Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Buff Monster, Case Ma’Claim, Crash, HAKS 180, Invader, Loomit, Madsteez, Space Invader, and Speedy Graphito.
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.”
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 4 Videos from Penique Productions
BSA Special Feature: 4 in a Row from Penique
It’s a simple concept for redefinition of inner dimensions that blows up in your space.
Today we are highlighting 4 videos from Penique Productions, a unique artists collective based in Barcelona/Rio De Janeiro that “conquers” space with monochrome plastic.
Their installations are immersive, transformative, and allow you to have fun inside of them. Our space in Madrid is going to be wrapped by these “Christos of the Indoors” in a few weeks when we host BSA Talks at Urvanity March 1,2, and 3.
More on that exciting program soon, but today we thought we’d share with you the work of Penique!
A corollary to 2015’s “Tracing Morocco” by German street artist Hendrik Beirkirch (aka ECB), a new book travels to meet the rugged inhabitants of Siberia’s countryside in the Russian Federation. The results are starkly genuine, impressively authentic.
Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018
Again indulging us in the deep crevasses of many a weathered façade, Siberia invites you to meet the people whom he has met in his travel and presumably befriended, given their ease as subjects. A part of the Jardin Rouge stable over the past few years, Beirkirch has followed the lead of founder Jean Louis Haguenauer, the Frenchman who moved to Russia in the early 1980s and found his own odyssey outside the city to be formative to his character, leading him to write the introduction to the handsome tome.
Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018
“The work produced is a testimony, a memoir,” says
Haguenauer, “These modern faces that hark back to the past, these women and men
immortalized on canvas, ambassadors of their trades and their regions on walls
around the world, convey another image of the largest region on the planet and
of a sadly little-known country, of which we wish to provide a new vision. It
is the everyday women and men, passionately living their trades, who are the
heroes of this new project.”
Indeed there are few signs of artifice or romanticism in the
sure-footed subjects here, and you are offered a glimpse of their context with
some of these new portraits. Seeing them translated to grand scale as murals
spanning towers is remarkable, and one can only imagine what impact they have
on the people who live in or pass through these neighborhoods. Scattered through a number of cities, there
is a familiar feeling in each of these strangers, perhaps feeling like family
to some.
Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Nina. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018
“Untainted by any attempt at idealization, the faces of those portrayed tell the story of real life,”
says Arne Zyprian in an opening essay. “Paradoxically, these anonymous guises
pictured on a vast scale on the sides of buildings offer a break from the
overall anonymity of the cities and give them a face.”
Interspersed with canvasses and murals are observations that attempt to examine why we find the singular visages so compelling. There is a temptation to look at a new people in cultures different from our own as the exotic “other”, to simplify their existence by what we can observe on the outside, or to project our own inner dynamics on to the faces that we see.
Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Nina. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018
One thing is for certain, Beirkirch has found through technique and experience a way for each of these people to become somehow relatable.
“Hendrik pours all of his love for humanity into his
portraits,” says Jean Louis. “There is never any aggression or bitterness in
these people.” Perhaps that is how most of us would like to be seen as well.
Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Vlasov. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Vera. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Aleksandr Pavlovich. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018Hendrik Beikirch. “SIBERIA” Tatyana. Editons mare & martin. Paris. 2018
A recent article in The New York Times caught our attention this week and it made us think about Street Artist ROA, and his many paintings in the street depicting them.
The article reported that 9 tons of pangolins scales had been seized in Hong Kong, the scales were hidden under slabs of frozen meat on a cargo ship en route to Vietnam. The most frequently trafficked mammal in the world, the Pangolin suffers when it’s killed for its scales – believed to be a cure for cancer or asthma, among other things.
Pangolins, or scaly anteaters, are not as well known to audiences worldwide but we thought we’d give this darling of a mammal a shout out today and in the process bring attention to the plight of our planet.
When are we going to stop destroying ourselves by destroying our natural resources? Everything we do creates an impact.
Back in 2014 we published an article with a photo diary by Belgian artist
ROA. He had traveled for several months from Brazil to The Gambia with stops in
Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Rome. Here is what he had to say about his
experience in The Gambia with the pangolin:
“I’ve painted a pangolin before in The Gambia but being back there and having read so much during the past year about the illegal trafficking of pangolins – to be served as exotic food or mostly as a ‘medicine’, I needed to paint them again.
“Firstly, the so-called medical qualities of the ground-up scales are disputed and “the animals are currently on the list of endangered species because of the trafficking and the loss of habitat by deforestation in Africa,” explains ROA.
He notes that one of their unique attempts to protect themselves is to reconfigure their appearance. “They can roll up into a ball to defend themselves,” he says.
Belgian Street Artist Adele winged it over to New Delhi last week to bring one of her multi-feathered friends to this new wall in the Lodhi Colony.
With her mother as assistant (and photographer) the intensely detailed and passionate aerosolist hardly stopped while a steady parade of people and animals interrupted their daily travels to gander at the huge bird taking form in front of them.
January is the only cold month in Delhi, she tells us, so she felt quite lucky to be able to paint during a period of relative comfort. “I was greeted by stray dogs every morning,” she says.
“And I was fueled by fresh coconut water, chai, and amazing lunch boxes! It was so nice being in the trees with the birds and monkeys, and all school kids and rickshaw drivers stopping by all day long.”
Adele says she was thankful for a rare opportunity to spend quality time together with her mom Veronique and says they plan to continue their trip through India. We’re pleased to share her photos exclusively for BSA readers today.
A resting place of inspiration and elevation, that’s how we look at the final frame of every Images of the Week, which we gather many here together for you to gaze upon.
Possibly photographer Jaime Rojo searches for a counterbalance to the city from within the city, cloaked in clouds, in the stately lines enveloped by the rolling fog. Often his chosen scene is the interval that is free from the crowd, even when surrounded by it.
The course city street can be colorful and chaotic, full of cross currents and barking agenda. Behind his lens he reveals his own quiet way of finding the poetry, and it is often stirring, stately, striking.
Columns and ceilings and blinking orbs, bended branch, exposed beam, shimmering shafts of light. Surrounded by people, here is your chance to be alone in muted patterns, at peace, free to summon refuge and reverie, old ghosts and winds stirring deep and buffeting bright dreams that redden your cheeks.
“Man, what’s with this cough that never goes away?” you ask your boy Tre, who’s laying on the moss green living room rug by the radiator drawing in his black book with an extra fine tip paint pen, listening to Wu Tang. “Could be January,” he offers. “Or maybe its asbestos from that work they’re doing in the elevator shaft.”
Right. “Never mind, lets watch some Beer Bowl!”
Meanwhile on the streets the ideas never stop. We were pretty excited to get up to 167th Street station to see the new mosaics by Brooklyn artist Rico Gatson, who does painting, video, sculpture and installation. These portraits of important contributors to the culture make us all proud. Here are just a handful but there are more and you should go and see them yourself.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Atomik, Captain Eyeliner, Deih XLF, finDAC, Go Vegan, Hoxxoh, Kai, Kevin Ledo, Lefty Out There, Mastrocola, My Dog Sighs, Pez, Rico Gaston, The Revolution Artists, Uninhibited, and What is Adam.
If art that is also vandalism is destructive then Artivism is meant to be something more constructive in the balance – even a polar opposite. For those of us who prefer to see the world holistically, the graffiti / Street Art continuum globally has always held wildly opposing instincts and missions simultaneously, neither specifically negating the other and none to be overlooked.
1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)
The term Artivism has been around about 20 years, some saying it gained currency with artists helping the Zapatistas in Chiapas in the 90s. In the Street Art world, we’ve been witnessing its used by those artists and organizations who would like to distinguish the intent of the artist as something with a social/political goodness at its core.
It’s a generally positive trend, although one has to be as critical of it as any; because our marketing-soaked modern consciousness knows that terms like these can quickly be adopted/adapted to whitewash/greenwash so many initiatives. In practice, artists have espoused politics in their street murals and less-official works for decades before we began branding it artivism.
1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)
The Pangeaseed initiative has been encouraging artists to put their best flipper forward for a few years when organizing painting festivals that center on aquatic themes, and notorious Berlin-based vandals 1UP Crew have actually taken the plunge in a spectacular way here in Nusa Penida, a small island off the gorgeously scenic Bali.
1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)
“It took us a while to figure out what we can do, but we did it,” says a 1UP spokesperson about the cage they designed and built beneath the blue. “The world’s first underwater 3D installation that we hope will serve as an artificial coral reef to help regenerate corals and marine life.” It also is a giant “1Up” tag, although this one is down.
Perhaps all this communing with nature is slowly turning the attitudes of notorious vandals. “Please take care of your environment!,” they say without a trace of irony, “One United Power! One Love!” As usual, we discover that the graffiti/Street Art conversation is not always conveniently black and white.
Sometimes it is green, or aqua.
1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)1UP. SeaWalls Festival / PangeaSeed Org. Nusa Penida, Bali. (photo courtesy of 1UP Crew)
Special thanks to: Pangeaseed Foundation and Seawalls Festival Bali team. Photos by @martincolognoli & @trax51
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. “Shadows Of Illusion” Eduardo Cuadrado 2. One Minute of Dance Per Day, Number 1352: Nadia Vadori-Gauthier 3. The Art Of Street Photography: Just Do It…Listen to the experts. 4. Marseille Street Art Show X IPAF Festival 2018
BSA Special Feature: “Shadows Of Illusion” Eduardo Cuadrado
The problem with fences and razor wire is that if you have enough of them in a society, you may begin to lose track of whether you are free or in prison.
The core inhumanity of certain humanity means that once you have successfully made it to the other side you quickly slam a door behind you, sometimes erecting a fence behind yourself, effectively surrendering.
Conceptual artist Eduardo Cuadrado created this haunted installation outside Saint Paul’s Church in Valladolid, Spain a couple of months ago at the International Art in the Street Festival 2018, and the impact was powerful in a wordless way that few artworks are. The man playing a cello live in front of it adds to the effect tremendously.
One Minute of Dance Per Day, Number 1352: Nadia Vadori-Gauthier
A dollop of creamy cement for your Art Brut cafe au lait this morning, here is your one minute of dance, number 1352.
The Art Of Street Photography: Just Do It…Listen to the experts.
Yeah, it is an ad for an online class, but we still find it inspiring. No surprise, right?
Marseille Street Art Show X IPAF Festival 2018
Packaged as tourism, this Street Art is illegal and commissioned and somehow all rolled into one experience of seeing and shopping and tasting delights. Its the IPAF Festival in collaboration with Marseille Street Art Show and Galerie Saint Laurent at Marseille June 2018.
OKUDA is melting! Even in sub-zero frigid weather like this!
OKUDA. With Artmossphere in collaboration with the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha. Yakutsk, Russia. (photo courtesy of Artmossphere)
As the US Midwest suffers a once in a generation “polar vortex” over the last few days, it may be hard to believe but that level of freezing cold is typical January weather in Yakutsk, Russia, where the average day in this city of 300,000 is −38 degrees celsius (−37 farenheit).
Yakutsk temperature reading during the Okuda sculpture installation (photo copyright Мария Васильева)
Spanish
Street Artist and fine artist Okuda, who deals in powerful displays of
tropicalia geometric color in his murals and sculptures, ventures far afield
here- or should we say far atundra.
Sasha Krolikova, who curated this project with Artmossphere and the Yakut Biennale of Contemporary Art, says this is the world’s northernmost sculpture created by Okuda. The area is being developed into a modern urban space for recreation and sports and cycling area (it will be warmer this summer, promise). She says the installation is with the support of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha and appears on the embankment of Sajsary Lake in Yakutsk.
OKUDA. With Artmossphere in collaboration with the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha. Yakutsk, Russia. (photo courtesy of Artmossphere)
“We had a lot of work to do with the colors,” says Krolikova, “because they don’t look the same as in Spain when they have been exposed to this cold.” A melting skull with a spiked mohawk in technicolor, the capital city of Sakha Republic is going to have this Okuda for a long time – since it is made of steel. Not many people are likely to see it until spring here however, we are guessing.
OKUDA. With Artmossphere in collaboration with the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha. Yakutsk, Russia. (photo courtesy of Artmossphere)
Part of the experience of making art in the street is the interaction with people passing by. Other times it’s about being out with your mates or peers, hitting up walls that are near each other – sharing opinions, jokes, paint. Of course when you are in your own creative zone you also may be able to block out everything; people and sounds and smells. You escape into the paint, the movement, the physicality, the shapes and colors.
This month Musa71 and Siro hit a tunnel together in in Rafael Casanova in Barcelona, each painting their own piece. They say they liked it and today we have pictures from their dual project – which turned into a friendly competition.
Writing graffiti since ’89, Barcelona local Musa71 says she’sa self-taught artist who is passionate about the letterform and exploring a number of styles just to get an appreciation for ways to manipulate them while keeping them legible.
Galicia born Siro studied fine arts over the last four years here in Barcelona and he says that he spends a lot of time painting and tattooing.
“After 10 years of painting, I think I have already turned this habit of painting into my little shelter, into an escape route from all the rest,” he says in a press release. He wouldn’t be the first to admit to developing an addiction to graffiti and mural making – we’ve met many.
It’s good to see how these two artists work have some overlap – at least
here in this tunnel in Barcelona.
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
