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

Now screening:
1. ERWTJE83 turn to Spray Daily’s Black Lines
2. Ai Weiwei “Turandot”, His Version
3. Gold Digger: An Ephemeral Installation in an Historic Location

BSA Special Feature: ERWTJE83 turn to Spray Daily’s Black Lines

Graffiti writer ERWTJE83 shares with you the finer details of his practice here for Spray Daily’s Black Lines series. Since the early days of writers, the blackbook has been endemic to the culture. Similarly, the subway bench (or ‘writer’s bench’) was a place to share with peers and discuss. Today, the metaphor carries to Youtube, where you can get inspired by ERWTJE83’s command of think felts and black lines. Of course, you have to have product placement in the composition too because, you know, the man.

Ai Weiwei “Turandot”, His Version

He was an extra as assistant to the executioner. That was 35 years ago in the Lincoln Center staging of Franco Zeffirelli’s production of “Turandot”. He says he was just trying to pay New York rents.

They haven’t gotten any cheaper by the way. An average Manhattan studio is more than $2,300. When AiWeiWei was in “Turandot” here the same studio would have been $1000.

Nonetheless, here Ai Weiwei is in Rome, triumphant after last nights closing of one week of performances at Opera di Roma. He says he never would have predicted this. Seeing the cast in street clothes rehearsing is revelatory as well.

Name: Turandot
Direction, Scenes, Costumes, Video: Ai Weiwei
Location: Teatro Costanzi, Opera di Roma
Dates: March 22-31, 2022

Gold Digger: An Ephemeral Installation in an Historic Location

I ain’t sayin’ they a gold digger. Wait. Yes, I am.

Gold Digger, the ephemeral installation winner of the first prize at the Tortosa’s A Cel Obert festival, a festival of ephemeral interventions held every year since 2014. Designed by architects Nicola Baldassarre, Salvatore Dentamaro, Francesco Di Salvo and Ilyass Erraklaouy, the ephemeral art transforms a historical space – without harming it. 112 thermal blankets cover the 16th century Patio de Sant Jordi and Sant Domènec dels Reials Colégis.