All posts tagged: Amnesty International

Honoring Bravery on International Women’s Day 2021 in Germany and Spain with Amnesty International, Urban Nation

Honoring Bravery on International Women’s Day 2021 in Germany and Spain with Amnesty International, Urban Nation

March 8, 2021

An outspoken opponent of police brutality and impunity and an articulate advocate for those persons made invisible in the increasing feudal city of Rio de Janeiro, Marielle Franco’s shooting brought tens of thousands to the street after her death at 38 in 2018.

Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Over the last few spring-like days in Berlin, her portrait rose slowly about the streets, reminding us that her moral courage continues to have an impact today on International Women’s Day. It’s only been a recognized holiday in this German city for a year, says Urban Nation museum director Jan Sauerwald. Franco’s visage is the first to occupy what has been officially identified as the museums’ ‘Brave Wall.’

Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)

“Realizing this political mural on the theme of women’s rights together with artist Katerina Voronina is a special moment for the URBAN NATION Museum program,” he says, “To present the first ‘Brave Wall’ in Berlin and Germany on this day in cooperation with Amnesty International puts the project in a fitting context.”

Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)

The artist was chosen by a panel made of an equal number of Urban Nation and Amnesty International participants, along with journalist Miriam Davoudvandi. The joint goal on International Women’s Day is clear.

“Women’s rights are human rights and therefore an important part of our human rights work. I am very pleased that the first ‘Brave Wall’ in Germany was designed by a woman, Katerina Voronina, and honors the impressive commitment of human rights defender Marielle Franco,” says Dr. Julia Duchrow, Deputy Secretary-General of Amnesty International in Germany, in a press release.

An illustrationist and motion designer, Katerina Voronina successfully evokes the resolute spirit of fighting for human rights in the portrait of Franco, “With the realization of this ‘Brave Wall’ I had the opportunity to bring a special and courageous woman into focus.” she says.

Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)
Katerina Voronina in collaboration with Urban Nation and Amnesty International “Brave Wall’ project to mark International Women’s Day in Berlin, Germany. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Meanwhile, in Spain, artist and muralist Marina Capdevila identifies an obvious question about saving only one day to pay tribute to women in this new piece.

“Today, we still are fighting and working nearly every day to be listened to, to be taken seriously,” she laments, reflecting on the sly kind of dismissiveness she feels about her art practice sometimes. “I’m tired of receiving 8 million emails with proposals that offer to ‘give visibility to women,’ ” she says.

“If we continue like this, will we also eventually only work one day a year?”

Until such a day, she’s loving life as a painter and savors the sisterhood that brings her support and opportunity. “I am fortunate to have wonderful women in my life who inspire me, help me, and above all, make me laugh.”

Marina Capdevila. “365 Dias Luchando” (photo courtesy of the artist)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 09.03.17 NUART 2017 Special

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.03.17 NUART 2017 Special

September 3, 2017 ,
 

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Welcome to Sunday! This week we have a special edition of BSA Images of the Week; Dedicated to Nuart 2017.

Each year Nuart challenges itself as much as it challenges you, unwilling to fall into the beckoning arms of the ever more bodacious and titilating Street Art Festival siren that increasingly works the thoroughfare in cities globally, looking so enticing in your Saturday night drunken reverie but unable to string together complete sentences over pancakes and coffee in the morning. Not that these stencils, these tiles, these installations and projections will necessarily lead to a more thorough examination and evaluation of neoliberal economics, corporate hegemony, or the caveats of a generation of identity politics, but they might. At the very least the practice of weighing in on these and other topics in a public way, in an ardent or passive voice, means that the conversation can be sparked, possibly brought to its fullness. And you may be encouraged.

John Fekner, stalwart public artist since at least the Reagan Revolution, has finally personally had his say here on the streets and on the subconscious . We asked him to share his wisdom with us, to take the measure of the scene and the new voices and perspectives. Not surprisingly, Mr. Fekner shows why an active engaged mind and spirit is paramount to evolving your art practice, your participation in the public conversation.

“The potent vitality of the artists in this year’s ‘Rise Up’ Exhibition in Stavanger, Norway is striking, in its exploration, selection, and development of the ‘visual voice’ of street art and mural making in 2017. NuArt exists as a ‘community commune of communication’ for artists, writers, musicians and guest speakers with an enthusiastic and participatory audience,” John tells us.

“Personally, I see a little bit of myself mirrored in some of the works- in the process, but not in the unexpected end results. Heralding from various  countries, this younger generation represent new beginnings for outdoor art that combine social concern, expressive beauty and hope, urgency and manifesto, for a new future that includes and engages everyone to experience.”

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring ± Maismenos ±, Ampparito, Bahia Shebab, Carrie Reichardt, Ian Strange, Igor Posonov, John Fekner, Ricky Lee Gordon, Slava Ptrk, and Vermibus.

See our conversation with Vermibus about his work here at Nuart below.

Top image:  Ampparito. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 John Fekner. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 John Fekner. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 John Fekner. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 John Fekner. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Bahia Shehab. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017.(photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Translation of the text:

“How wide is the revolution

How  narrow is the journey

How BIG is the Idea

How small is the state”

Slava Ptrk. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Vermibus. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Vermibus. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Vermibus. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

BSA: Can you tell us about your new piece and what it is about and how you are feeling about the progress?
Vermibus: I brought two original pieces for the festival, both are part of one artwork that is the installation itself, and even if each artwork has its own personality they need from the rest of the room to express what I want to say with the installation.

The tunnels from Nuart Festival are huge and very interesting, so I thought I could use all this space to create an atmosphere instead of trying to fill the whole space with artworks or with a massive piece.

With this installation I want to bring to the viewer to its more hidden part of its personality, there where you don’t usually allow others to go in, where all the fears and traumas survive.

I want the viewer to have some intimacy with it’s inner self through my work.

The way the viewer will see my work is completely different from other occasions.

BSA: Can you give us your impressions of Nuart and Stavanger and the environment you are working in?
Vermibus: It’s the first time that I participate in a festival, so for me everything is new, but I have the strong sensation that this place is special.

The whole team is friendly, incredibly talented, surprisingly humble and completely ready to help the artists to express themselves without limitations, it’s kind of a paradise.

The lineup is so well curated that I cannot be happier to participate around all this amazing artists.

 Vermibus. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Ian Strange. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Ian Strange. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Carrie Reichardt. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

± Maismenos ± Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

± Maismenos ± Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Ricky Lee Gordon. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

Ricky Lee Gordon is painting a mural of Finnish transgender activist Sakris Kupila for the launch of the BRAVE campaign with Amnesty International, raising awareness of human rights defenders and their work all over the world.

 Ricky Lee Gordon. Detail. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Ricky Lee Gordon. Detail. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

 Igor Ponosov. Nuart 2017. Stavanger, Norway. September 2017. (photo © Tor Ståle Moen)

For a complete program of this year’s edition of NUART click HERE

We wish to thank our friend, BSA collaborator, and tireless Nuart volunteer Tor Ståle Moen for sharing his photographs and enthusiasm with us and with BSA readers.

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Dan Witz Creates Disturbing Street Art to Fight Political Imprisonment

March 26, 2013

Street Art Campaign With Amnesty International

“In many countries people are imprisoned simply because of their political views,” begins the video just released by Dan Witz and Amnesty international.

Screenshot from “Wailing Walls”, a video about the Dan Witz “Prisoners” campaign that raises awareness and engages passersby to immediately take action for human rights. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

So dangerous are those views that their outspoken owners are persecuted and hidden from us in an attempt to silence the ideas and opinions that may threaten a prevailing status quo. With his “Prisoners” series of installations on the streets of London, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Los Angeles, Witz is bringing much needed attention to those who are hidden against their will just behind walls, doors, and windows.

Image from London campaign, “Eric” by Street Artist Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

For Witz, using actual names and case histories brings the conceptual to painfully full light, and his well-known artistic command of light in these photo-realistic works gives these individuals an opportunity to step out from the shadows. In conjunction with an innovative street campaign entitled “Wailing Walls”, the street art pieces become interactive with QR codes and a phone app that allows passersby to learn instantly about the people depicted and to send their opinions to government officials while standing right there on the sidewalk with traffic driving past them.

Scanning the QR code (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Learning and immediately writing to the “Wailing Wall”. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

During his presentation this weekend at the Amnesty International conference in Washington DC, Witz detailed his Frankfurt project in front of an audience of hundreds, giving a riveting first person account of how art on the streets has the power to impact social and political change.

Along with the video explaining the street and digital campaign that he created in collaboration with the Leo Burnett Agency in Frankfurt, the Brooklyn-based fine artist and street artist shares here his personal slides of the project, which he showed at the conference.  Of special note is the soundtrack to the new slide show which is composed by Witz at the piano and recorded on his phone; a tonal reflective transmutation of the myriad emotions that the images evoke.

Premiere: Slideshow of Dan Witz’s “Prisoner” Series of Street Art Installations

Shown at Amnesty International’s Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC, March, 2013

Among the many ways to measure success as a Street Artist; “Wailing Wall” garnered great traditional, web, and social media attention for the campaign in Frankfurt, raising awareness and advocating action on the behalf of those imprisoned. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Premiere : “Wailing Walls” campaign by Dan Witz for Amnesty International

Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer

Our sincere thanks to Dan Witz for sharing his work and this very important project with BSA readers. A special BSA shout out to Christoph Wick, Tiffaney McCannon, Monika Wittkowsky, and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer for their talents and tireless work on this project also.

 

 

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Dan Witz Goes to London. Keep Your Eyes Open.

October 3, 2012 , , ,

Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz is prepping for his part in a new group show titled “Bedlam” in the deep recesses of London with Lazarides Gallery. “We’re doing this huge thing in the tunnels below the Old Vic – should be massive,” he tells us with some thrill in his email voice. It’s good to hear Dan happy, because his work can be so dark. Just back from Frankfurt where he worked with Amnesty International to highlight the human rights and justice work that organization does for all of us, these new images on the streets of London are the Street Art component of Witz’s practice that is quietly compelling and unsettling.

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Certainly the aim of these pieces is not to put us at ease, to “Keep Calm and Carry On”. The figures behind the glass are depicted as imprisoned or trapped, and your second glance at them will leave you disconcerted and troubled. Witz goes where many artists won’t or can’t in his explorations of the human condition and man’s inhumanity – reminding us that art can serve more than to just send us home happy and content.  It can also connect us with a truer sense of the world, provide a bit of grounding and remind us of the work that needs to be done. With this work Witz give a voice to those who don’t have words to express their suffering.

Our thanks to Dan for sharing these super fresh images exclusively for BSA readers.

Dan Witz. London 2012. Detail (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012. Detail (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz. London 2012 (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz in Frankfurt for Amnesty International. Frankfurt, Germany 2012. Work in Progress. All artworks by Dan Witz. Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer.

 

Lazarides is mounting “Bedlam” in a maze of tunnels below Old Vic beginning October 09, evoking the historic mental asylum.  “Bedlam over the years has become synonymous with madness, chaos and pandemonium, it seemed like the perfect theme for a world gone mad. Be afraid.”  -Steve Lazarides. Participating Artists include: Vhils, Conor Harrington, Doug Foster, Ian Francis, Kelsey Brookes, Karim Zeriahen, Klaus Weiskopf, Lucy McLauchlan, Artists Anonymous, Michael Najjar, Till Rabus, Jonathan Yeo, DAn Witz and Antony Micallef.

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