All posts tagged: Berlin

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.04.16

September 4, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

The walls are speaking. Unless they have been silenced.

We regularly conject that a graffiti or Street Art piece rides only as long as it is allowed. Subject to immediate and daily perusal, illegal and legal artworks on the streets bear the scrutiny of society and can be singularly or collectively accepted or censored. In this respect, it is a reasonable assertion that our Street Art reflects societal views and tastes to a certain extent. In one city nudity is quickly crossed over while an anti-imperialist rant may run for weeks for example, while another city may invert that equation.

This week’s images draw heavily from Berlin and Moscow, two cities that we’ve been in recently. While the images we have do not necessarily depict the range of visual conversation topics (this is more of a mini travelog) it is fresh on our mind the distinct differences of voices on the street – or the absense of. Expand the speech definition to advertising messages in the public sphere and to use a back-to-school metaphor, you’ll find that Moscow and Marrakech are quiet as a library while cities like New York and Berlin are the boys gymnasium during recess. This topic can be expanded into an essay, but alas, our Images of the Week are a small collection of artworks published in the public sphere just to help you keep somewhat current.

So, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Appleton Pictures, Aske, ASKE, August, Dumb Saint, DXTRXN, Mongolz, Nasca Uno, Nelio, Ore, Plotbot Ken, Sophie Lambda, Tobo, Tuyu, and Zimad.

Tobo trolls Banksy and his “CND Soldiers” at Teufelsberg mountain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tobo dispensing sage advise at Teufelsberg mountain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASKE depicts an attractive female figure holding the key to a hopeful future in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nelio in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Indonesian Graffiti writer Tuyu mixes it up in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

August in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA, Martha Cooper, Kostya August and Tuyu in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti with Dog still life on the Berlin Metro. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ORE in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

German angst in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DXTRXN in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plotbot Ken at Teufelsberg mountain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nasca Uno at Teufelsberg mountain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The shadow of Blu. Mongolz and company at the old BLU wall in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dumb Saint (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimad (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Appleton Pictures (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sophie Lambda (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Moscow, Russia. August 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP in Berlin : “ ‘All City’ Doesn’t Even Begin to Cover It ”

August 24, 2016 Artists

An amorphous shape-shifting consortium of Berlin-based aerosol hooligans named 1UP is one of those graffiti crews who eventually make the entry into graffiti street lore because of the scope and daring of their travails.

Primarily Berlin based, you’ll find their almost-commercial sounding name on roofs, walls, abandoned factories, and in tunnels in many cities around the globe. Without a clear idea of the exact number in their association nor precise membership these daredevils are most often described as white men in their twenties and early thirties reveling in the athleticism and sport of graffiti, in addition to style. The tag itself appears to be rather “open source” at times, with only insiders able to keep track of the distinct hand styles forming the ubiquitous name on thousands of surfaces.

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spent a few days in Berlin recently and easily collected a handful of images here to share, but it the actual number one could capture would fill a bulky tome.

“1Up Crew…? ‘All City’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, these guys smash walls like sledgehammers,” says Roland Henry, managing editor and a journalist for VNA (Very Nearly Almost), the UK-based independent magazine that has featured interviews with some of the world’s top artists, illustrators and photographers from the urban art scene over the last 10 years. Living in Berlin this spring and summer after calling London home for many years, Mr. Henry says he still hasn’t stopped seeing new 1UP’s.

In a city famously permissive, even celebratory, toward graffiti culture like Berlin, once you notice one 1UP tag on a wall you can’t stop seeing them – like the time your brother started dating that Mexican girl in high school and suddenly you realized that there were hot tamales everywhere! – In the hallways, at the laundromat, in the park, at the corner grocery.

1UP in progress. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Spend any time in Berlin and one thing is immediately glaringly obvious: 1UP have their hometown on lockdown,” says photographer and graffiti expert Luna Park, whose forthcoming New York contemporary graffiti book (UN)Sanctioned will be released on Carpet Bombing Culture books in October.

“Take the time and dedication that your average all city bomber expends in getting their name out – now multiply that by 20. Maybe you’ll come close to grasping 1UP’s prodigious output. If there were an Olympic sport for team graffiti, surely 1UP would be gold medal contenders. Not only do they excel at all graffiti disciplines, they take what it means to push a crew to the most logical extreme.”

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Park’s point about disciplines is well taken, as not one discernible specific style or medium is used by this one united power – throwies, bubble tags, wildstyle, rollers, juicy markers, sculptures, extinguisher tags.

But it is working as an organized crew covering multiple cars on trains that they are perhaps most well known for – covering cars top to bottom, end to end – in a few short minutes.

“Look up their legendary and brazen daytime whole-car missions on YouTube and you’ll begin to understand this is a crew that seriously rolls deep,” says Ms. Park. “Better yet, get your hands on their “One United Power” film and prepare to be inspired by their global exploits.”

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now in their 13^th year, at this point 1UP is a brand (sort of like its older cousin 7UP) – and it probably shows up on scatter charts in PowerPoint slides in advertising and marketing conference rooms – desired psychographics and demographics analyzed, sought after, targeted.

But keep the numbers in perspective – they can’t rival the millions of illegal logos plastered across our cities in violation of numerous regulations. You think graffiti is lawless? Hell, try advertising – it’s nearly completely unregulated in cities like New York and the very few laws that exist are rarely enforced. That Coke crew, for example, they are seriously worldwide with their bombing and tagging – taking over hectares of public space and millions of atoms of mindshare.

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

World-traveling superstar urban art photographer Martha Cooper, who has been tracking graffiti since trains were first plastered with aerosol paint in the late 1970s and whose first namesake library will open next year with the inauguration of the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, says she’s had some time to observe 1UP, and she acknowledges their status.

“This very active crew has sprayed the world with an impressive assortment of carefully-planned, well-executed tags, throwies and pieces above and below ground,” says Cooper. “Big Up to 1Up for helping to keep the original outlaw spirit of graffiti alive.”

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post.

Jardin Rouge: A Unique Garden for Street Artists to Grow In

August 17, 2016 Artists, Interview

The soil in this garden is a deep rich red hue, as is the lifeblood that pumps through this modern compound with echoes of Egyptian mastaba architecture. Jardin Rouge invites Street Artists, graffiti artists, and urban artists to step around the peacocks that strut around the grounds of this North African oasis and to come inside to paint.

Painting outside is encouraged as well.

Hendrik Berkeich AKA ECB. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

25 minutes outside of Marrakesh in the middle of a 32 acre olive grove, this is an artist’s residency unlike many, where vandals are invited. They also are encouraged to push themselves creatively and develop their skills, techniques and try new disciplines outside their comfort zones.

Created and funded largely by one visionary collector, a private French businessman of Russian heritage who says he discovered his own love of graffiti using china marker on city walls while he was a homeless teen in the 1960s, the residency stands apart from others in the full spectrum of support and direction it gives.

From French portrait stencilist C215 and German aerosol portraitist ECB to members of New York’s graffiti stars Tats Cru to the Franco-Congolese painter Kouka, the aerosol atmospherics of Benjamin Laading and abstractly juicy tag clouds of Sun7, the commonality of these street practitioners is their willingness to experiment, and their drive to produce quality work. Quietly building a reputation with this invitation-only residency, high quality shows marketed directly to collectors, and a new ambitious museum space with the Montresso Foundation, Jardin Rouge is setting its own standard.

C215. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When artists come here we ask them to express themselves in their own style. The second thing we ask is to concentrate on the quality of their work and the craft. I don’t like artists who don’t take care of their quality, I don’t respect them,” says Jean-Louis, a white maned lion with firm opinions and an empathetic gaze.

“Also it is about presentation – a lot of artists have no idea how to present their work – but we always talk to the artist about how to make their final presentation, their final work.” When he describes this dynamic, you realize that as an artist, no matter what level of professionalism you enter Jardin Rouge with, it will raise a notch or two by the time you leave.

Kouka. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking to current and former artists-in-residence, it’s clear that it is a tight ship with an expert crew. All materials, needs, and ideas can be discussed, and there is a focus on professionalism and readiness for development. Sun7 (or Sunset), a dynamic expressionist and graffiti writer who still runs a fatcap and a thick marker across city walls in Paris, London, New York as well as the occasional corporate brand gig, told us on a recent Saturday morning that he had gone into Marrakesh the night before to party with friends until sunrise, but he was determined to get into the studio by 10 am regardless. “These guys give us so much and I want to make sure I’m giving my best back too.”

Sun7. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean-Louis purchased the area near the Ouidane village in 2003 and began coaching his first artist in 2007, not realizing that the guidance he was giving to one would grow into the double digits in terms of artists who he now works with. The Montresso foundation is essentially sponsored by its founder and by donations from different partners and art collectors.

“At the beginning of Jardin Rouge this was my hobby. Then artists began hearing about this little by little and asking if they could come for a residency. We began the project slowly and became perhaps more professional and expanded our team,” he says. Collectors were slow to come as well, but eventually that changed thanks to well-attended openings, studio visits, and a marketing push that produces print catalogues and video pieces about the artists.

The Montresso Foundation on the grounds of Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We started to do something more attractive and more people began to hear about this, and also collectors began to hear about it. We have a lot of collectors and they are not necessarily so interested in street art per se but when they come to a place like this their perception of street art begins to change.”

BSA: We have noticed that it is very important here to encourage artists to test themselves in new mediums that maybe they are not comfortable with but it is perhaps your philosophy to encourage them to do something outside of their normal practice. Can you talk about that because it is not something that we normally see.
Jean-Louis: At the beginning the idea was to meet with some young artists, some street artists and to give them the possibility to make something. I never want to encroach on their technique. You have your talents you have your technique. But slowly I began asking artists to please try to do something that was not in the street, perhaps with canvas or for something else. This was the idea in the beginning – to help some artists to grow.

TILT. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It is a place to do something different from what you are doing in your own studio,” says TILT, who has had two residencies here, and who is intensely working on two concurrent shows with Jardin Rouge this year. “I think the good thing is that you don’t have the environment, you don’t have the pressure that you have when you are in your own studio, in your own city and surrounded by people you know.”

During an interview we did with him there we found that a familiar story continued to emerge; a supportive environment can actually make artists dream bigger.

“So here you can try and you can fail,” TILT says. “And if you fail its okay – it’s part of the game. It’s a huge space and maybe you don’t have to think about all of the materials because it is also easy to get them here. The structure is so well managed that if you need something, something is going to come to you. So you think totally differently, it is like a “deluxe” studio. Your mind is not stopped because you thought ‘oh I wanted to do that but I can’t’ because the frame is going to cost too much… or I need 6 or 7 people to help me move this car from one room to another. So its like everything is possible and that can really open up your mind.”

Steven P. Harrington of BrooklynStreetArt.com interviews TILT. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Toulouse, France-born graffiti writer speaks from his own experience since the centerpieces of his new two-location show required cutting an entire car in half, reconstructing and stabilizing it, and mounting the half cars in two locations in two countries.

“When we decided to do the giant piece, the big car, I also wanted to experiment with something, to try to work with a different material, and since I think my work is kind of dirty – dirty graffiti, primitive graffiti – far from what Street Art can represent – I think that my work needs more knowledge about the history of graffiti, about the letters, about the texture, about accumulation. I had never worked with drywall and these other materials – it’s a super difficult medium to work with and so I thought that Jardin Rouge was probably the right place to try to make it work.”

TILT. Detail. Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The “Voyage Aller Retour (Outbound and Return Trip)” show was constructed over many weeks and made at Jardin Rouge studios, with the “Outbound Trip” shown at the Marrakesh Biennale this spring and the “Return Trip” half shown for the Epoxy event at Musée Les Abbatoirs in Toulouse, France in June.

TILT. Detail. Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Each half of the car is piled comically high with worldly goods that are tied to the roof, and the entire car with possessions is sprayed with aerosol graffiti tags, throw ups, bubble letters and drippy callouts to peers and their family members. Two directions of migration are represented, with one carrying home-made and natural goods and articles that a family in the country may bring to the city, and the other transporting the electronic entertainment and consumer goods that a metropolitan family car might bring to relatives in the country. It’s a metaphor in degrees that addresses first and third world migration as well and a graffiti-covered touchstone that indirectly speaks to the refugee crises affecting war-torn Syria and much of Europe

Writer and cultural critic Butterfly describes TILT’s “Voyage”; “He is fetishizing an object, the Peugeot 404 car, appreciating it for its properties regardless of its practical, social and cultural interests. Tilt sanctifies the object by vandalizing it; he breaks down the unstable and fluctuating barriers of the work of art.”

TILT. Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We had the opportunity to see “Voyage Aller” mounted inside the new spacious and modern museum-quality Montresso Foundation building and TILT’s eye-popping explosion of color held its ground in the massive new modern space. For the team and the foundation partners, this inaugural show with an accompanying outdoor garden and terrace also showcases Jean-Louis’ unique and powerful vision as architect as well.

TILT. Detail. Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alongside the reflecting pools and pens for horses, goats, cows, and other farm animals is a statue of a huge geometrically planed gorilla and painted facades with colorful character-based graffiti scattered across the property and popping in and out of view overhead. From atop one of these red roofs you can observe a wide hazy basin spreading for many kilometers south to the foothills of the snow-capped Atlas Mountains an hour and a half’s drive by car.

Manicured lawns, cacti, palm, and olive trees frame wending walkways that lead through the one or two story buildings and into the many indoor spaces and breezeways that connect artists studios, living quarters, guest accommodations, entertaining rooms, an ample dining area, production and professional offices. It all feels like a gallery and changing series of installations, indoors and out. As we walk with Elise Levine, the communications manager, throughout the buildings we see walls hung with canvasses of Jean-Louis’ collection and others of artists who have had residencies here.

TILT in the middle with Mr. Harrington on the right and a guest on the left standing in the lobby of the Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In these surroundings it is not difficult to imagine how artists can make the transition to contemporary art without losing their personal connection to the street. The sensual Fenx splashes pop beauties with thick tagging, Tarek Benaoum manifests calligraffiti as something ornamental and precise and Kashink’s comic characters make wisecracks in front of you, each with four eyes. With Elise’s personal warmth and knack for storytelling about artists and installations, the Moroccan wood cabinetry, mid century modern furniture, patterned textiles, and specially designed light fixtures all impart a non-restrictive peaceful environment.

Jo Ber. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We had the opportunity to see an eclectic handful of the artists studios, which all come equipped with materials and tools that enable the artists to do their work and not worry about the typical concerns of artists life.

Kashink. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Benjamin Laading leads us into his studio, about the sized of a family one-car garage, but with a full wall of window that allows the sun to flood the space with light. A Norwegian painter who says he still writes graffiti he is working here on capturing the impressive forms known to fat cap sprayers everywhere, the bending of light in waves of a tube-like pointillism. In fact, that’s what he is turning it into.

“I started to think about how I could look at and talk about the tag – the core of graffiti that is the first line, the expressive line on the canvas,” he says as he pulls out his newest studies of this momentary movement of a gestural spray technique.

Benjamin Laading. Detail. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Each canvas captures a momentary movement, but each is actually carefully hand-rendered with refined dabbing over a longer period of time to achieve the exact effect. It is a tribute to the untamed wildness of quick tagging by graffiti artists but he hopes to delivery a galaxy inside the spray.

“They are always pushing me to do experiments,” he says, “I tried to find natural movement that looks like it was drawn very quickly.” The twist is that he recreates them with a brush, painstakingly pointillizing the dust and the energy that swoops across the canvas as a painting. After all, he says, “The spray stroke is made out of an accumulation of dots.” The effect is stark and energetic, atmospheric, and structural.

Benjamin Laading. Detail. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It’s really a laboratory for a lot of artists to try something new here,” says Estelle Guilié, the artistic director since joining in 2014 and producing the first Jardin Rouge exhibition entitled “Behind the Red Wall” featuring a graffiti-heavy roster including BIO, BG, CEEK, and SY along with stencil artist ECB and warrior painter Kouka.

“We have one artist here who uses canvases for example all the time and I said to him ‘hey man for 20 years you have worked on the same medium and you don’t have your own signature. Maybe if you reflect on your work you can choose another language to express your art. He tested something new here for the first time and he has had a lot of success,” she says with a smile, “and now he can continue with it.”

C215. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Finally, it strikes one that the entire complex is a diary, a philosophy of making work and the process of discovery. Sometime when Street Art / and Urban Art enters into a place, it dies. Here it feels alive, and many times just as consequential as it can be on the street.

The Gold Fish pool provides serenity and inspiration. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It would be a great present to us if after 4 or 5 years someone sees one of these works by an artist and they say, ‘This artist was at Jardin Rouge, – or Montresso Foundation – and for this person it will stand for a label of quality,’” says Jean-Louis. With the establishment of the Montresso Foundation exhibition space, plans are afoot to develop larger exhibitions and the expansion of a permanent collection that reflects the movement of urban art into the contemporary art realm – obviously with an eye for what comes next.

TILT. Montresso Foundation. Jardin Rouge, Morocco. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article is a result of Brooklyn Street Art partnership with Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin and was originally published at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art

A partial list of Jardin Rouge alumni:

310
Benjamin LAADING
Cédrix CRESPEL
CEET
Denis TEVEKOV
FENX
GODDOG
Hendrik BEIKIRCH
JACE
JO BER
KASHINK
KOUKA
MAD C
Neurone
POES
RESO I Cédric LASCOURS
Roxane Daumas
SY I Vitaly TSARENKOV
Sun7
Tarek BENAOUM
TATS CRU
TILT
Vitaly RUSAKOV

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.14.16

August 14, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 907 Crew, Aneko, Cash4, City Kitty, COST, D7606, Gregos, LMNOPI, Opiemme, Phlegm, Pork, Rambo, Smells, UFO, Vhils, and Vudo Child.

Our top image: “Heading to Coney Island to catch some waves…” This small wheat pasted illustration on a NYC subway platform caught our attention for its composition, wit and well-placed location, so it leads BSA Images Of The Week with it. It is very important to highlight the countless small pieces of art on the street illegally put around the city. Yes, we are in a period of fascination with murals these days, but it’s these small ones that first captured our hearts. Please help ID the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child. Detail. Unintended selfie. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child with COST posters on top. Detail. We saw the artist meticulously hand drawing a face on each brick. There are thousands of original pieces on this extensive wall with the abstract piece with black backdrop as the center of the composition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vudo Child. Deatil. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vhils in Berlin in collaboration with Open Walls Galerie. The lone portrait on a wall is distinguished by its singularity – quite opposite of example from the work above. Vhils destroys to create. He chisels away from the wall do draw his portraits. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two bunnies in love with PORK. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI portrait of a demonstrator from the #blacklivesmatter movement. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO, Rambo, Smells, 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4, 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty . D7606 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Hollier portrait of Abraham Lincoln using an excerpt from his inaugural address speech. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

Opiemme using text from Nirvana’s In Utero album. Tuscany, Italy. July 2016. (photo © Opiemme)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aneko (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Berlin. July 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.31.16

July 31, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This week we bring you fresh stuff from Berlin where the final Project M/10 was debuted with a collection of artists curated by Instagrafite and we had an opportunity to ride the streets looking for interesting art, to avoid getting swept away by a sudden massive flood, and to visit Urban Spree for some great prints and paintings, and even to hang out in a boxing club for days with a cluster of curators.

Our special thanks to Yasha Young and the entire UN Team for their UNflagging support as we collectively are bringing a new institution that recognizes a wide swath of history and influences forward. More to come…

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Squid Called Sebastian, Anarkia, Axel Void, Hop Louie, JAZ, Marshal Arts, Mindaugas Bonanu, Nafir, Olek, Panmela Castro, RoboSexi, Roxi, Speto, Uriginal, and Various & Gould.

Our top image: Panmela Castro AKA Anarkia. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Panmela Castro AKA Anarkia. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Panmela Castro AKA Anarkia. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Various & Gould. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek in collaboration with Robosexi. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New interventional pieces of objects in clear resin from the Polish duo Robosexi in collaboration with Polish/Brooklyner artist OLEK placed IN the streets of Berlin this week. An anagram of their first names Roxi and Sebo, the duo say their “Time Capsules” are an effort to freeze the truth about this time and people today. They say that they also do performances and video art in addition to these installations, but this week they are in town with OLEK for PM/10 at Urban Nation.

Olek in collaboration with Robosexi. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A selfie gun from Hamburg based stencillist Marshal Arts. Berlin, Germany. One source tells us the title is “How to Take a Great Selfie.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Uriginal in conjunction with Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nafir is having some rather explosive ideas lately. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Squid Called Sebastian in conjunction with Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unidentified artist’s painting of these two amorous lovers appears under the train tracks that lead across Oberbaum Bridge (German: Oberbaumbrücke), a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin’s River Spree. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Axel Void. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A new sculpture by Franco JAZ Fasoli commands the center exhibition space at Project M/10, which opened last evening in Berlin. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Curated by Instagrafite.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beards and man buns are the default fashion accessory for men who would like to give an air of hipness at this moment. Arguably however, they are probably considered mainstream. Hop Louie. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speto. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Roxi. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. Project M/10. Curated by Instagrafite. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alleged ties between US Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimer Putin made it to the street via Lithuanian artist Mindaugas Bonanu and this week on the cover of Frankfurter Allgemeine. Although the German newspaper doesn’t credit the creator of this image (which happens a LOT with street art), we can tell you that the significance of the image is directly tied to Berlin Wall art history. As writer and art critic Carlo McCormick notes in a recent PAPER magazine portfolio of Trump-related art, this piece refers to ” a famous fraternal kiss in 1979 between Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart Erich Honecker that gained fame as a painting by Dmitri Vrubel on the Berlin Wall.”

Untitled. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho Soars into Future Past with UN One Wall Project

July 27, 2016 Artists

A quick shot from photographer Nika Kramer here in Berlin from Italy’s PixelPancho as part of the One Wall project in Tegel series. Part of the Urban Nation initiative, the new mural dips into is a memory of future past, as is his custom, and a stunning addition to the collection of works the group has brought so far to these neighborhoods.

Brooklyn-street-art-pixel-pancho-nika-kramer-urban-nation-one-wall-berlin-07-16-web

Pixel Pancho. One Wall Project. Art Park Tegel Series. UrbanNation Museum For Urban Contemporay Art. Berlin. (photo © Nika Kramer)

BSA is excited to be here is Berlin with UN for the final installment of Project M – a wide ranging and inclusive series of installations from many curators and artists over the past three years, seeding the ground for the new Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art, opening Mid 2017. This week you will see new works from Faith 47, JAZ (Franco Fasoli), 2501, Axel Void, Speto, Panmela Castro (Anarkia), Olek, Nunca, and Robosexi – and surely a few more – as Marina Bortoluzzi and Marcelo Pimentel of Instagrafite curate PM/10.

We’ll see you at the opening hopefully! Please come by, we’d love to meet you!

Borondo and a Blood Battle in Berlin About His Mural

July 16, 2016 Artists

A recent mural by Street Artist and fine artist Borondo in the neighborhood of Tegel in Berlin has drawn some attention because of its potentially uncomfortable associations and imagery. Sponsored by Urban Nation as part of their “One Wall” initiative of bringing many large murals to neighborhoods across the city, this one has engaged the ire of at least a portion of the community it appears in.

Borondo for Urban Nation this spring (UN) in the Tegel section of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A so-called “controversy” is on media (print, online, and social) radar thanks largely in part to the efforts of one aspiring community leader and candidate for town hall on the center-right CDU ticket, who has rallied neighbors and reached out to the press to protest imagery they say is depressing and frightening because there is red paint that appears to be blood coming from the figure of the girl. The second figure tied to a tree also is a big concern. A new campaign to gather signatures on a petition has begun and accounts in the press say the group would like to find an alternate solution to this mural.

Borondo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Works of art, of course, will have fans and enemies – as well as people in the middle who have no interest or opinion. This may be a similar situation with the many advertisements on the streets of Berlin featuring images of bare bottoms and breasts that are exalted salaciously from every angle, bearded leather men in carnal embraces, and various action-warriors and criminals and brandishing bloody swords and weaponry.

Berlin, by and large, appears to withstand the thousands of advertising images that undoubtedly challenge the various tastes of its populace. Last year, for example, 200 large Berlin billboards even featured a sex toy by Amorelie with the text “Multiple Orgasmen”, which for you kids and English speakers is translated as “multiple orgasms”. Naturally some racy or violent images, messages, or themes will possibly offend older folks, children, conservative Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and immigrants arriving from new countries.

In his personal Facebook page the artist Borondo wrote a lengthy description of his surreal and metaphorical mural called, “Willkommen Refugees” (Welcome Refugees), which he created as Urban Nation’s program PM/9 this spring, curated by Justkids and StreetArtNews. In it he appears to describe the piece as a cautionary tale of looking before leaping, something we always encourage children to do. One of the figures is based on the iconic figure of Saint Sebastian, an early Christian saint and martyr venerated by both Catholic and Orthodox Churches; an interesting figure who is said to have been persecuted for his religious beliefs in Rome in 288 AD and who was comforted by Irene of Rome.

Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, by Il Sodoma, c. 1525

Saint Sebastian has been depicted in paintings, sculpture, icons, and tattoos as tied to a tree or column, shot full of arrows.

The same image has proven powerful to hundreds of artists through the centuries and has been seen publicly by varied audiences of adults and children in churches, museums, galleries, – and reprised as an archetype for fashion and editorial features in magazines and websites – including a famous one of the boxer Muhammed Ali as a martyr figure similar to Saint Sebastian on the cover of Esquire magazine, which was sold publicly on newsstands.

Photographer Carl Fischer’s magazine cover image of Muhammad Ali was directly influenced by Andrea Mantegna’s c.288 painting of Saint Sebastian – with inspiration from art director George Lois, according to High Snobriety.

Borondo says he doesn’t like to impose his own interpretation on his work, which he clarifies is not meant to be just a decoration, and he indicates that he did a fair amount of research into the community, its history, even its weather, when choosing the images and the color palette. But for the sake of continued dialogue, he does break it down for viewers.

“If I explain the work my meaning seems to suggest that there is only one interpretation that is right and all others would be wrong. But sometimes the viewer’s interpretations are more interesting and completely different from the ones I had and I don’t want to close this discourse or exchange.

For me it is a poem composed by images and colors instead of words. I believe that in an art piece it is important to get not an immediate reaction but to promote critical thinking, a research of meanings and different levels of communication.

In this case I wanted to flow on the surface using different image and references to create a sort of big collage realized directly on the 14th floors high wall.

Borondo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The wall is divided in two sides with a gap of windows in the centre so I used this gap to represent a wall that creates a double dimension. On the left side there’s a figure looking through a hole, while the right side depicts St. Sebastian inspired by Renaissance paintings inserted in a snow forest with a cloud accumulation on top. The “wall” represents a division, a frontier and in this case creates a distance: outside the drama and inside an empty room with a small hole from which one can see the reality. A reality that we may pretend to not see but we need to be curious about – as the child depicted here – to know and understand.”

Not everyone is convinced by Borondo’s description of his work, and some are particularly sure that children and emotionally scarred adults who go to a nearby therapy center will be very negatively impacted. Additionally there is a sentiment that the artwork is an imposition on daily life. A user on Facebook named Katrin Balcou responds on Borondo’s posting,

“You forgot to mention, that there is a daycare for children between 1 to 6 years old next to this building and on the other side a house, which is known as the suicidehouse.

I understand what you want to tell us, but it won’t help me or other parents to explain this to our little children every day, we have to walk there. And for the Refugees, who will come there to the end of the year … I don’t know, but if I would have seen what they have seen, I would want to see something different at a place, which will be my new home in safety … no reminder every day of a horrible past.

The real Problem I see here, even if I know the picture by now, I have no chance, not to look at it every morning and evening, when I cross the Street there. Art is good and needed, but I want to decide by myself, if I want to see it or not and here you force me to look at it and that is — for me — no art anymore.”

Online and on TV, Felix Schönebeck has been at the front of the protest against the mural and he is also running as one of the youngest candidates for the CDU this September. Mr. Schönebeck is not quoted mentioning Saint Sebastian or Borondo much when he is standing before the cameras of various news stations that come to Tegel to see him and the mural. Similarly, many of the media reports don’t mention the artist or his explanation of his work. It does appear that Schönebeck has analyzed the art and has concluded that the artist has created an affront to the community.

This Borondo wall is 4^th in a series of murals begun last year for the residents by some pretty famous Street Art names that include a duo named The London Police, the German twin brothers How & Nosm, and a collaboration with Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A. Until this new Borondo mural went up this spring, Schönebeck and the community have given the other murals good marks. What is a little unclear is why these other murals have escaped criticism and threats of public petitions and media campaigns. That is perhaps one of the ironies of art – it can be very subjective.

Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A created this mural just to the right of Borondo’s for Urban Nation this spring (UN) in Tegel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The English Art critic Clive Bell was an advocate of formalism but his intellect also clearly recognized that our experience of art is often skewed through that other less measured and quantified quality, our emotions. In an essay from his book entitled “Art” just over a hundred years ago, Bell wrote, “The starting-point for all systems of aesthetics must be the personal experience of a peculiar emotion. The objects that provoke this emotion we call works of art. All sensitive people agree that there is a peculiar emotion provoked by works of art.”

With this in mind, it may be that the emotional response to these artists painting styles has revealed how different audiences are affected by them, because at least two of the three other murals here contain elements, that is “content” in modern Internet parlance, that could prove equally objectionable to certain viewers. However political candidates and community residents have given some paintings high marks possibly because of the artist’s particular aesthetics.

German twins How & Nosm created this mural in the same housing complex Borondo’s for Urban Nation last summer (UN) in Tegel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Installed for a year, the How & Nosm piece “On Tip Toes” has gone without negative comment from politicians or community members, despite what may appear to some as a composition showing a figure cut in half, bisected. There is a heavy use of the color red in their work that also could be seen as dripping or gushing blood in the various symbolic scenes that play out across the wall. Perhaps it is a matter of personal taste that this wall has been embraced to some degree – as the brother’s work contains more clearly defined, energetic geometric shapes and rhythms, emulating styles more often associated with comics, cartoons, or graphic novels.

German twins How & Nosm created this mural in the same housing complex Borondo’s for Urban Nation last summer (UN) in Tegel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The themes inside the illustrative forms and figures are less obvious than Borondo’s mural but How & Nosm’s work has been described in the past as including complex motifs that often address topics such as drug abuse, fraud or oppression and they personally have described many dark themes that draw from their own challenging biography in interviews.

The London Police created this mural in the same housing complex on the opposite end of Borondo’s building for Urban Nation (UN) in Tegel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There has also been a surprising lack of commentary regarding the otherworldly scenario depicted 42 meters high by The London Police in the housing complex – at the exact end of the building that Borondo’s mural is on. Enormous sperm-like smiley faces float in the toxic green sky, gently delivering dead or nearly unconscious robot figures down on top of a Berlin cityscape. This imagery also could prove nightmarishly scary to children who can see it very clearly from the nearby playground, yet, no public campaign has arisen to protest it.

We exaggerated the description of that mural, but for illustrative purposes. One can see, as most people do, that art is purely subjective and has always been. Contemplating the inexact and sometimes murky quality of an artists’ expression may be frightening to some viewers, reassuring and encouraging to others.

Saint Sebastian is flanked by angelic looking young figures over the doorway at Kath. Kirchengemeinde St. Sebastian Church in Berlin’s Wedding neighborhood, about 12 kilometers from the Borondo mural in Tegel. The church’s website says that Children’s services are held at 10 am on Sundays.

On the day we went to see this contested mural we saw perhaps of handful of people on a typical weekday walking by it, including an older couple who stopped to snap a photo of the mural as well as the Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A collaboration next to it of a multi-hued bird. Neither seemed particularly unnerved but were pleasantly pointing to areas of it and discussing it – which rather seems to be to point of public art. They walked further up the sidewalk, albeit slowly. We also saw a few kids riding bicycles past, and a family of father, mother and two kids get into a car parked across the street from it. It was not evident superficially that the mural had impacted them, but of course we are not social scientists. We did notice that the sky was grey and cloudy, and the atmospheric quality of Borondo’s piece rather blended directly into it.

Full disclosure, we have worked with Urban Nation as curators of art and artists, most recently for our “Persons of Interest” show in the nascent UN museum space for a show the Spring of 2015, so we are familiar with at least that part of the organization and it’s director, Yasha Young. From an intellectual perspective on how our show was handled by UN, we can say that our 12 Brooklyn-based artists delved deeply into the cultural and social history of Berlin as well as Brooklyn, and UN stood behind some of the more challenging themes addressed directly or indirectly by artists such as religious freedom, the wearing of headscarves, feminist empowerment, immigration, African-German identity, GLBT issues, racism, corruption, the damaging effect of drugs and alcohol, celebrity culture, and depression.

As ever, one can also see the value of seeking and finding a balance with art and the community. Naturally, dialogue can be intrinsic to the success of large-scale mural projects. It will be interesting to see how the future of Borondo’s “Willkommen Refugees” plays out but we’re guessing that more discussion about the piece, its authors intentions, and the community’s opinion will be better than less.

I Love Tegel site http://ilovetegel.de/category/allgemein/

Schönebeck’s FB page https://www.facebook.com/felix.schoenebeck

BSA<<<>>>BSA<<<>>> BSA<<<>>>BSA<<<>>> BSA<<<>>>BSA<<<>>>

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.03.16

July 3, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Heading into the 4th of July we reflect upon patriotism, our declaration of independence from England, and Britain’s new declaration of independence from the EU. Are there similarities?

Now, we’re all off the park for a barbecue! Where is the frisbee? Where are those hotdog buns?

And here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Agostino Iacurci, Alaniz, Aron Belka, Buttsup, Float Art, Gilf!, King, London Kaye, Pixel Pancho, QRST, Reed B More, Sipros, and WK Interact.

Our top image: London Kaye. Peace, please!! (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Agostino Iacurci (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho. The Italian artist was in NYC early in June to participate in a group show and painted this mural in Chelsea in NYC. While the mural appears unfinished by the blotch of white paint on the bottom that is not the case. The artist’s completed piece was tagged and as per the artist’s request the gallery removed the tag with the white paint. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Float Art (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reed B. More has been leaving these translucent pieces suspended about the fray. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reed B. More (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reed B. More tagging the sky. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reed B. More (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for the Buschwick Collective. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! did this piece to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando and debuted it in time for the LGBT Pride weekend in NYC. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aron Belka did this portrait of jazz pianist and composer Allen Toussaint, who passed away last autumn, for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy/China Town. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alaniz pointing in every direction at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.26.16

June 26, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Berliners called it the “großes Ohr”. The Big Ear.

Run by the American NSA and the British in their sector, this “listening station” stands atop a man made mountain of rubble, at the bottom of which is said to lie the unfinished Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät) designed by Albert Speer. These structures with round orbs could be seen above the city from many angles rising from deep in the Grunewald Forest and yes, we can confirm that the one complete geodesic orb at the very top has such astounding acoustics even now that the sound of a camera clicking or clearing your throat or stepping on a piece of broken glass is instantly amplified anywhere within it, then re-echoed multiple times.

Our top image: Plotbot at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“In its day,” says security expert and former employee Bill Scannell in a video online, “Teufelsberg (‘Devil’s Mountain’) was one of the most secretive intelligence facilities in the entire world.” Now it is a relic of the NSA behind three rows of barbed wire fences and a sort of freewill painting destination but the hulking grey and ivy clad compoung is a strong reminder of the extensive spy apparatus that the general public continues to get glimpses of in leaks and reports today.

Today this is a graffiti haven and hippie/punk love-in where people go to experiment with cans and rollers and brushes, drink beer, listen to scratchy voiced acoustic versions of Amy Winehouse, and pad around barefoot wearing nothing but a towel. The “guard” at the entrance, also shirtless and barefoot with a somewhat serious gaze requires from you a toll of 7 euro per head to get in, then smiles benignly as continue your trudging up the hill.

On the sunny hot sticky day that our guide took us, we saw enough good international and local artwork to offset the mediocre, boxes of old electronic doodads laying around on the ground and sticking out of boxes, blackbirds singing in trees, and strips of open asbestos fluttering in the breeze. Art themes ranged from standard graffiti name-making to the apocalyptic, the darkly sarcastic, pop culture parody, and a frequent critique of the surveillance stories we find in the news today.

It’s almost breathtaking with the Berlin views of the valley below – including another man-made mountain nearby that is often used for kite-flying, the Olympic Stadium from 1936, and the The Fernsehturm television tower close to Alexanderplatz in the central neighborhood of Mitte; this devilish mountain definitely had us entranced. Then we hiked back down the mountain through the deep wood and fields looking for air conditioning and cold beer.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alaniz, Biko, Crisp, Deuce7, Fanakapan, JBAK, Jule, Icy & Sot, Jule, Low Bros, Moe79, Mundano, Nasca, Never, Plotbot, Self Made Crew, Strøk, Tony Bones, and Wing.

Alaniz at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mundano built a three step platform for you to climb and look directly into the eyes of his figure, who pleads with us to “Damn the Dam on the Tapajos River” at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOE79 did this stencil of Edward Snowden at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A tongue-in-cheek public service message from MOE79 at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Self Made Crew reinterprets Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” eating a Döner kebab at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Self Made Crew paints a big ear at “The Big Ear” (großes Ohr), abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEVER is always getting the short end of the stick at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hulk Hogan victory lap at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Something awfully Jeremy Fishy about this Jule piece at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Some old stuff Tony Bones and Deuce7 that we’ll guess is 8 years old at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Greetings From Berlin – Soaring Walls from HowNosm, London Police Borondo, Van Der Sluijs, Super A

June 20, 2016 Artists

Traveling around Berlin this weekend we took a couple of trains and an unexpectedly looooong walk into the neighborhood of Tegel in search of Urban Nation’s huge One Wall installations that we haven’t been able to catch in person. The gentle breezes, smells of leafy trees, and unending barrage of mocking birds was punctuated by the excited fans of German football yelling out car windows and waving flags.

Here in this semi-suburban breezy summer bliss far from the Kreuzburg artists enclave that Street Art and graffiti fans think of Berlin for, you’ll find Tegel boasts these four towering pieces by How & Nosm, The London Police, Borondo, and a collaboration between Collin Van Der Sluijs and Super A. Singularly, each one impresses. Seeing the quartet of soaring murals all at once; let’s just say it is well worth the trip.

After that, we figured out how to take the double decker public bus back to the U6 train line. Berlin has this public transportation thing nailed.

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.15.16

May 15, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Coney Art Walls is back for 2016 and the artists have already begun painting, Duke Riley is on week two of performance with pigeons in The Brooklyn Navy Yard , the #notacrimecampaign is happening in Harlem to support a free press in Iran, Newark has started a huge public mural program called “Gateways to Newark: Portraits”, Urban Nation in Berlin promises a huge announcement this week, and Vladimir Putin is in a lip-lock with Donald Trump on the street in Lithuania. There is also a lot of new free-range, unsanctioned art on the streets.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring bunny M, Cdre, Crash, Dain, Dee Dee, Etnik, finDAC, Futura, Icy & Sot, Mister Cartoon, Myth, Pegasus, and Rone.

Our top image: CRASH and the first wall completed for the 2016 edition of Coney Art Walls, courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch and his amazing crew, especially Ethel Seno. BSA will bring you all the details, works in progress and behind-the-scenes juiciness for the entire duration of the project until all the walls are completed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We are hoping that one of you dear readers will help us ID this artist, whose signature we can’t figure out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.08.16

May 8, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Cities are urgently playing the deliberate gentrification/beautification card by bringing in the murals to give the place a facelift: Richmond just finished their third, Chicago is gearing up for a new mural program this week, and we are getting emails every few days from city planners around the world who would like to explore how to juice their flagging de-industrialized economy. And why not? New studies report that it raises your property values and advertisers are happy to join in to sponsor the events.

Is it Street Art? Most experts would say not- they lack the freewill autonomous nature and illegal aspects of the original Street Art scene – especially when their content is so sternly steered away from political or challenging themes and have corporate and state sponsorship. These are public/commercial mural programs – with work done by people who often are Street Artists.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Audio Surveillance Zone, Balu, Chamberlin Newsome, Claw Money, Clock, D*Face, De Grupo, FR, Gold Dust, Gregos, Selfable City, Sheryo, Smart Crew, Specter, Strok, The Yok, TMO Plater, and Vexta.

Our top image: Balu for Centrefuge Project. Balu based this piece on a photo from 1975 as a tagger was getting up in the NYC Subway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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