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

Now screening :
1. Confrontation & Form – Jaz and Elian in Montreal

BSA Special Feature: Confrontation & Form – Jaz and Elian in Montreal

A nicely paced, informal series of insights into the creative milieu around and between the two Street Artists Franco Fasoli “Jaz” and Elian Chali, captured with clarity and dexterity by director Pablo Aravena. Only recently on our radar, the video takes place during the corporate and commercial Mural festival in Montreal in 2015.

Jaz speaks about his ongoing studies of history and culture, mythologies and the characteristics of Latin American identity. In his sketches and large murals you are witness to the tensions he finds and reflects in symbolic heroic metaphorical struggles – giving center stage to conflicting impulses and a sense of ever-present struggle. Elian injects his computer generated compositions with his uniquely devised techniques of chance – a curious digital manipulations of the original artwork using specific data sets – giving his own abstractions a fresh and glitchy electricity on a wall.

On a rainy New York Friday in quarantine, it is nice to see the social activity and excitement on the streets in this video. It is also good to see Franco and Elian unguarded, sincere and succinct in their descriptions of their work and their techniques. Professional peers, they are also very good friends and mentors to one another. Aravena captures the dynamics without a forceful hand, letting the story unwind naturally in a warm story.

Shout out to Chancha via Circuito for the music that compliments the scenes.

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