Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. “Serenity” with SNIK in Manchester
2. Hellbent in Albany, NY
3. And Now a Message From Our Sponsors: Aphukenbrake
4. Low Bros in Rabat, Morocco
BSA Special Feature: “Serenity” with SNIK in Manchester
“To women who stood against injustice. We honor you. We witness to your courage and are humbled by your sacrifice,” says the narrator and activist Leigh Cook about the suffragettes in this new video following the duo SNIK as they create “Serenity” on Little Lever Street in the northern quarter of Manchester, directed by Doug Gillen at Fifth Walls TV.
And below is a behind-the-scenes reporter-on-the-ground-and-in-cherry picker video where Mr. Gillen speaks with organizers who attempt the gentrification issue that accompanies the mural campaign they’re expanding and Laura takes a swing at the topics of feminism, empowerment and the #METOO movement. Doug does some dancing.
Hellbent in Albany, NY
A promotional video for a mobile company using the mural painting of Street Artist Hellbent painting in Albany, New York.
And Now a Message From Our Sponsors: Aphukenbrake
Low Bros #sweet15s Episode 12 / Rabat, Morocco
“Good memories of last year’s JIDAR festival in Rabat, Morocco,” say Low Bros in this very entertaining brief visit to a beautiful part of the world. The use of their own footage throughout makes this much more eclectic and personal. Thumbs up for the music track by ADP & Levi Lennox.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. RECOVER – Street Art in Chernobyl
BSA Special Feature: RECOVER – Street Art in Chernobyl
Chernobyl is a nuclear disaster that figures profoundly into the modern age – and for centuries into the future.
Today not so many people talk about this man-made horror that killed a Russian town and chased out its survivors in 1986 just 90 kilometers northeast of Kiev. Called the most disastrous nuclear accident in history, it evacuated 115,000 and spread a radioactive cloud around the Earth, with European neighbors like Scandinavia, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, France and the UK detecting the effects of radiation for years afterward. Three scientists at The New York Academy of Sciences have estimated that over time the number of people killed by effects from the meltdown was almost a million.
Because of the nature of radiation, Chernobyl has been estimated to not be safely habitable for about 20,000 years.
Naturally we’re not making light of the subject. But it is of great interest when two Street Artists have recently penetrated the Exclusion Zone of Chernobyl and today we present a short documentary of their experience. After securing permission and accompanied by a guide, BANE & PEST, a Swiss/Cypriot Street Art duo based in Chur, Switzerland, made it inside to paint. They learned not to touch anything and to tread lightly, Geiger counter in hand and 50 kilograms of paint in tow.
In the course of their 5 day excursion you can sense the gravity of the disaster as well as the effect of the experience on the artists. Faced with more existential questions perhaps than they contemplated previously, you learn that their art is transformed as well as their view of the Earth we depend on.
BSA spoke with one of the artists, Bane, and the Zurich-based directors Zoran Stojanovic and Thomas Brunner about their experiences creating art and filming a documentary inside Chernobyl, now considered part of a war zone in Ukraine.
BSA:It appears that your experience of Chernobyl continued to change – from the planning, to the traveling there, to discovering the city. Would you say that your perceptions of the former city evolved over time? BANE: It was clear from the beginning that we did not know what to expect. The city itself was like a journey into the future.
This is what the world looks like when we no longer have people. Nature and everything around it is regenerating very fast. It was a very nice look into the future.
BSA:Were the preparations and precautions you took sufficient? Tom & Zoran: Well – we received the request to accompany Bane and Pest on their trip to Chernobyl only about two weeks before they planned to start the trip. The film team who had initially accepted the job jumped off the project due to fear of radiation.
The time which was left for the preparation of this adventure was of course very short but the unique chance to travel to such a fascinating place and to be part of this project made us decide to do it.
Unfortunately our insurance did not accept the coverage of our camera for this trip as the Ukraine is still regarded to be a war area. In the very last minute we were able to buy a second hand camera at a reasonable price. But we did not have any time to test it and could only view the first footage when we were already in Kiev which is rather crazy.
As far as precautions were concerned, it was a lucky coincidence that Tom’s godfather, who had worked in the security department of a nuclear power plant in Switzerland for many years, could give us very valuable advice on the necessary preventive measures we had to take.
BSA:Not many Street Artists/graffiti writers can say that they painted in Chernobyl. Would you recommend it? BANE: Only with caution. I think it’s the wrong place for a “hall of fame”
One should very consciously approach the matter and with extreme caution choose the subjects.
BSA:What was the thing that surprised you the most as filmmakers when approaching the environment? Tom & Zoran: We knew that the exclusion zone was extremely fascinating from the visual point of view and would give numerous possibilities for our work. But what we found when we got there was beyond all our expectations. The number of abandoned buildings is amazing – there is everything: an old theater, a former swimming pool, a deserted hospital, a former school. Just a real town.
Chernobyl is nowadays a tourist attraction as well. So we found some ‘arranged places’ which were sort of ‘prepared’ for the photographers from all over the world. That is something we did not expect.
BSA:As you traveled through the factory and hospital and around the antenna, would you say that you felt the presence of life in a city that once was fully alive? BANE: Life was pulsing everywhere. No civilization noise, no aircraft noise, no cars. Nothing at all.
The environment was so quiet you could almost hear the trees growing. Birds were heard from far away. Since no more people have an influence on the environment, this has the opportunity to live fully.
BSA:Did the team feel overwhelmed by your surroundings at any point? Tom & Zoran: The moment we passed the nuclear reactor where the accident happened was very moving indeed. At that stage the reactor was still very clearly visible and not covered by a sarcophagus as it is now.
When we first came to the amusement park with the famous big wonder wheel we all were totally overwhelmed by unbelievable emotions. On one hand you feel very sad for all these people who had to leave their homes and
give up living in their town, on the other hand one is fascinated by the incredible silence and special beauty of this place. You just do not hear anything there – no cars, no people, no birds. You might be standing 30 meters away from somebody else and still be able to talk at a normal volume. This is stunning.
As a team we grew together very closely there.
BSA:Were you limited to only painting these official murals? BANE: Actually, we only had the permission to paint on the outskirts. After our arrival we were told that we can paint wherever we want. Thus, we also decided to paint three pieces instead of one.
BSA:What is your observation about the animals and trees that have been taking over the area and how did that affect your choice of subjects to paint? BANE: As we changed our way of choosing the spaces, we have decided to dedicate the pictures to the wildlife that have settled in the area. It can be said that the whole environment in Chernobyl first brought us to these subjects
BSA:Was there any kind of human threat while you were filming and the artists were painting? How animal threats? Tom & Zoran: We have to say that we have been accompanied by a local guide who knew the area and also the dangerous parts of it very well. So we always felt very secure.
After a while we had the opportunity to walk around on our own with a radio set and a Geiger tube. In Chernobyl and in Pripyat this is all very well organized. You pass the military checkpoints and controls of your papers.
Tourist groups only stay for a short while at the known places and are then transported further on. The security is taken very seriously by the authorities.
Although we knew that nature is “fighting its way back” and animal population is growing again, we never got into a critical situation with animals. Rather, we were fascinated by horses grazing peacefully or foxes sneaking about.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Vermibus – In Absentia
2. Balú – Hutsean
3. Pati Baztán for Contorno Urbano 12 + 1 in Barcelona
4. Ai Weiwei: Human Flow. Trailer
5. Balloons Festoon the Ballet with Jihan Zencirli
BSA Special Feature: Vermibus – In Absentia
The Francis Bacon of advertising posters, Vermibus returns today in the Parisian Metro, solvent in hand. In such a fashionable city, where the image of beauty has been examined from every angle, it’s the visual pollution of consumerism that the Berlin-based artist targets. Shot in a very public series of venues, the Xar Lee directed video is significant for its absence of public, the intended audience for the beauty posters in this, their public space.
Hutsean – Balú
“Art is not in museums. Art is in all men and women,” proclaims Balú in tribute to Jorge Oteiza. The multidisciplinary artist from Basque country commissions his own intervention to honor this BAsque sculptor and thinker who has been a reference point for thought and art since Balú began his career. The intervention carried out in the Paseo Nuevo de Donosti, is located under the sculpture “empty construction” by Jorge Oteiza.
Pati Baztán for Contorno Urbano 12 + 1 in Barcelona
Pati Baztán takes special pleasure in savoring the color, the process, the materiality of her lifeblood. Here you can see the models of contemporary staking claim in the public sphere, asserting the massive blocks of color and volume as ends unto themselves, upending conventions of aerosol wizardry and defining a different approach to intervention.
Ai Weiwei: Human Flow. Trailer
Chinese contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei keeps the focus where governments and war profiteers would like to distract you from. When entire cultures are displaced, their lives made precarious, it is no longer simply geopolitical grabbing for resources – it is inhumanity. Ai Weiwei finds it and flows it into our midst.
Balloons Festoon the Ballet with Jihan Zencirli
Jihan Zencirli aka GERONIMO takes over the visuals with her ballooning imagination in the winter months at New York City Ballet for the sixth presentation of Art Series. Previous installations have featured notables like Faile,JR, Santtu Mustonen, and Dustin Yellen in the main atrium and onstage at Lincoln Center.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. “While They Seek Solutions” by Vegan Flava
2. The Brooklyn Burrow: Episode 1. Iena Cruz
3. MOMO: A (brief) tour of the nomadic artist’s New Orleans Studio
4. 167 Art Project – Lecce, Italy.
BSA Special Feature: “While They Seek Solutions” by Vegan Flava
“The speed of ruin is just something else,” says Street Artist Vegan Flava, and it’s an exasperating realization. Extrapolated to thinking about the enormous war industry, and there is such a thing, you realize that pouring money year after year into ever more sophisticated and destructive weaponry only results in broken bridges, buildings, water systems, vital infrastructure, lives.
Construction, on the other hand, can be arduous and time consuming, takes vision, planning, collaboration, and fortitude. Like great societies.
How quickly they can be eroded, destroyed.
But since Vegan Flava is creating during this destructive enterprise, you get a glimpse into his creativity, and sense of humor. Similarly the psychographics of this story and how it is told reveal insights into the artist and larger themes.
“A drawing, an idea on a piece of paper, can swiftly grow into something larger, thoughts and actions leading to the next. But creating something is never as fast as to tear it to pieces. The speed of ruin is just something else,” he says.
The Brooklyn Burrow: Episode 1. Iena Cruz
“I don’t have a limitation on techniques,” says Iena Cruz in this new video of a series documenting the current Brooklyn scene. We’ve seen the artist changing his style gradually in shows and on the street for about five years now, and his curiosity for discovery is part of what defines his style- along with his color palette perhaps. Here director Brad Ford and Owly team document the creation and on-street reactions to Cruz’ 3-D version of the Stay Puft man from Ghostbusters.
MOMO: A (brief) tour of the nomadic artist’s New Orleans Studio
“I arrive with my best possible idea,” says MOMO, “and I hope people like it”. First seen here in Brooklyn and Manhattan a decade ago, the bright fire of MOMO’s mind continues to burn through technical and abstract experimentation on the street. Here he lends his talent to a brand for a commercial gig in a nicely filmed brief interview.
167 Art Project – Lecce, Italy.
Scenes from an Italian neighborhood here as the community mural project 167 Art brings Artez, Mantra, Bifido&Julieta XLF, and Chekos’art to create high quality compositions to a curious and appreciative audience. The technical skill, pacing, music, and video flourishes compliment the story – which necessarily is the people of the neighborhood and the artists laboring talents.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. “Aesthetic of Eas” A film by Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk / MZM Projects
2. 1UP CREW (ONE UNITED POWER) HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018
3. Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark’s Exclusive Debut of “Layer Cake”
BSA Special Feature: “Aesthetic of Eas” A film by Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk / MZM Projects
“We wanted everything to occur naturally in this movie. We wanted to achieve spontaneity,” say film makers Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk about their up close look at graffiti writer/abstract painter EAS. In this new film they have captured the creative spirit in action as unobtrusively as they could, allowing the artist to speak – in a way he never does, they say.
Today on BSA Film Friday we’re proud to debut this new portrait by three artists – one painter and two film makers – to encourage BSA readers to take a moment and observe, inside and outside.
The directors spoke with us about the making of the film, how they developed it, and how EAS works as an artist;
BSA: Can you talk a little about EAS and his painting history and what your connection to his work is? Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk: Eas started to paint graffiti in 2003. It was a classic graffiti, or at least “as classic as it could be” in Central Ukraine during early 2000’s.. He was truly addicted to lettering for more than decade, but then he started to feel entangled by the letters. Eas was confused by the the meaning of the letters, since all he wanted to do is to play with a shape, but not with the meaning. It was the moment when he made the step forward non-representational painting and became the part of East-European post-graffiti scene.
We’ve met Eas at “Black Circle” Festival in August 2015. It was a significant event for graffiti writers and graffiti-associated abstract painters, therefore we were doing our “field research” about the scene there. Even though, we were familiar with the style of Eas through the online platforms, it was the first time we saw him during the process of creation. At that moment, standing at the bottom of the swimming pool of abandoned Soviet health center and watching how the paint is splashing on the wall yet obeying the artist’s gesture; hearing the spray-can scratching the surface in order to make the finishing lines; experiencing the energy of desolated place released by Eas… At that particular moment we clearly decided that someday we will do the movie about this man. Probably, in his art, in his way of work, in his attitude and approach we felt the truthfulness which is unfortunately very rare in today’s urban and contemporary art.
BSA: How did you decide on the pacing of the film, which seems like it is suspended in a honey-like substance. KB and NT: Yeah, that was pretty much the idea. We wanted to create the feeling as if the time slows down. During those 15 minutes of film the audience should simply follow the tone of voice and deepen into the lines, the shapes, narration, to feel the depth of every word. Most likely, it’s just the way we experience the art of Eas by ourselves. If you will look at some of his artworks for a certain time you will feel how the image slowly absorbs you. We aimed to share this experience and the atmosphere which actually couldn’t be the same without the perfectly convenient soundtrack written by Berlin-based artist Shunsuke Hatori and performed by his band “SINSENSA”.
BSA: Did know that EAS was so verbally illustrative when describing his process before you began filming? KB and NT: Actually, we’re pretty sure that most of the people who know Eas in real life would be quite surprised by the openness of his narration. Eas is not much of a talker, he’s that type of the person who prefers to stay aside, alone with his thoughts and only the closest people around. Before the filming we thought that it’ll be our main challenge, well even Eas was thinking that way. Although, we believe that everything depends on the moment and the right approach. We spent a few days with Eas talking from morning till late night, we’ve met his family and even visited his grandmother. Our recorded interview lasts for almost 7 hours in overall. Frankly saying, it was an amazing experience and the real “hidden jem”. All that we wanted is to have the life talk and not the text prepared in advance. We were asking the hundreds of questions and he just had to answer it freely. That was the principle for this film. We wanted to have the spoken “flow”, just as he has it in painting. But we didn’t even expect that the “flow” will appear to be so candid, open and so truly poetical.
BSA: “When I feel good about the place it means the piece will be more accomplished. More complete” he says in the film. How did you and EAS locate the right location to do his work, and was it difficult to respect his space? KB and NT: This question hits straight to the point. To respect the space and not interfere with the “energy” between the wall and the artist during the painting process appeared to be our biggest challenge. We knew Eas and how sensitive he is regarding the “spiritual” part of the process. He will never tell that you’re distracting him, but it surely will affect the painting. None of us wanted it to be this way. That’s why it required the certain effort and respect from the both sides. Each of us did our best in order to keep the process as natural as it could be. And it seems like the spirit of the wall let us to capture the magic.
We wanted everything to occur naturally in this movie. We wanted to achieve spontaneity. Therefore, the searching for locations probably was the most interesting part. Together with Eas we were like stalkers, riding in the car through the forests, fields and villages around Kremenchuk city in search for a “zone”, a very special place which could be felt only by him.
“Aesthetic of Eas” is represented as an abstract in 5 sections. Each section (except the fifth, because it contains only artworks, not the process) is visualized by the different location and the fresh artwork in there.
First section “Place” was filmed in the village Andriyky, the village where the ancestors of Eas were living. His grandma still lives there, even though the place is almost a ghost village, only a few people are living there now. Most of the houses are abandoned. There are a lot of artworks made by Eas there. This place is exceptionally special for him.
This year Eas had a special birthday gift in early October. He was hang-gliding over the fields near the city. From the sky he saw the abandoned building in the middle of the field. Surely, he wanted to discover it. This is what he proposed us to do together. After the long journey through the forest and fields we found this mysterious building. It was the abandoned airport Nedogarki. This place definitely has a character and Eas was so excited that he did two artworks there. “Wall”, the second section of the film shows the indoor artwork and the forth section “Line” is visualized by the outdoor artwork of abandoned airport.
The place for the third section “Color” appeared accidentally in the middle of our journey around Kremenchuk. Eas noticed the concrete walls surrounded by the trees near the cornfield. It was a good example how places are finding him by themselves.
BSA: It looks like he creates some of his his own art instruments. What did you learn from watching his rhythm of painting and splattering and splashing color? KB and NT: Yeah, he’s very passionate about the new things and methods. The way how Eas works with the paint is truly mesmerizing. This is the main reason why we wanted to make a movie about him so badly. You just have to see it. The gesture, rhythm, concentration… As if he is a shaman during some mysterious ritual. At that moment you really start to think about spiritual, about the “inner necessity”, or “infinite abyss”, about expression over illustration and everything you’ve ever heard about the abstract.
Although, the most important thing is that he’s doing it not because he studied Kandinsky or Pollock, but because it really comes from the inside. You can say it by watching how purely spontaneous he is during the process of creation. Unlike the many urban and young contemporary artists Eas doesn’t do it as symbolic effort of made-up resistance, neither as pathetic attempt to proudly decorate another forsaken white cube, he just doing it, because he simply cannot not to do.
New Years celebrations in Berlin are unlike most other cities – with people exploding fireworks literally all over the entire city for hours. To add to the festivities the 1UP crew also added their own adornment to the trainline, in the middle of all the revelers and explosives.
Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark’s Exclusive Debut of “Layer Cake”
The dynamic duo of Patrick Hartl & Christian Hundertmark have developed an artistic dialogue based in large part on a process of art-making that they discovered together.
Derived from the street practice of “going over” – which is normally looked upon as one artist dissing another – the two graffiti/Street Artists have refined the practice and turned it into a form to celebrate, to study, to appreciate, and turn on its head.
In this short teaser “Layer Cake” explains how it is made and gives a hint at a promising future for the artists who have challenged themselves to create something new together. We are sure there is much more to come!
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. A video re-cap by Selina Miles
2. Private View: Ian Strange via Nowness
3. Desprestigio by Pejac
4. Bonus Video. What the hell is a “Bomb Cyclone”?
BSA Special Feature: ONO’U Tahiti 2017. A video re-cap by Selina Miles
There is so much going on that you might miss during a mural festival. Aside from the progress of the artists at different rates in various locations around a city, which is a standard expectation, each festival is so unique in its personality and people that you cannot predict what you are likely to see next.
In Tahiti you can expect gorgeous natural beauty, and with ONO’U you can also expect a fashion show, a live projection mapping with the community, a panel discussion, a museum opening, delicious foods, flowers in your hair, and stories about the native people, wildlife, religious customs, colonialism, the value of the currency, and face painting. That’s before the weekend.
Filmmaker Selina Miles takes you up above it and directly streetside, a clear-visioned romantic who sees the beauty and the eclectic nature of our nature. Today we’re pleased to show her wrap up of October’s events in French Polynesia on the islands of Tahiti and Raiatea.
Private View: Ian Strange via Nowness
Continuing the attack on sublime suburbia to gain vengeance on the evil within, former Street Artist Kid Zoom, now Ian Strange, has the funding to do large and elaborate decimations and capture them on film for exhibition. Here is a private view, as it were, of a series of private matters made public.
Desprestigio by Pejac
Prestigious indeed.
A riveting bit of documentary storytelling that leads you to his newest artwork, Pejac takes a glocal story and reveals the folly of man. It happened 15 years ago, and is happening every few days all over the globe while the Earth’s economy is still firmly in the grip of the oil industry.
“This piece talks about the tragedy (of Prestige) that covered the coast of my country (and my region) in black 15 years ago, and whose damages to nature are still visible today,” says Pejac. “I chose this particular case, but want to extend it to all the environmental tragedies that happen on our seas and oceans every few years. Desprestigio works as a dark souvenir of a fact that should not be forgotten: we must, and can, be much better guests on Earth. After all, this work is a message in a bottle.’’
Bonus Video. What the hell is a “Bomb Cyclone”?
We started this week’s Film Friday with Tahiti’s tropical weather and end it with our own Jaime Rojo wading through the snow in New York’s Central Park yesterday for what the news services informed us all was called a “bomb cyclone”. For most of us, it looked like a snowstorm. The blustery wind and the snow and rapidly dropping temperatures meant that many stayed inside and many took the opportunity to see the natural beauty of this whitewashing of the urban environment. Here are a few choice shots Rojo got yesterday for you from right in the middle of Manhattan.
Of the thousands of images he took this year in places like New York, Berlin, Scotland, Hong Kong, Sweden, French Polynesia, Barcelona, and Mexico City, photographer Jaime Rojo found that Street Art and graffiti are more alive than every before. From aerosol to brush to wheat-paste to sculpture and installations, the individual acts of art on the street can be uniquely powerful – even if you don’t personally know where or who it is coming from. As you look at the faces and expressions it is significant to see a sense of unrest, anger, fear. We also see hope and determination.
Every Sunday on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our weekly interview with the street. Primarily New York based, BSA interviewed, shot, and displayed images from Street Artists from more than 100 cities over the last year, making the site a truly global resource for artists, fans, collectors, gallerists, museums, curators, academics, and others in the creative ecosystem. We are proud of the help we have given and thankful to the community for what you give back to us and we hope you enjoy this collection – some of the best from 2017.
Brooklyn Street Art 2017 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;
Artists included in the video are: Suitswon, Curiot, Okuda, Astro, Sixe Paredes, Felipe Pantone, Hot Tea, Add Fuel, Hosh, Miss Van, Paola Delfin, Pantonio, Base23, R1, Jaune, Revok, Nick Walker, 1UP Crew, SotenOne, Phat1, Rime MSK, Martin Whatson, Alanis, Smells, UFO907, Kai, Tuts, Rambo, Martha Cooper, Lee Quinoes, Buster, Adam Fujita, Dirty Bandits, American Puppet, Disordered, Watchavato, Shepard Fairey, David Kramer, Yoko Ono, Dave The Chimp, Icy & Sot, Damien Mitchell, Molly Crabapple, Jerkface, Isaac Cordal, SacSix, Raf Urban, ATM Street Art, Stray Ones, Sony Sundancer, ROA, Telmo & Miel, Alexis Diaz, Space Invader, Nasca, BK Foxx, BordaloII, The Yok & Sheryo, Arty & Chikle, Daniel Buchsbaum, RIS Crew, Pichi & Avo, Lonac, Size Two, Cleon Peterson, Miquel Wert, Pyramid Oracle, Axe Colours, Swoon, Outings Project, Various & Gould, Alina Kiliwa, Tatiana Fazalalizadeh, Herakut, Jamal Shabaz, Seth, Vhils, KWets1, FinDac, Vinz Feel Free, Milamores & El Flaco, Alice Pasquini, Os Gemeos, Pixel Pancho, Kano Kid, Gutti Barrios, 3 x 3 x 3, Anonymouse, NeSpoon, Trashbird, M-city, ZoerOne, James Bullowgh, and 2501.
Cover image of Suits Won piece with Manhattan in the background, photo by Jaime Rojo.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Jumping Rooftops with Ilko Iliev & Marin Kafedjiiski in Bulgaria 2. Urban Art Festival Basel/Switzerland 2017
3. Three in a Row from Grenoble Street Art Fest 2017: Seth, How Nosm, Monkey Bird
4.”Sky Is The Limit” by Jérome Thomas
BSA Special Feature: Jumping Rooftops with Ilko Iliev & Marin Kafedjiiski in Bulgaria
To get your heart racing on Friday here’s free-runner and stunt person Ilko Iliev jumping over obstacles, across rooftops, and scaling buildings across Bulgaria. No doubt it gives you a taste of the daring feats done in darkness by many a graffiti writer and Street Artist as acts of athleticism and adrenaline-pushing cat and mouse scenarios.
Winner of this years Best Drone Film at the Drone Film Festival for Australia + New Zealand, Director of Photography Marin Kafedjiiski takes you along with the action as seen from above and almost makes you catch your breath.
Urban Art Festival Basel/Switzerland 2017
Right now Art Basel is in Miami but last month it was in Switzerland where the Urban Art Festival was held indoors in the Messe Basel exhibition area. Well organized and really engaging for an attentive audience, the show had all the elements – combining graffiti bombers alongside Street Artists bombing large walls inside the exhibition space while curious fans checked them out. With Bustart at the helm as founder, he says that, “The main goal was and is to support the urban art in Switzerland and help artists.”
The 16 artist event drew over 70,000 visitors according to organizers, and we’re please to debut the re-cap video here on BSA Film Friday.
3 in a Row from Grenoble Street Art Fest 2017.
The 3rd iteration of the French festival was held in June and the whole city is involved – with murals, a conference, a film festival, classes, tours… Here are three brief videos of the murals from Seth, How Nosm, and Monkey Bird from this summer.
SETH
How & Nosm
Monkey Bird
“Sky Is The Limit” by Jérome Thomas
Here’s a trailer for new documentary following artists as they paint large-scale murals worldwide. It’s called “Sky Is The Limit”. True.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Rough Cut of Haring on Train in Mexico City (DF)
2. Niels Shoe Meulman in Magic City
3. Carlo McCormick talks about ROA at Magic City
4. Miquel Wert / 12 + 1 Contorno Urbano
5. “Awareness, Optimism, Commitment” by GEC Art
BSA Special Feature: Rough Cut of Haring on Train in Mexico City (DF)
It all took us by surprise last week in Mexico City when suddenly a whole train covered on both sides with Keith Haring’s work approached while we were waiting at the platform to catch the Linea 2 of the Metro. He made his name in part by illegally doing drawings like these in NYC subways and here now they are crushing a whole train. The name of the project is “Ser Humano. Ser Urbano” or “Being Human. Being Urban” and it aims to promote human values and human rights. The pattern you see is from “Sin Titulo (Tokyo Fabric Design)” – now stretched across these whole cars, if you will.
The train itself is inexplicably having brake troubles, so we get some jerky spur-of-the-moment footage but all week on Instagram and Facebook we’ve received tons of comments from people reacting to this little bit of Keith video by Jaime Rojo on BSA.
Niels Shoe Meulman in Magic City – The Art Of The Street :
Niels Shoe Meulman spent some nights in a Munich jail thirty years ago for mucking about on the walls. This year he was paid to do it in Munich for Magic City, the travelling morphing exhibition (now in Stockholm) where Street Art is celebrated along with all its tributaries – including a film program and a number of photographs by your friends here at BSA.
Born, raised and based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Shoe shares here his new improvisational piece and some of his reflections on his process and his evolution from being in advertising as an art/creative director and reclaiming his soul as a graffiti/Street Art/fine artist. As ever, Martha is in the frame, putting him in the frame.
Carlo McCormick talks about ROA at Magic City – The Art Of The Street / Dresden-Munich-Stockholm
The urban naturalist ROA gets the Carlo McCormick treatment here as the chief curator of Magic City does the talking for the anonymous Ghent-based artist who has globe-trotted for almost a decade with his marginalized animal parade in monochrome. Here you get to see the inside/outside of his practice, a genuine master as work – with the delicious insight of Carlo to guide your appreciation.
Miquel Wert / 12 + 1 Contorno Urbano
In studio with Miguel Wert we get to see him sifting through a pile of black and white photos, assessing the scene, the sitters, the psychological-emotional dynamics of families, lovers, haters.
“In most family photos the interpersonal dynamics are more subtle,” we wrote when the wall was first unveiled in Barcelona, “but a close reading of posture, body language, and facial expressions all give unconsciously a lot of information about the true nature of the relationships officially on display.”
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. PROCESS: BSA Raw Video with Tres Gauchos Elian, JAZ, Ever Siempre
2. “See Her” by Ann Lewis
3. The Grifters. RAGE DFS
4. Yoko Ono: Imagine Peace
BSA Special Feature: PROCESS: BSA Raw Video with Tres Gauchos Elian, JAZ, Ever Siempre
The process of making art in the studio is a privilege to see and be a part of. This week in Mexico City we have been invited into that sacred space where three Street Artists from Argentina are working in rooms of an old building in the central part of the city as they prepare for an upcoming show.
Here are a few minutes of creativity in the moment as we watch Elian, Franco JAZ Fazoli, and Nicolas EVER Romero each work in mediums that they were not originally known for. Each is stretching themselves creatively- JAZ is working on ripped paper collage instead of sculpture or painting, Elian is creating extruded shapes and objects to hang rather than painting geometrics, and EVER is constructing “still lifes” to paint with oil on canvas instead of surreal figures.
“See Her” by Ann Lewis
Formerly GILF!, now Ann Lewis, the activist Street Artist and fine artist completed a mural called “See Here” this summer in Boston as part of the Now and There program. A compelling image raises awareness of women incarcerated and the route to inclusion in society and the many challenges that accompany that route. For our part, it is important to see her.
The Grifters. RAGE DFS
Commemorating 20 years of hitting up trains with RAGE, here is graffiti bombing as action movie, courtesy of Boris and the Grifters and RAGE DSF.
Yoko Ono: Imagine Peace
Every Christmas season we look forward to Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s “War is Over (If You Want It)” sign in Times Square. A few weeks ago we were fortunate to see in person Yoko’s latest project withCreative Time’s Pledges of Allegianceprogram. Here is a bit of video showing the flag flapping in the wind in Manhattan.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. OLEK: Keep Going
2. Aïda Gómez: Ladies First
3. A Look at the Worlds First Museum of Urban Contemporary Art
4. MurOne // 12 + 1 Project
5. Obey Giant – The Documentary
BSA Special Feature: OLEK: Keep Going
During the opening weekend of the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art (UN), BSA and the other curators invited 150 artists to exhibit indoors and about 35 to do site specific installations and performances in the 5 block radius of the museum. Polish/Brooklyn Street Artist OLEK created and performed along with a team of assistants a three hour meditative crocheting event under the elevated train line between Bülowstraße and Nollendorfplatz stations.
Entitled “Keep Going,” one can imagine a number of interpretations of what is intended by the artist. Is it to reflect the unstopping, unstoppable traffic of people on the street who saunter blithely by despite your unique and meaningful actions, née, existence? Is it a poetic and literal illustration of the cyclic nature of construction/destruction exhaustion/renewal that are earmarks of the life and death process we are all engaged in? Perhaps it is a commentary on the workers who toil day after night after day in this world, never able to get ahead, never meriting more than a curious look or consideration. Or is it an exhortation to fully live ones’ life regardless of obstacles, fears, or the senseless chaotic behavior of the world around us?
Director/cinematographer Ulle Hadding gently observes the scene, examining the performers’ body language and capturing facial expressions as they quietly perform their work amidst the currents of a human river flowing in around and through them.
Also Martha C. is there among the re-assembling assembled, bless her and bless us.
Aïda Gómez: Ladies First
While doing an artists residency in Iceland recently with ART Attack Neskaupstaður, Aïda Gómez noticed the signs around her. “The plaque shows a man followed by a woman and I asked myself, why is this signal like this? Why the feminine figure is following the masculine figure?” Indeed.
A look in the WORLD’S FIRST MUSEUM OF URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART
Doug at Fifth Wall TV puts himself in the middle of the UN inaugural events and uses his astute powers of observation about its move into contemporary art, with a stop along the way to wonder about gentrification.
MurOne // 12 + 1 Project. Contorno Urbano
The latest from the 12 + 1 Project, the artist MurOne bringing some mechanically inspired eye candy to enjoy.
Obey Giant – The Documentary
Finally it all comes together and we get a balanced insight into the art and dissent of Shepard Fairey.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1.“Collective Heartbreak” KNOW HOPE at Nuart 2017
2. Igor Ponosov “Too Far, Too Close”
3. UNIQA Art Łódź project in Łódź, Poland
4. Agostino Iaurci for Parees Fest.
BSA Special Feature: “Collective Heartbreak” KNOW HOPE at Nuart 2017
Loquacious street poet Know Hope usually has a lot to say and the Isreali Street Artist’s somewhat cryptic text interludes often accompany imagery on walls and his indoor studio works. Custom made verses, sometimes heart rendering, contemplate isolation, unresolved miscommunications, aspiration, gnawing fears; interstitial vagaries that channel political as personal emotional drama, a suspended state of limbo.
For his interactive installations at Nuart this year Addam Yekutieli aka Know Hope spent time listening. He collected stories from Stavanger locals about their experiences of heartbreak and hand painted fragments from those stories in austere urban . For the outdoor part of the project, Addam extracted fragments of words from their stories and placed them around the city, drawing a common story that he hopes strikes universal truths.
IGOR PONOSOV “Too Far, Too Close”
“ ‘Too far, Too Close’ is a project by the Russian artist Igor Ponosov which sees a typical Stavanger sailing boat transformed into an abstract mural for Nuart Festival 2017.
The project is meant to symbolizes the distance or disconnect between the public and the vast majority of state-sanctioned public art. The piece was supplemented by Ponosov’s second outdoor art work, titled ‘No signal’, which critiques the growing use of projectors in street art mural production.”
UNIQA Art Łódź project in Łódź, Poland.
Regular readers of BSA will recognize almost every one of these sculptures from Łódź, Poland as we have published stories on them previously. Here is a quick round-up of the last couple of years’ worth of public sculptures featured in the UNIQA project, exploring another in-between strata of semi-autonomous Street Art/Public Art involvement that requires permissions (usually) and yet is not choked to death by bureaucratic committee.
Agostino Iacurci for Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. Video Titi Muñoz
A process video of the creation of a new mural by Italian Street Artist/Muralist Agostino Iacurci done last month in Spain for the Parees Fest. Aside from the impressive result, it is notable to see that he has an ongoing daily audience sitting comfortably before the enormous wall, sipping a coffee.
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
