he explains.

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

The space was abandoned by the municipality but not by the neighborhood – so he and another noteworthy street artist Alice Pasquini convened a Zoom meeting with area neighbors during a Covid-skewed version of this years’ CVTà Street Fest in Civitacampomarano. Pasquini is also the Artistic Director of the Festival in this Medieval Italian village that is wrestling with depopulation and the related loss of services.

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

The bus shelter was designed to shelter a historic bench where every day the inhabitants meet for a chat at the end of the day – a symbolic and meaningful place that helps keep the sociability alive.

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

Together with the shelter, the stop pole was created, which shows the institutional signage and the updated timetables of the urban routes that connect the village with the city. Together they have named the bus stop A-VIA-NOV, which in the local dialect is translated as New Street.

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

A great new public space for the public to enjoy and the municipality is still happily ignorant of the fact. “No transport company was notified about this action,” Biancoshock tells us.

“So for me, this intervention can be interpreted more as an activist gesture than an artwork.”  

Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)
Biancoshock. A Via Nov (New Street). Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

Project by Biancoshock

Art direction: Alice Pasquini

Cvta Street Festival 2020, Civitacampomarano (CB) – Italy

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BSA Film Friday: 01.03.20

BSA Film Friday: 01.03.20

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

Now screening :
1. Swoon: Cicada at Deitch
2. Biancoshock: GRAFFITRICKS
3. Bien Urbain Festival 2019 Re-Cap by Kristina and Nazar from MZM Projects
4. ARTinfect 4 – The Pfaff Project Part 2

BSA Special Feature: Swoon: Cicada at Deitch

Long time supporter of Street Artist Swoon in her work on the street and in the studio, gallery director Jeffery Deitch has again given a platform to the enlightened wanderings and otherworldly investigations of the artist with a new exhibition in Manhattan. Directed by Frederic King, the character/s of the artists now have dimension, and movement, and a curious way of revealing and concealing. Once again the undercurrents in Swoon’s work are formidable, the presentation ornately manifested.

Biancoshock: GRAFFITRICKS

Biancoshock is back with a new collection of handmade tools that enable hoodlums to write graffiti, or some variation of it in a multitude of ways. In a continuous stance of provocation, the Italian conceptualist redefines the street game by creating one ingenious invention after another. For him, “This is a simple demonstration that creativity can easily fight every kind of institutional control and prohibitive policies.”

Bien Urbain Festival 2019 Re-Cap by Kristina and Nazar from MZM Projects

The 9th edition of Bien Urbain is just completed and MZM Projects presents a tonal treatment to the uniquely contextual festival. You don’t know who the stars are, because in the case of Bien Urbain it truly is a more inclusive conversation – to use an overused word – about the role of art and intervention in the urban environment.

ARTinfect 4 – The Pfaff Project Part 2

The graffiti writer’s lexicon continues to evolve and spread into areas that early writers would have considered verboten.  Today graffiti artists often do the same stuff as Street Artists but the labels aren’t important as long as you know how to command the can. 

Here in Kaiserlautern, a city in southwest Germany, the artist Carl Kenz has curated the new edition of ARTinfect with a sensibility toward space that recognizes the individual artist – and is a little uncommon in the ‘graffiti jam’ event world. Here you see that each artist is afforded ample industrial framing to develop their work – unimpeded by a too-close neighbor. These abandoned factories are often splendid staging spaces, and it is good to see this international selection of artists granted a good place to create harmony with the decay.

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BSA Film Friday: 07.19.19

BSA Film Friday: 07.19.19

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

Now screening :
1. WK Interact in NYC by Fifth Wall
2. Rub Kandy & Biancoshock: “All the Lights”
3. Not Rented To Humans: Grip Face
4. Elrow’art: Kaos Garden with Okuda San Miguel and Paco Osuna

BSA Special Feature: WK Interact in NYC by Fifth Wall

“It was some sort of freedom,” says WK in this retrospective of NYC locations that he tries to recall with original photo in hand overlaying the original city spot. For some of us, the memories of all of these spots are sufficient, as the city was different then – perhaps more wild and dirty. For WK, the stories and the memories continue to evolve.

Well shot and edited, its a mature way to let the artist speak and evocative of his current manner.

Rub Kandy & Biancoshock: “All the Lights”

In the face of sexy new machine-learning and Artificial Intelligence – and the auxiliary tales related to art-making, perhaps this video is a way of preserving the authentic feeling of human discovery in its unglamorous basicness. Not to overplay this, but this conceptual piece is a meditation on the underwhelming mechanized aspects of industry, a blatant taunt of banality in the midst of high gloss unrealness.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conceptual mundanity of the Italian urban artists Rub Kandy and Biancoshock, who here demonstrate how to create electricity with a generator in an abandoned industrial space. It’s a marvelously underwhelming demonstration of the means of production. To “jazz” things up they throw in intermittent blasts of pop-star banality as well, sprinkled with blinky graphics.

…Turn up the lights in here baby
Extra bright, I want y’all to see this
Turn up the lights in here, baby
You know what I need
Want you to see everything

Not Rented To Humans: Grip Face

First, they look like run down sheds, these new wooden structures in high weeds – possibly stopped mid-construction, perhaps during the last economic downturn. Here the missed opportunity of housing, suddenly coupled with the found opportunity of art exhibition!

“There’s something both bizarre and magical in abandoned places,” writes Grip Face in the description of this video. “The course of time invades them, colonizes them, makes it into its own. The invisible imprints impregnate the walls and the experiential trace of past inhabitants slips through the cracks like winter would through a badly insulated window.”

Elrow’art: Kaos Garden with Okuda San Miguel and Paco Osuna

A warmup video for multi-disciplinary artist Okuda San Miguel and dj/producer Paco Osuna and their creative intermingling of avant-garde aesthetics with electronic music to create their vision of ‘The Garden of Delights’. The premiere of the artistic partnership of Ink and Movement and elrow will be on September 28 at Amnesia Ibiza. Here’s a taste of things to come! 

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Biancoshock Regrets Nothing

Biancoshock Regrets Nothing

“Regrets, I’ve had a few
But then again, too few to mention”

~ Frank Sinatra

“Nazi punks, fuck off!”

~Dead Kennedys


Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)

Italian word-player and sociologist Biancoshock examines again the famed throw up and the innerworkings of his brain to bring us this charming call-and-response graffiti tag.

See the video below for the full performance.

Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)

Bianchoshock. “Regrets” Cremona, Italy. 2018. (still from the video courtesy of Biancoshock)

 


“REGRETS”
Cremona (IT), 2018

2,20 x 0,55 mt – plastic wrap, spray cans

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“Magic City” in Dresden : Exhibition of Street Artists and City as Muse

“Magic City” in Dresden : Exhibition of Street Artists and City as Muse

An unusual amalgam of the interactivity of the street combined with the formality of a gallery environment, Magic City opened this fall in a converted factory in Dresden, Germany with an eclectic selection of 40+ artists spanning the current and past practices of art in the street.

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Skewville. Children enjoying Skewville’s “tete-a-tete” shopping cart. Ernest Zacharevic’s mobile in the background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With revered culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick at the helm alongside curator Ethel Seno, the richly marbled show runs a gamut from 70’s subway train writers and photographers like Americans Daze, Henry Chalfant, and Martha Cooper to the Egyptian activist Ganzeer, Italian interventionist Biancoshock, popagandist Ron English, and the eye-tricking anamorphic artist from the Netherlands, Leon Keer.

Veering from the hedonistic to the satiric to head-scratching illusions, the collection allows you to go as deep into your education about this multifaceted practice of intervening public space as you like, including just staying on the surface.

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Ernest Zacharevic mobile with a “listening station” on the left. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s not an easy balance to strike – some of these artists have heavy hearts and withering critiques of human behaviors and institutional hypocrisies ranging from 1st World treatment of refugees to celebrity culture to encroaching surveillance on individual rights, government oppression, and urban blight.

Magic City doesn’t try to shield you from the difficult topics, but the exhibition also contains enough mystery, fanboy cheer, eye candy and child-like delight that the kids still have plenty of fun discoveries to take selfies with. We also saw a few kissing couples, so apparently there is room for some romance as well.

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 A visitor to Magic City enjoys a “listening station”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We believe that even the typical city is uncommon, and that the idiosyncrasies that make each city unique are collectively something they all have in common,” says McCormick in his text describing the exhibition. “This is then a celebration of the universal character of cities as well as a love letter to their infinite diversity. The special magic that comes from our cities is germinated in the mad sum of their improbable juxtapositions and impossible contradictions.”

Of particular note is the sound design throughout the exhibition by Sebastian Purfürst and Hendrick Neumerkel of LEM Studios that frequently evokes an experiential atmosphere of incidental city sounds like sirens, rumbling trains, snatches of conversations and musical interludes. Played at varying volumes, locations, and textures throughout the exhibition, the evocative city soundscape all adds to a feeling of unexpected possibilities and an increased probability for new discovery.

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Olek’s carousel from above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obviously this Magic City cannot be all things to all people, and some will criticize the crisp presentation of a notably gritty series of subcultures, or perhaps the omission of one genre or technique or important artist. It’s not meant to be encyclopedic, rather a series of insights into a grassroots art and activism practice that continues to evolve in cities before our eyes.

For full disclosure, we curated the accompanying BSA Film Program for Magic City by 12 artists and collectives which runs at one end of the vast hall – and Mr. Rojo is on the artist roster with 15 photographs of his throughout the exhibition, so our view of this show is somewhat skewed.

Here we share photographs from the exhibition taken recently inside the exhibition for you to have a look for yourself.

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Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A MadC installation made with thousands of spray can caps. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Belgian urban naturalist ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville . ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Martha Cooper at the gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Henry Chalfant at the gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bordalo II (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Andy K. detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Isaac Cordal. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anders Gjennestad AKA Strok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot with Asbestos on the left. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Replete (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Truly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Leon Keer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jaime Rojo. A young visitor enjoying the Kids Trail through a peephole with Jaime’s photos inside an “electrical box”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jaime Rojo. The Kids Trail wasn’t only for kids it seems. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tristan Eaton on the right. Olek on the left. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Aiko at the Red Light District. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Yok & Sheryo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Herakut. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Herakut (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Full list of participating artists:

Aiko, AKRylonumérik, Andy K, Asbestos, Benus, Jens Besser, Biancoshock, Mark Bode, Bordalo II, Ori Carino & Benjamin Armas, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Isaac Cordal, Daze, Brad Downey, Tristan Eaton, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Fino’91, Ganzeer, Anders Gjennestad, Ben Heine, Herakut, Icy & Sot, Leon Keer, Loomit, MadC, OakOak, Odeith, Olek, Qi Xinghua, Replete, Roa, Jaime Rojo, Skewville, SpY, Truly, Juandres Vera, WENU, Dan Witz, Yok & Sheryo, Ernest Zacharevic.

 

Visit MAGIC CITY DRESDEN for more details, news, videos and the blog.

 


This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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“Magic City” Premieres in Dresden : Seno and McCormick as Alchemists

“Magic City” Premieres in Dresden : Seno and McCormick as Alchemists

40 Artists Up Along Main Street, 12 More in the BSA Film Program

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Curators Ethel Seno and Carlo McCormick in front of a new mural by German duo Herakut announcing the premiere of Magic City in Dresden. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)


 

“Nature is a petrified magic city.” – Novalis

Curator Carlo McCormick quotes Novalis by way of describing this new exhibit of an eclectic blend of terrific troublemakers, pop-culture hijackers, and show-stopping crowd pleasers drawn from cities all around the Street Art/ graffiti /urban art scene today – and forty years ago. This is a welcoming walk of unexpected intersections that only McCormick and co-curator Ethel Seno could imagine – and pull together as a panoply of street wizardry that acknowledges activism, artistry, anarchy, and aesthetics with a sincere respect for all. It will be interesting to see how this show is viewed by people who follow the chaotic street scene today in the context of its evolution and how they read the street signs in this city.

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Curator Ethel Seno with Managing Director Dieter Semmelmann and exhibition Designer Tobias Kunz cutting the ribbon at the premiere of Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

McCormick, in his customary self-effacing humor, expects there to be some shit flying – as anyone who is involved in this scene expects from the hard-scrabble rebellious margins and subcultures that this art-making interventionist practice rises from. There also are a growing and coalescing mini-legion of scholars and academics who are currently grappling with the nature and characteristics of this self-directed art-making practice rooted often in discontent – now organized inside an exhibition that is ticketed and sold as a family friendly show.

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Street Artist and pop mashup painter Tristan Eaton in front of his new mural wall at the premiere of Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

In his descriptions of the public sphere, the writer, historian, author, and cultural critic McCormick often refers to graffiti and street artists messing with “contested space”. It’s an apt description whether we are talking about the public space in high-density gleaming metropolises or the bombed-out grid-less and polluted quagmires of human fallibility and urban un-planning that dot our globe; all public space its nature is contested.

Here is a place used by many artists to protest, agitate, advocate, or deliver critique – and many of the artists in this exhibition have done exactly this in their street practice, often pushing limits and defining new ones. Dig a little into many of the individual story lines at play here and you’ll see that the vibrant roots of social revolution are pushing up from the streets through the clouds of propaganda and advertising, often mocking them and revealing them in the process.

Ultimately, this Magic City experience is an elixir for contemplating the lifelong romance we have with our cities and with these artists who cavort with us within them. “Our Magic City is a place and a non-place,” McCormick says in a position statement on the exhibit. “It is not the physical city of brick and mortar but rather the urban space of internalized meanings. It is the city as subject and canvas, neither theme park nor stage set, but an exhibition showcasing some of the most original and celebrated artists working on and in the city today.”

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Mixed media Street Artist Asbestos from Dublin, graffiti master/ painter Chris “Daze” Ellis from NYC, and Tristan Eaton from Los Angeles at the premiere of Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Curator Carlo McCormick with New York billboard/culture jammer and artist Ron English in front of his new wall mural at premiere of Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Dutch anamorphic art master Leon Keer with Polish crochet transformer/Street Artist Olek at the premiere of Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

BSA curated the film program for Magic City with a dynamic array of some of the best Street Art related films today presented together in a relaxed environment. In this video hosted by Andreas Schanzenbach you get a taste of the works that are showing that we draw from our weekly surveys on BSA Film Friday. Over the last few years we have had the honor of presenting live in-person to students and scholars and fans an ever-evolving collection of videos that speak to the spirit experimentation, discovery and culture-jamming outrageousness of urban interventions, graffiti and Street Art.  The BSA Film Program at Magic City presents a survey of some of the very best that we have seen recently.

Magic City artists include:
Akrylonumerik, Andy K, Asbestos, Ben Heine, Benuz, Biancoshock, Bordalo II, Brad, Downey, Dan Witz, Daze, Ernest Zacharevic, Ganzeer, Henry Chalfant, HERAKUT, Icy & Sot, Isaac Cordal, Jaime Rojo, Jens Besser, Juandres Vera, Lady Aiko, Leon Keer, Loomit, MAD C, Mark Bode, Martha Cooper, Oakoak, Odeith, Olek, Ori Carin / Benjamin Armas, Qi Xinghua, Replete, ROA, Ron English, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, SpY, Tristan Eaton, Truly, WENU Crew, Yok & Sheryo

The BSA Film Program for Magic City includes the following artists:
Borondo, Brad Downey & Akay, Ella + Pitr, Faile, Farewell, Maxwell Rushton, Narcelio Grud, Plotbot Ken, Sofles, Vegan Flava, Vermibus

Some behind the scenes shots days before the Premiere

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Popagandist Ron English preparing his Temper Tot at Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Popagandist Ron English preparing his Temper Tot at Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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DAZE reviewing his work at Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Urban naturalist ROA at Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Sheryo strikes a pose while the guys build the installation she did with The Yok at Magic City in Dresden, Germany. (photo © Rainer Christian Kurzeder)

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Biancoshock Switches Colors of Graff Pieces: Conceptual Project on Others Work

Biancoshock Switches Colors of Graff Pieces: Conceptual Project on Others Work

In his latest theoretical and conceptual performance project with the graffiti tags of others, Biancoshock (formerly Fra. Biancoshock) switches the color palettes of two pieces that are located near one another to “demonstrate that interchanging the colors doesn’t change the result.

Over the last two years the artist has done 3 of these “actions”, as he refers to them. “I’ve interchanged the colors of the graffiti without modifying the outline of the pieces,” he says, explaining that he took special pains to research and find “the exact color tone in order to substitute the color of each piece.”

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Joke and Kream original work. Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

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Biancoshock “Commutative” intervention on the original pieces. (photo © Biancoshock)

In Biancoshock’s view the resulting pieces are the equivalent of a provocation to the original writers. “The act is minimal but very strong because in the graffiti world this could be perceived as an act of blasphemy; almost like writing “TOY” on someone else’s graffiti. Possibly it’s even worse because is like a sacrilege to alter a graffiti done by another.”

But he says that evoking the ire of various writers by making these color switches without permission is not the aim of the project. “I’ve done this to demonstrate that even if the order of the colors is changed, the result doesn’t change. Biancoshock sites his own interpretation of the commutative property in arithmetic.

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Biancoshock at work on Joke and Kream works. (photo © Biancoshock)

And truthfully, we could agree with him until he made that statement, then the argument falls apart for us. “Graffiti are graffiti- they have a presence in the urban context, they have a story, a message, are signs of a passage – all independently of their more technical aspects, such as coloring or style,” he says,

“I believe that if I showed to the author of these graffiti pieces after many years these ‘modified’ pieces, they probably would not remember the color, but they certainly remember to have done that piece, because graffiti are for writers a little piece of their life, of personal history.”

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Spid and Fish original work. Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

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Biancoshock “Commutative” intervention on the original pieces. (photo © Biancoshock)

It is an interesting project and it would be interesting to hear what the original author of these changed works would think.

But with all due respect, to say that the results are the same is to be color blind and insensitive to the characteristics which cultures and traditions have historically assigned to colors. Red may infer urgent danger to one person, but good luck to another. White calls to mind a funeral in some cultures, a wedding in others. For years baby showers featured a predominance of pink items for a new girl and blue clothes and toys for boys.

Also, need we mention that many artists have favorite colors or palettes, and it is doubtful that colors here are completely arbitrary and lacking in meaning to their original creators. He mentions piece are a little piece of the writers life and personal history, which is precisely the reason why colors will be important to them ultimately.

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Biancoshock at work on Spid and Fish works. (photo © Biancoshock)

In math a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result, but in this case the result has changed as well. We are not sure we can agree with the artist that the outcome is the same using different colors.

But congratulations to Biancoshock for this visually and intellectually stimulating project and our sincere thanks for sharing these exclusive images with BSA readers. Biancoshock also asked if we would post his statement as follows: “I apologize to Fish, Spid, Kream, Joke, Draco and Pant for this action, I hope they understand my purpose.”

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Draco and Pant original work. Italy. (photo © Biancoshock)

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Biancoshock “Commutative” intervention on the original pieces. (photo © Biancoshock)

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Biancoshock at work on Draco and Pant works. (photo © Biancoshock)

 

 

 

 

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