With a theme of “Recover the Streets” the Bien Urbain festival is not so much a Street Art festival as an experiment with public space and our interaction with it. It has been interesting to see how the current romance with Street Art is absorbed by a variety of constituencies during the last decade – whether as tools of change, gentrification, commodification, commercialization, education, or simply celebration, artists are being challenged to see their work differently as well. Here in Besancon, France, we find a very inclusive experience where students and citizens and planners are all invited to participate, discuss, and evaluate the impact of the artists work on the built environment. It’s culture as a wholistic practice.
108 from Italy at work. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo) His bio says he spent 15 years working with traditional graffiti abstract shapes and feels that all of which contain organic roots.
108 from Italy. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo)
Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman) With a background in graffiti and lettering, Erosie has been working on a series of paintings and cycles and is a fervent proponet of urban art without blinders.
Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman)
Akay from Sweden. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © David Demougeot)
OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)
OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)
OX has been repurposing billboards and commercial space to bring it back to its more basic elements. With relatively simple changes directed at the viewer, his reconfiguring gives a new sense of context and purpose to these places, now acting as geometry and sculpture instead of simply a vehicle for commercial messages. The result also makes you reconsider the environment it is placed in.
OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Quentin Coussirat)
With our gratitude to David & Johanna for sharing these exclusive images with us.
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