All posts tagged: Gdansk

M-City: Wishes And Hopes For 2018

M-City: Wishes And Hopes For 2018

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s an assortment of treats to surprise you with every day – to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2018. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to each of you for inspiring us throughout the year.

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Gdańsk-based art professor and Street Artist M-City has been stenciling the inner workings of a real and imagined industrial world onto walls, sea vessels, and an aviation control tower among other surfaces for a decade or so. He uses his work as metaphor for larger messages, if you care to interpret them, and a thinking man like M-City rarely leaves a stone unturned in his observations of human foibles and geopolitics today or in history. Today he tells us about typical scene in cities around the globe where Street Artists and other Creatives bring a moribund place to life, only to have it snatched up by developers and culture vultures when the area matures into something profitable.


M-City

A few buildings look like nowhere else.

This one is located in the center of Gdańsk betweeen a shipyard and the old town. The Building has a long story and was built before the second war, becoming known as the biggest “Pumpernickel” bakery.

90% of the city was destroyed during World War II and that’s why in this photo the area is still a bit empty around it. Over 30 artist have spent the last few years creating here; painters, photographers, sculptors, theater people and many more. We did many shows in a gallery here and and in other parts of the building.

These cultural events and the environment we built – everything happened here without any public money, just a bit of private support. My studio is also inside and outside I did a lot of quick murals to comment on public and political life.

Now someone has bought our building and wants to destroy/develop it as soon as possible and to build part of a new town. This place will be gone by the end of the year. It was one of the last independent art places in our region and I don’t think that we will find this  kind of place in the future because the City is eating art spots fast and faster every year.

M-city. Gdańsk, Poland. (photo M-city)

 

M-city

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.27.14

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.27.14

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Tragedy is grabbing world headlines again and we can’t help but be swayed by it as the downed passenger aircraft in Ukraine smells of a lawless future and the international community seems rather helpless to address it meaningfully. Simultaneously the Israeli / Palestinian crises flares for the seemingly millionth time along with international opinion, a fire now fed with large helpings of social media oxygen, buffeted by various marches in the actual streets around the world and here in NYC.

Our banner today is a relatively new collage/painting currently on view in the Italian Cultural Institute of New York by the Street Artist BR1, who depicts the strife in somewhat cartoonish exaggerated simplicity, flattening the complexity of history with two dimensional caricature. Comments some made when we ran it a couple of weeks ago for the opening of the show (before the current events had begun) made it clear that even art about the conflict seems radioactive.

Our top image this week is an actual street piece from Icy & Sot and it brought more comments on Instagram than most other photos, so strong are people’s reactions to it. As far as the Ukraine/Russia news, we haven’t seen any Street Art about that – except maybe for that Billi Kid caricature of Putin as a cowboy earlier in the year but you couldn’t really say it is directly related.

With this pall of strife filling screens and streets right now its no wonder the one image below of Ewok’s wall full of discontented people was shared so many times on our FB Fan Page this week. “Hey these grumpy faces make me happy,” said one commenter.

So anyway, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Art is Trash, Atom, BustArt, Cold World, E.L.K., Ewok, False, GG, Gualicho, Icy & Sot, Kuma, Myth, Osch, Otto Schade, Post No Selfie, QRST, Sean9Lugo, Sebs, Sexer, Topaz, UFO907, Unvale, Wing, and Zaria.

Top Image >> Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EWOK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Atom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kuma . False (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sebs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BustArt, Zaria and Osch AKA Otto Schade . Detail. New collaboration in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (photo © Bustart)

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BustArt, Zaria and Osch AKA Otto Schade . New collaboration in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (photo © Bustart)

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E.L.K. for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The housing boom, now broke. Unvale. Bethlehem, PA (photo © Unvale)

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Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Art Is Trash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sexer is thinking perhaps you have to hit people over the head with love. At The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Post No Selfie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cold World (and Chena, Lily, and Yusef as well). Not sure what this is about. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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UFO907 traced over UFO907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Topaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gualicho from Buenos Aires likes to merge organic with mechanic, natural with industrial, offering cross sections and diagrams from his imagination. This abstraction of a fish and water is in downtown Warsaw, Poland. (photo © Gualicho)

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Gualicho for Monumental Arts. Gdansk, Poland. (photo © Gualicho)

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GG spearing dinner for a nice fish barbecue. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. East River, NYC. July 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
 
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Street Poet Opiemme Honors Nobel Laureate in Poland

Street Poet Opiemme Honors Nobel Laureate in Poland

Italian text worker Opiemme just finished this ode to letters, words, and poetry in Gdansk, Poland for the Monumental Art Festival. A lover of the language, the muralist and public artist hopes to garner attention for the written word.

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Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

“I hope to spread poetry and create curiosity, to push people towards reading,” he says as he describes this new 10 story wall that is partitioned into outer space, the sky and the earth. “Like the energy of the sun, the letters radiate, transmitting in different languages knowledge, legends, and customs. They give “color” to our communications like light gives color to things.”

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Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

The mural is intended to honor the Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Wislawa Szymborska, and it includes a passage from his work,… Truth, do not pay me too much attention. Solemnity, be magnanimous toward me …” from Under a Certain Little Star.

The nearer the words fall to earth, the more he hopes he will capture the interest of young readers. He says the words are simply sliding down the streaming drips of colors made from pouring bottles of paints.  Using the eye candy as a seductive player, he says, the piece “is designed to attract the attention of adults and children in order to bring them closer to poetry”.

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Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

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Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

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Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

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Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opimemme)

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Opiemme. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

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Opiemme. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

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Opiemme. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

 

Click HERE to learn more about Monumental Art.

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Film Friday: 06.07.13

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

Now screening: Petro Wodkins Taking a P**s in Belgium, Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada in Belgium, UnO in Italy, PROZAK in Poland, and Mr. Rogers Singing in Your Hood.

BSA Special Feature:
Art Culture Jamming with Petro Wodkins Taking a P**s in Belgium

In this video we see the very large success of artist Petro Wodkins in subverting (or extroverting) the famed statue Manneken Pis, originally done by Jerome Duquesnoy in 1388 and which still draws small crowds of onlookers in Belgium.

First off, who knew people were so interested in watching public urination? In New York that old statue would get a “quality of life” summons from the police, especially if he was behind a dumpster at 2 a.m. on the Lower East Side. Anyhow, the golden showering replacement of the cherubic original is all grown up with feet in boots firmly planted and trenchcoat opened and the artist says it is based on an image of himself, but that had not been verified as of press time.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada: Terrestrial Series. Mama Cash, Amsterdam

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada is an early culture jammer who has in more recent years created a number of large scale installations visible mainly by planes, including a giant Barack Obama made with 650 metric tons of sand and gravel in Barcelona. This installation in this video was made with 80  volunteers in December to celebrate the women who work hard around the world championing human rights.

UnO @ Mura Mura Festival. Italy.

Like hand puppets? Get bored sitting around while your cool artist friends are painting walls like we have the whole frickin’ night to sit around and watch their creative geniousness getting up? Let’s squish their head with our fingers!

Also, this is from Italy and the MURA MURA festival so it may not be a big deal to them and mos def was not meant to be malicious, but the initial musical accompaniment here says the N-word about one thousand times, which we feel extremely conflicted about in general.  Possibly the recording is meant to draw attention to its ubiquitous use in music meant for youth. But it’s a sad commentary.

But the video is jammin, yo!

PROZAK in Gdansk, Poland

In case you think this is easy – climb the scaffolding with Prozak and his friend to the top and realize the monstrous amount of work it is to paint a building this size. And to make it artful and compelling. Respect.

Hey Neighbor! Mr. Rogers Somehow Knows We Want to Sing Together

A newly auto-tuned snap happy smack you on the back clappy song from some of the neighbors in your hood. Well, maybe not YOUR hood but some hood in television land. Have a great weekend.

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