All posts tagged: SiMPLE

Off the Path: Street Art & Graff in An Old Military Compound in Sweden

October 14, 2015 Artists

Street Art festivals are popping up like mushrooms across the globe, bringing murals, not street art, to cities primarily as a means of injecting life and culture into a community or business district. When we travel to see these walls we also like to check out the local organic spots off the beaten path where real street art and graffiti can run wild.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You go exploring partly out of respect for the roots of this rapidly evolving art practice – It was the graffiti writers, Situationists, radical hippie students, culture jammers, political anarchists and all manner of freewill installationists who brought us to this moment where cities are almost pleading for murals.

You also hike into tunnels, abandoned lots, underpasses, and neglected former industrial sectors because that is where you know the scene will be alive with experimentation, the spark of discovery, and a splash of old-school in-your-face rebellion without censorship.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For teens and 20-somethings of a certain disposition there’s nothing like grabbing some cans on a sunny Saturday and slaughtering a burned out bus with paint. Even better if its in the middle of a decommissioned military training site used by testosterone raging paintballers with guns full of color ducking behind concrete facades in camouflage fatigues. Amid the clouds of aerosol and bonfire smoke you find these paintings in the ruins, the remaining signs of an un-wasted youth.

According to locals people all the way from Stockholm and Gothenburg travel to paint at this 18,500 square meter former training facility for the Swedish armed forces. It’s built to mimic a real city to practice urban warfare training with rudimentary buildings, marked streets, and below ground tunnels to crawl though. No one remembers when it was first built but it was closed in 1989, left for hikers, berry pickers, and x-urban explorers to discover.

Shai Dahan . DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The traces of bonfires most likely are from paint ballers having a barbecue during their games,” says one of our guides named Anders, “or possibly they’re for heating their hands during winter games.” Either way the aerosol tags, characters, paintings, and occasional wheatpastes are still popping up and fresh ones ride alongside some now decades old.

So nevermind the prickers and the poison ivy and take a hike off the path and see some free-range artworks in their naturally unnatural environs – directly to you from Sweden.

Simple (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio . MSCR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SMUH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

S Camilla E Bostrom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NESH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JARN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GWC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HANS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HAS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GOBS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GES (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PEBS . DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mogul . Hoplouie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mogul . Hoplouie . Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AGUA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

September 17, 2014 Artists

It isn’t just Nuart any more.

Scandinavia is taking their mural festivals seriously thanks to buoyant economies, arts programming support, and a growing global appreciation for art in the streets in general. Included in the list of recent festivals are Denmark’s Galore (Copenhagen) and We Aart (Aalborg) and Sweden’s Artscape (Malmö) as well as the more graffiti-inflected Örebro, Helsinki’s Arabia and of course the one-kilometer long graffiti/Street Art slaughter that accompanies the mammoth music festival Roskilde.

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ECB. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

This month humbly began No Limit in the small city of Borås, Sweden, and artist / curator Shai Dahan hopes to enliven the daily views for this population of 66,000 with his curated collection of international artists from street / graffiti / fine art backgrounds.

An artist and entrepreneur who moved here from New York three and a half years ago, Dahan has been rallying local building owners and government institutions to aid in his idea of mounting a show on walls in the city that emulates the success of such festivals elsewhere.

Isaac Cordal. The small scale installations by the Spanish artist provide a welcome answer to the ever more massive tendencies of wall installations in mural programs. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“I’ve been on quite a journey and accomplishing this project has been something I have been working on personally for over a year,” he says. With participation and funding from the city of Borås, No Limit this month invited and hosted artists from countries such as The Netherlands, Brasil, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden and included artists like Natalia Rak, ETAM Cru, Peeta, ECB, The London Police, Kobra, Ollio, Ekta, Carolina Falkholt, Issac Cordal and one of the earliest Street Art stencilists, Blek le Rat.

Isaac Cordal. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“And best of all, we had no bad weather. The day Natalia landed (she was the first to arrive) the sun came out, and it stayed out until the very last day,” says Dahan of the festival that he deemed “phenomenal” and included guided tours for over 200 people at a time.

“After everyone left, it began raining, ” he smiles.

For countries that have a so-called “zero tolerance” for illegal art or any kind like Sweden, mural festivals like these effectively circumvent the rigid approval process that typically characterizes public art projects and many make inroads into engaging public space with art in a new way that is emblematic of a vibrant global movement. It may be a tenuous line to walk, but more cities seem willing to embrace this swing of the pendulum with art in the streets.

The Brazillian Street Artist named Kobra created a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and inventor of dynamite. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Kobra. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police began stripping because of the hot sun and of course, Jane Fonda. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Natalia Rak. Detail. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The graffiti writing artist from Venice named Peeta basically killed his wall with a signature three dimensional tag that floats off of the wall. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Simple. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Simple)

Ollio. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Carolina Falkholt. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Ekta. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Etam Cru. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Click HERE to learn more about No Limit Borås.

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Fun Friday 03.02.12

March 2, 2012 Artists

Before we get down to the Street Art related stuff, everybody get up and dance to some “True Romance” across a snowy mountain top with 20 of your closest backup dancers! Indian spandex space aerobics costumes not necessary. It’s FUN FRIDAY!

Can’t stop, won’t stop! That was exhilarating, wasn’t it? Now let’s see what’s up Street Art-wise around the whirl:

1. Pure Evil goes Pop @Boxpark Gallery (London)
2. Gregory Siff “There & Back” At Siren Studios (Hollywood)
3. ThinkSpace Gives You “Picks of the Harvest 2012” (LA)
4. Simple has Solo Show at Urban Art Room (Sweden)
5. “As The Crow Flies” Benefit for Art Against Knives (London)
6. Gregory Siff Time Lapse at Siren Studios Mural (VIDEO)

Pure Evil goes Pop @Boxpark Gallery (London)

Pure Evil opened his show at BOXPARK in London’s Shoreditch neighborhood. BOXPARK strips and refits shipping containers to create unique, low cost, low risk, ‘box shops’. This show opens to the general public today through the month of March.