Canemorto and the Master “Txakurra” Rise in Moscow For Artmossphere

August 29, 2018 Artists

BSA is in Moscow as curators of 50+ international artists in the Artmossphere Biennale 2018 for its 3^rd edition called Street Art Wave. Till the end of the month we’ll working with a stellar cross section of people involved with Urban Art/Street Art/Graffiti at curious and fascinating intersections. We’re meeting with Street Artists, academics, collectors, gallerists, museum curators, organizers, and thoughtful pontificators of all sorts in studio, on the street, behind the scenes, and on display. Come with us!

Belgium-based Italian-born three-headed monster Canemorto have been laboring in a tunnel underground to create their installation at Artmossphere this week. The final result will be their analog oracle “Txakurra”, a molten gold god that occurs in their paintings and figures prominently in their full length Street Art road movie Amo-Te Lisboa where this trash-talking deity taunts and harangues them for not being authentically “street” enough, among other failings.

Canemorto at work at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The vision of this glowing golden dog-god at the end of the tunnel perfectly melds the anarchic anti-conventional aesthetic of Canemorto on the street as well as the humorous, almost magical aura that envelopes these artists who have respect for their Italian art history and who are openly mocking of the consumer-culture hypocrisies that shape our present. Ernest and disrespectfully respectful behind their ripped t-shirt and plastic bag masks, Canemorto are nearly everything you need in a post-graffitti world; Graff writers, Street Artists, actors, rappers, and pizza makers.

The interactive piece made of wood, wire, and paper mache follows the “OFFLINE” theme of this years exhibition by returning our communications to an analog form that is all but obsolete today: the written note on a card that is dropped in the mail. Instead of instant communication, guests will write a question, include their return mailing address on the card, and drop it in the mouth of the dog-shaped spirit that represents the key figure of their visual and narrative imagination.

Canemorto at work at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“So then we liked the idea of people sending and receiving postcards” says one of the guys, who are all staying anonymous at this stage of their career. “We were also thinking about the time involved with communication because it is obvious with the Internet now everything is immediate – you want to know something and you have 100 options to choose from.” The three friends who met in art school as teens in the early 2000’s develop ideas and concepts slowly and make their final determination after a lot of debate.

“For us it was also about communications between public and the people,” one of them says,” relating a story about letters that passed between artists and fans, between artists and artists in the past.

Canemorto at work at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Years ago you would have to look somewhere for the artists’ work and then try to find his address and once you found the address you would have to take time to write in the best way that you could. So we were thinking about all of these things together when we were planning for the exhibition and how to communicate with the people. This is also about hope and faith. You write this letter and then you hope to hear back from them.”

Visitors to the exhibition will be assured of a response – effectively an original piece of art from Canemorto – and it sounds like it will be at least partially related to how thoughtful their question is.

“So if you take your time to write a nice interesting question,” one of them says, “Maybe if you really want a good answer you should ask a big question like ‘Who’s the best street artist in the world?’ or ‘Who is one of the flashiest motherfuckers in the game?’ ”