All posts tagged: SpY

WOOL Urban Art Festival 2024: Celebrating a Decade of Street Art in Covilhã

July 11, 2024 Artists

The WOOL Urban Art Festival, held annually in Covilhã, Portugal, is a renowned celebration of street art that has been transforming the city walls since its inception in 2011. This festival, sponsored and organized by a dedicated team committed to promoting social, cultural, and economic transformation through public art, has become a pivotal event in the urban art calendar. Covilhã, a city with a rich history in the wool industry, provides a unique backdrop – with its steep cobblestone streets and historic architecture, offering a perfect canvas for murals and installations.

SpY. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The 2024 edition of the WOOL Urban Art Festival features an impressive lineup of artists from around the globe. This year’s participants include Daniela Guerreiro from Portugal, Isaac Cordal from Spain, Millo from Italy, Mots from Poland, Mura from Brazil, and Spy from Spain. Each artist brings a distinctive style to the festival, from Cordal’s thought-provoking miniature sculptures to Millo’s large-scale monochromatic murals of giants in the city. The festival continues to embrace a philosophy of community engagement and urban regeneration, aiming to democratize art and involve the local population in the creative process.

Daniela Guerreiro. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

A highlight of this year’s festival was the presence of renowned photographer Martha Cooper – her photographs here offer an intimate glimpse into the artistic process and the vibrant cultural exchange that defines WOOL.

In addition to creating new murals, the festival also featured “Wool Talks,” a series of discussions that delved into the impact of urban art on society and its potential for fostering cultural cohesion and sustainability. Attendees took guided tours of the murals, which include visits to iconic sites such as the Burel wool factory, linking the city’s industrial heritage with its contemporary artistic endeavors.

WOOL WEBSITE

Mots. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Millo. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mura. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Isaac Cordal. Wool 2024. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Cinta Vidal. Wool 2022 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Frederico Draw. Wool 2018 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mário Belém. Wool 2019 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The Caver. Wool 2021 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Douglas Pereira. Wool 2019 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Pantonio. Wool 2015 Editon. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

mmé. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Burel Wool Factory. Covilha, Portugal. June, 2024. (photo © Martha Cooper)

SpY Electrifies Audience in Barcelona With “Monolith”

March 1, 2023 Artists

Street artist and public artist SpY took his opportunity to rock the crowd in February at the 12^th annual Llum BCN Festival this year with his interpretation of Stanley Kubrick’s classic film “2001”.

Filling a vertical industrial space with his signature red projections was amplified by his electrified sense of kinetic structuralism that has activated atoms across massive expanses outside using lasers in past projects. Here he augments with sound to give the effect of a “magical mirror,” he says, an homage to our integration of screens into daily life and the topic of our increased digitization.

sPy. *“MONOLITH”*. Llum BCN Festival 2023. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

The festival is organized by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB) and gives a platform to around 15 professionals in the digital and lighting arts every year to let them showcase new ideas. SpY tells us that he names his tall thin rectangular performance “Monolith.” Soaring high like an icy hardened cathedral, the space still can evoke claustrophobia, a sensation of being trapped between machined slabs or menacing rows of computational clouds.

The artist says he wants us to consider how much our personal information is now harvested, monetized, and manipulated as other’s property. Carrying his imagination to the extremes that a movie like “2001” first suggested, he poses questions to trigger our attention. “Are we already in a time when humans become data? How will we confront the integration of bodies and devices? Is this the last generation of humans who are not digitally transformed?”

Llum BCN, Festival de artes lumínicas 2023

Artistic direction: Maria Güell

Curatorship: Oriol Pastor

Soundtrack: Omar TenanI

SpY Rounds the Pyramids: An ORB to Show “Forever is Now”

November 26, 2022 Artists

A curation of sculptures in the environs of the great Egyptian pyramids is an audacious idea and one full of potential. With Egypt’s origins in the history of graffiti, it is also sublime to see some of today’s most talented international street artists who have made meaningful contributions to the scene, like El Seed and SpY, participating in this project by director Nadine Abdel Ghaffar.

SpY. “Orb”. “Forever Is Now II” exhibition at Giza Pyramids. Cairo, Egypt. November 2022. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

Founder of Art D’Égypte, Ghaffer is an Egyptian curator, art consultant, and cultural ambassador – who speaks about the project as an ode to the transcendental power of art, with a focus on the convergences possible between historical and contemporary.

“Art becomes a collective responsibility, a conversation across time that enables each artist to contribute his/her own story to history,” Ghaffer recently told Scale Magazine. The second exhibition in a series, she calls the new show “Forever is Now II”.

Today we focus on the contribution of the Spaniard SpY, who continues to expand his visual and sculptural vocabulary with striking displays of geometric splendor that interact geographically and mathematically. SpY tells us that “‘Orb’ draws its inspiration from ancient Egyptian culture, using forms and materials that reference elements of mathematics and the notions of creation and rebirth.”

A multi-faced sphere of reflective geometries that simultaneously give individual interpretations of the sky, Pyramids, and the surroundings. It is a visual concert that pays respect to past accomplishments and instantly captures the streaming feeling of our digital world today. SpY says it is also inextricably linked to the lifetime of our sun, “conveying notions of creation and rebirth.”

SpY. “Orb”. “Forever Is Now II” exhibition at Giza Pyramids. Cairo, Egypt. November 2022. (photo © Ahmed Emad)

Location: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
Exhibition: ‘Forever Is Now II’ by Culturvator/ Art D’Égypte
Director: Nadine Abdel Ghaffar
Organizations: Culturvator/ Art D’Égypte, UNESCO, Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

BSA Film Friday: 11.25.22

November 25, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening:
1. Luna Luna – The Art Amusement Park Returns
2. Gera 1 Combines Glitch and Figurative in Berlin
3. “Forever Is Now” Second Edition at Giza Pyramids via Art D’Egypte

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BSA Special Feature: Luna Luna – The Art Amusement Park Returns

35 years after its first creation, the Luna Luna is resurrected from its original home in Hamburg in 1987 to tour other cities. Inspired by a traditional luna park,the original works like a Keith Haring Carousel, the Basquiat Ferris Wheel, and many other features designed by about 28 more artists like Kenny Scharf, Roy Lichtenstein, and David Hockney, they called this “The world’s first and only art amusement park.”

Luna Luna – The Art Amusement Park Returns

https://lunaluna.com/

Gera 1 Combines Glitch and Figurative in Berlin

“As long as I can remember, I was always interested in distortion,” says Gera1 about this new mural in Berlin, which he says combines elements of figurative painting with glitch art. He doesn’t mention his sublime sense of color.

“Forever Is Now” Second Edition at Giza Pyramids via Art D’Egypte

Forever is Now .02 showcased ambitious works by Therèse Antoine (Egypt), Natalie Clark (USA/Spain), Mohammed Al Faraj (Saudi Arabia), Emilio Ferro (Italy), Zeinab Al Hashemi (UAE), JR (France), Ahmed Karaly (Egypt), Liter of Light, eL Seed (Tunisian), SpY (Spanish), Pascale Tayou (Cameroon) and Jwan Yosef (Syria/Sweden).

SpY Part II: The Artist Creates A Field of Rustling “Barrier Tape” in Amsterdam

October 5, 2022 Artists

Deconstruct. Decontextualize. Words that artists like to use when describing the techniques and intellectual positioning of their works.

Here we find SpY doing a lot of both.

SpY. *“Barrier Tape”*. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 2022. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

First, he pulls the humble barrier tape away from its original context – which is to provide a visual warning to stay away from a potentially dangerous place. Then he deconstructs the actual roll of tape, turning it from long continuous spans of red and white into a sort of fringe field hanging from cables just above your head.

With the addition of waterfront breezes and your gentle dances beneath, this installation of “Barrier Tape” in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is a fully interactive kinetic and sound sculpture. The 1,600-meter installation is drawing a lot of attention to this location because it is bright and makes a rustling sound reminding you perhaps of leaves. It also brandishes a sense of emergency or danger, but you’re not sure why.

“Inside the piece, the repeated element takes the viewer into a transitory state of disorientation,” says the artist Spy.

“The pieces of tape swing in unison with the wind, creating a wave-like motion throughout the composition and generating an intense, random soundscape.”

SpY would like to thank “r1” for his inspiration and support.

SpY, Part I : “Eclypses” at LINK Fest in Oviedo, Spain

October 4, 2022 Artists

Site-specific installations are sometimes very impactful, especially when they transform space. Street artist and public artist SpY capitalizes on the slow choreography of twenty large discs rising and falling in concert here at the Weapons Factor in La Vega in Oviedo, Spain.

SpY: *Eclypses*. LINK Fest 2022. Oviedo, Spain. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

For SpY, every space can be a workshop and laboratory. Seeing this kinetic interplay of the simplest of shapes, their edges catching the crimson light keeps changing and reinventing, a bionic conveyance. Add the soundscape, and it changes again as it meets light patterns while creating new ones.

“Visitors can navigate around and across a living artwork, actively engaging in a unique, multidimensional experience of hypnotic and immersive qualities, marked by the scale of the piece within the imposing space of the warehouse,” says SpY.

LINK Fest
Circuito de Experiencias Culturales Insólitas

Video: Mind the Film, Ruben P Bescos
Music: Kotmatsu
Production: Datatron
Technical Production : Jorge Cañon
Programming: Natxe
DMX Winches: Wahlberg Motion Design

BSA Film Friday: 03.25.22

March 25, 2022 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening:
1. SpY Reflection
2. One Minute of Dance Per Day March 20, 2022: Danse 2623 – Nadia Vadori-Gauthier
3. The Moon Lady. Michelle Obama Mural in Chicago by Royyal Dog

BSA Special Feature: SpY ‘Reflection’

“In ‘REFLECTION’, SpY makes use of such common elements of street furniture as convex traffic mirrors that are used in surveillance and security, to present this hypnotic kinetic sculpture in movement.

Made up of 20 convex traffic mirrors, this kinetic sculpture generates a replicated universe that evolves with the different variations of movement and position of the spectators through reflection.
SpY explores the spectators’ relationship with their own reflection and environment, multiplying and expanding their privacy and intimacy among them all.

SpY “Reflection”

Nadia Vadori-Gauthier: Une minute de danse par jour. Bois de Vincennes. It’s the spring equinox. The first day of the astral year, a day of celebration of Mother Earth and her flowerings. Dancing with Lucas.

One Minute of Dance Per Day March 20, 2022: Danse 2623 – Nadia Vadori-Gauthier

The Moon Lady. Michelle Obama Mural in Chicago by Royyal Dog

This is a picture of former First Lady Michelle Obama wearing a hanbok” says artist Royyal Dog of his mural in Chicago.

SpY: AI and “Data” For Light Show at LUZMADRID

November 22, 2021 Artists

Every time you hear “artificial intelligence” you think of Becky Thompson from you 9^th–grade Earth Science class. Admit it.

But this is an entirely different interpretation of artificial intelligence from SpY.

SpY. *“Data”*. LuzMadrid. International Festival of Light 2021. Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

Madrid public artist appears to be on a winning streak this fall, thanks perhaps to so many detailed plans he laid during lockdown with COVID. This night light show called “DATA”, which he did for the International Festival of Light called LUZMADRID this fall maximizes a slim slice of the urban nighttime view, and he intends it to be an immersive audio-visual experience.

We’re excited to hear about Spain’s first light festival – and we have a little friendly advice: Don’t let the advertisers take it over the curatorial decisions because before you know it they’ll be project toothpaste tubes up this alley. No one will listen to us, but we feel better saying it.

DATA, says SpY, “offers a reflection on the rapid and widespread inclusion of algorithms in numerous aspects of our lives. In this audio-visual work, digital abstraction is used to explore and interpret how predictive tools operated through algorithms and artificial intelligence are highly beneficial in terms of aspects such as communication, research, and medicine, but can also lead us to lose some of our freedoms if they are not used ethically.”

Which was precisely what you would have guessed, right?

SpY tells us that he wanted to explore new tools like holographic fabrics to alter the graphics, saying that they somehow appeared “weightless”. He created a 15-meter high screen made from this fabric and installed it in one of the smaller streets, embuing the experience with something magic, and possibly otherworldly for the audience on the street.

SpY: “Earth / Tierra” at Plaza de Colón in Madrid

November 16, 2021 Artists

SpY describes his new public art project “Earth,” as “a luminous red sphere caged inside a structure.” You may wonder what this structure made from building-site scaffolding represents, especially when he says “the sphere is caged within it”. Gaseous fumes? Global Oligarchs? Free-trade agreements? K-Pop fans? We asked him:

BSA: Is the earth the color red because it is on fire, in pain, in a state of emergency, or perhaps in love?

SpY: The red earth in a cage has different meanings.

Having the earth in red is an obvious statement about our behavior as human beings in relation to our home where everything is connected as if were a living creature.

The cage represents the way we are caging ourselves in with fewer possibilities of survival because of human activity.

All of this it’s not about a virus or an economic war, what we want to highlight is the plight of the next generations. Will they have the educational tools, and will they be conscientious enough to grasp the importance of taking small, individual steps to feel a shared responsibility to improve the conditions of the planet?

SpY. *“Earth / Tierra”.* Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ruben P. Bescos)

This sphere in a cube is radiating outward in Plaza de Colón in Madrid is of a grand scale, and rather overpowers the people who walk through, day and night.

At 25 meters high, this glowing red orb is meant to draw our attention to the matters of our home planet, not the other red one you may be familiar with.

According to his press release, “SpY asks us to reflect on the way in which our home makes up a whole of which we form part, and in which everything is connected as if it were a living creature.”

Curated by Anna Dimitrova of Nobuloart.

SpY Lights Up Madrid with Green Lasers

September 30, 2021 Artists

Spanish street artist SpY has been stretching the limits, blurring the lines, if you will, between street art, installation art, and creating “situations” in cities for the last decade. In this new shot across the sky in Madrid, he is decidedly not blurry, but laser-focused.

SpY. *“Lighthouse”*. Faro de Monocloa. Madrid, Spain. (photo Ruben P. Bescos)

As dusk fell last week citizens saw his newest beams of light bursting from the iconic “Mirador de Moncloa”, causing some on social media to evoke Star Wars comparisons. Perhaps it was the green beams that recollect the early personal computers of all green text on black backgrounds, but to see them streaming steadily, connecting north and south across 10 kilometers, it redefined space and residents’ perceptions of it perhaps.

“The resulting light show is fascinating in its simplicity,” says the artist, “the 8 beams of green light crossing the dark sky, creating a poetic and surprising new visual landscape.”

SpY Pierces Space: Creates “Barriers” in Ostende, Belgium

January 9, 2021 Artists

Madrid, where street artist SpY is from, is currently covered in its most prodigious snowstorm in years – a feat of nature that takes hold of and transforms our very environment in all dimensions.

When in Oostende, Belgium recently the conceptually minded artist took some of these dimensions in hand as well, blasting 5 high-powered lasers into the sky to transform open air and to create new visual experiences for anyone lucky enough to witness it from great distances and up-close perspectives as well.

SpY. *“Barriers”.* The Crystal Ship By Night Light Festival / All About Things. Ostende, Belgium. (photo © RubenP Bescos)

We are riveted by the idea: That this projected light form is repurposed from its industrial and war applications to be presented for the public simply as an aesthetic entity – with its own deliberate transcendence; claiming space, altering it, commanding it, re-defining sightlines delineating new borders with righteously crimson beams of electromagnetic radiation powered light.

When one considers modern light masters like Dan Flavin, Mary Corse, James Turrell or Olafur Eliasson, you understand instinctively that it is only through accident or alert experimentation that such powerful effects such as these that we can be afforded the opportunity for discovery, and only inquisitive minds like SpY’s would push this idea so far that it becomes a revelation.

BSA Film Friday 01.07.21

January 8, 2021 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening :
1. Medicos Del Mundo #Esperanza #AlwaysHope
2. SOFLES / The Minibus (feat. Treas)
3. SpY / Luna

BSA Special Feature: Medicos Del Mundo #Esperanza #AlwaysHope

Today we present an inspiring video that reaches all the corners of the world – which is where Doctors of the World goes. The organization looks past the geographic and political barriers to care for all of us. Here film directors, directors, and artists – across five continents – participate in telling lived stories of people on the front line.

Learn more about MedicosDelMundo here.

SOFLES / The Minibus (feat. Treas)

New graffiti porn from Brisbane this week as Sofles and Treas take camping to a new dimension in aerosol madness. The team of Grug & Bustaflux keep the audio details and effects tight with camerawork that trips and makes the heart skip by After Midnight Film.

SpY / Luna

Can you trust your eyes? Is that the moon?

SpY draws an indirect connection to the moon and the television depictions of 1969 showing a team of astronauts landing on it. The Madrid installation artist uses the simplest of gestures to make clarion statements. Installed on one of the construction cranes of the fifth tower of the Caleido complex in the north of Madrid, SpY hangs the moon in the sky with an inflatable nylon structure illuminated with high intensity LED system.

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Breathing Life into Architecture: Fabio Petani’s Vibrant Mural for the Italian Red Cross in Force
July 16, 2024
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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.14.24
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WOOL Urban Art Festival 2024: Celebrating a Decade of Street Art in Covilhã
July 11, 2024
The WOOL Urban Art Festival, held annually in Covilhã, Portugal, is a renowned celebration of street art that has been …Read More »