All posts tagged: Frankfurt

Dan Witz Creates Disturbing Street Art to Fight Political Imprisonment

Street Art Campaign With Amnesty International

“In many countries people are imprisoned simply because of their political views,” begins the video just released by Dan Witz and Amnesty international.

Screenshot from “Wailing Walls”, a video about the Dan Witz “Prisoners” campaign that raises awareness and engages passersby to immediately take action for human rights. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

So dangerous are those views that their outspoken owners are persecuted and hidden from us in an attempt to silence the ideas and opinions that may threaten a prevailing status quo. With his “Prisoners” series of installations on the streets of London, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Los Angeles, Witz is bringing much needed attention to those who are hidden against their will just behind walls, doors, and windows.

Image from London campaign, “Eric” by Street Artist Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

For Witz, using actual names and case histories brings the conceptual to painfully full light, and his well-known artistic command of light in these photo-realistic works gives these individuals an opportunity to step out from the shadows. In conjunction with an innovative street campaign entitled “Wailing Walls”, the street art pieces become interactive with QR codes and a phone app that allows passersby to learn instantly about the people depicted and to send their opinions to government officials while standing right there on the sidewalk with traffic driving past them.

Scanning the QR code (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Learning and immediately writing to the “Wailing Wall”. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

During his presentation this weekend at the Amnesty International conference in Washington DC, Witz detailed his Frankfurt project in front of an audience of hundreds, giving a riveting first person account of how art on the streets has the power to impact social and political change.

Along with the video explaining the street and digital campaign that he created in collaboration with the Leo Burnett Agency in Frankfurt, the Brooklyn-based fine artist and street artist shares here his personal slides of the project, which he showed at the conference.  Of special note is the soundtrack to the new slide show which is composed by Witz at the piano and recorded on his phone; a tonal reflective transmutation of the myriad emotions that the images evoke.

Premiere: Slideshow of Dan Witz’s “Prisoner” Series of Street Art Installations

Shown at Amnesty International’s Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC, March, 2013

Among the many ways to measure success as a Street Artist; “Wailing Wall” garnered great traditional, web, and social media attention for the campaign in Frankfurt, raising awareness and advocating action on the behalf of those imprisoned. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Premiere : “Wailing Walls” campaign by Dan Witz for Amnesty International

Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer

Our sincere thanks to Dan Witz for sharing his work and this very important project with BSA readers. A special BSA shout out to Christoph Wick, Tiffaney McCannon, Monika Wittkowsky, and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer for their talents and tireless work on this project also.

 

 

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Dan Witz Goes to London. Keep Your Eyes Open.

Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz is prepping for his part in a new group show titled “Bedlam” in the deep recesses of London with Lazarides Gallery. “We’re doing this huge thing in the tunnels below the Old Vic – should be massive,” he tells us with some thrill in his email voice. It’s good to hear Dan happy, because his work can be so dark. Just back from Frankfurt where he worked with Amnesty International to highlight the human rights and justice work that organization does for all of us, these new images on the streets of London are the Street Art component of Witz’s practice that is quietly compelling and unsettling.

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Certainly the aim of these pieces is not to put us at ease, to “Keep Calm and Carry On”. The figures behind the glass are depicted as imprisoned or trapped, and your second glance at them will leave you disconcerted and troubled. Witz goes where many artists won’t or can’t in his explorations of the human condition and man’s inhumanity – reminding us that art can serve more than to just send us home happy and content.  It can also connect us with a truer sense of the world, provide a bit of grounding and remind us of the work that needs to be done. With this work Witz give a voice to those who don’t have words to express their suffering.

Our thanks to Dan for sharing these super fresh images exclusively for BSA readers.

Dan Witz. London 2012. Detail (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012. Detail (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz in Frankfurt for Amnesty International. Frankfurt, Germany 2012. Work in Progress. All artworks by Dan Witz. Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer.

 

Lazarides is mounting “Bedlam” in a maze of tunnels below Old Vic beginning October 09, evoking the historic mental asylum.  “Bedlam over the years has become synonymous with madness, chaos and pandemonium, it seemed like the perfect theme for a world gone mad. Be afraid.”  -Steve Lazarides. Participating Artists include: Vhils, Conor Harrington, Doug Foster, Ian Francis, Kelsey Brookes, Karim Zeriahen, Klaus Weiskopf, Lucy McLauchlan, Artists Anonymous, Michael Najjar, Till Rabus, Jonathan Yeo, DAn Witz and Antony Micallef.

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Fun Friday 04.13.12

 

Uh-Oh, should I be wearing a necklace of garlic today? It might not be too cool to wear it indoors. Oh snap it’s only a movie. Happy Friday the 13th everybody!

1. “Vice & Virtue” Shai Dahan (Stockholm)
2. “It Felt Like a Kiss”, Alexandros Vasmoulakis at Gallery Nosco (London)
3. “The Birds & The Bees” with H. Veng Smith and Gigi Chen (BKLN)
4. Isaac Cordal Solo tonight in Barcelona
5. Hellbent at C.A.V.E. Saturday (LA)
6. Buff Monster at Corey Helford Saturday (LA)
7. Sowat and Lek present: “Mausolee”
8. Arabic Graffiti and Egyptian Street Art in Frankfurt
9. John Crash Matos’ “Study In Watercolors” at the Addict Galerie in Paris
10. ARMO and his world of color, shapes and textures. (VIDEO)
11. Ana Peru Peru Ana “meanwhile, in new york city (VII)” (VIDEO)

“Vice & Virtue” Shai Dahan (Stockholm)

Shai Dahan’s solo show  “Vice & Virtue” opened last night at the Scarlett Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden and is open today to the public.  Are your virtues bigger than your vices?

For further information regarding this show click here.

“It Felt Like a Kiss”, Alexandros Vasmoulakis at Gallery Nosco (London)

An exploration of the seductive kiss and the female power of attraction – sounds like a valiant pursuit, doesn’t it? Alexandros Vasmoulakis’s solo show is open to the general public at Gallery Nosco in London today.

For further information regarding this show click here.

“The Birds & The Bees” with H. Veng Smith and Gigi Chen (BKLN)

A perfect theme for a show right now as the temperatures rise and skirts rise and shirts come off on the grassy knolls in Prospect Park.  “The Birds & The Bees” H. Veng Smith show with Gigi Chen at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery opens today in Brooklyn as Spring time’s gallant breeze calls you hither to Dumbo.

Veng (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Isaac Cordal Solo tonight in Barcelona

Curated by Street Art author Maximiliano Ruiz, this solo show gives platform to Isaac Cordal, a small-scale sculptor who has thus far used the street as the only necessary stage. Mr. Cordal’s little cement characters at RAS Gallery will stop you in your tracks and reconsider your giant self.

Isaac Cordal (photo © Isaac Cordal)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Hellbent at C.A.V.E. Saturday (LA)

New York Street Artist and fine artist Hellbent shares the space at C.A.V.E Gallery in Venice Beach, California this weekend with his offering “A Quilted Life”.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Buff Monster at Corey Helford Saturday (LA)

Buff Monster is back at his most mischievous at the Corey Helford Gallery this time all covered in delicious pink. His solo show “Legend of the Pink” opens tomorrow in Culver City as the monster celebrates 10 years of work on the street.

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

Maya Hayuk solo show “2012 Apocabliss” in Mexico City at Anonymous Gallery. Click here for more details on this show.

Sowat and Lek present: “Mausolee”. An art show and book release in Paris, France. Click here for more details on this show.

From Here to Fame Publishing Presents: Arabic Graffiti and Egyptian Street Art in Frankfurt, Germany. Click here for more details on this show.

John Crash Matos’ “Study In Watercolors” at the Addict Galerie in Paris, France. Click here for more details on this show.

ARMO and his world of color, shapes and textures. (VIDEO)

Armo (photo © Armo)

“meanwhile, in new york city (VII)” (VIDEO)

Peru Ana Ana Peru are Street Artists, jokesters, and film makers in New York. Here is their new mini-movie of unscripted New York scenes, sounds and soliloquies collected together for your amusement and befuddlement.

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From Here To Fame Publishing Present: Arabic Graffiti & Egyptian Street Art in Frankfurt. (Frankfurt, Germany)

From Here to Fame

Arabic Graffiti & Egyptian Street Art in Frankfurt

Graffiti artists from Egypt, Tunisia and Germany will create a street art gallery from 10th of April around the Tutankhamun exhibition hall in Frankfurt. Some of the best known and most active street artists from Egypt will participate, including Aya Tarek, Ammar Abo Bakr and Ganzeer. El Seed, a street artist from Tunisia whose work has influenced graffiti artists around the Arab world, and Andreas von Chrzanowski aka Case from Germany, who recently did murals in Egypt, complete this distinguished line-up.

Friday 13th of April

Opening of the Street Art Gallery

First Friday Egyptian Street Art & Arabic Graffiti
7:00 pm – Midnight

Arabic Graffiti – El Seed & Don Karl present the book and project
8:00 pm – Exhibition Foyer

Street Art of the Egyptian Revolution – Ganzeer & Don Karl
9:00 pm –  Exhibition Foyer
Tutankhamun exhibition hall, Mainzer Landstraße, Güterplatz, 60327 Frankfurt am Main

Since the start of the Arab uprisings the Middle East has seen an unparalleled explosion of graffiti. Many slogans which were later sung by the people on the streets first appeared on walls from Tunisia to Bahrain. Egypt has played a remarkable role in this phenomenon. Even when the army tanks rolled onto Tahrir Square in Cairo, they were immediately adorned with graffiti. Along with people from all walks of life, artists, calligraphers and designers took over the public space. In no time a vital and now globally acclaimed street art scene emerged. Arabic Graffiti is an intercultural project by From Here To Fame that involves artists, activists and academics from various Middle Eastern countries and their diasporas. Started as an art and book project, the recent events in the region have led to an active involvement of many participants in the transforming changes of the region. Events and exhibitions are currently being developed in Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, France and Germany.

The project  Arabic Graffiti & Egyptian Street Art is part of the Festival of Egyptian Culture, the program for the exhibition Tutankhamun – His tomb and treasures in Frankfurt.

 

 

 

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