All posts tagged: UNIQA Art Łódź Project

BSA Film Friday: 11.03.17

BSA Film Friday: 11.03.17

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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.

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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.

 

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“The Head of John the Baptist” in a Water Fountain in Łódź, Poland

“The Head of John the Baptist” in a Water Fountain in Łódź, Poland

For a decade we’ve been saying that art in the streets of the modern city lies along a continuum between illegal, autonomous interventions and those that are officially sanctioned by institutions. In today’s posting from Łódź, Poland, we’re much nearer to the latter end of that continuum.

Szymon Ryczek for UNIQA Art Łódź project. Łódź, Poland. June 2017. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Part of UNIQA Art Łódź, a public art project that itself has metamorphosed from a multi-year mural program by (primarily) Street Artists on city walls to its current public sculpture program under the direction of Michał Bieżyński, here we have the head of John the Baptist.

Weighted with references to Biblical story of the martyr in spiritual opposition to King Herod and baptism by water, organizers also say that the sculpture commemorates the Jewish victims in Łódź ghettos during a time when their culture and lives were once blossoming, later destroyed by the Occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany. With the decapitated head as a symbol, one also may draw a connection with the highly staged videos circulated in recent years that purport to show hooded ISIS militants beheading people.

Szymon Ryczek for UNIQA Art Łódź project. Łódź, Poland. June 2017. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Sited on a pedestal in Old Town Park in its central pond, the location is in the part of the city where the Jewish community once settled, and the visual itself may be quite disturbing to viewers as it reflects a mirror image here until the end of the season. The artist Szymon Ryczek is a recent graduate of the Faculty of Graphic Art and Painting, Strzemiński Academy of Art in Łódź and the sculpture is made of epoxy resin dusted with carbon dust.

Previous artists in the sculpture program have included Lump, Etam and Robert Proch, Crystal Wagner, and Mona Tusz. The next project will be a large-scale sculpture by two Warsaw artists Tomasz Górnicki and Chazme at the end of July at the Łódź Fabryczna train station.

Szymon Ryczek for UNIQA Art Łódź project. Łódź, Poland. June 2017. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

 

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Mona Tusz Creates New Relief in Lodz, Poland

Mona Tusz Creates New Relief in Lodz, Poland

Artist Mona Tusz creates a relief mural in Lodz, Poland using stained glass, wood, metal, and custom illumination in her latest esoteric journey of spirit and emotion for this latest creation for UNIQA Art Lodz.

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

The public art program has been looking for alternatives to the classically painted mural and encouraging artists to experiment with techniques and materials and Tusz’ new work evokes a weightlessness in her new look into a tale told across a submerged and twinkling marine atmospheric.

Here the graduate of the Katowice Academy of Fine Arts takes advantage of a low wide wall to breathe space between floating elements that she hand painted in great detail. Incorporating lighting that is specific to the piece on Gdańska 132 st, night time evokes a celestial and quietly gleaming scene while the stained glass and varied 3 dimensional elements cast shadows and change hue throughout the day movement of the sun across this southern-facing wall.

“The art of Mona in general is characterized by extremely detailed, painted texture, which is barely visible on the photos,” says Michał Bieżyński, Art Director of UNIQA Art Lodz project, but you can see the fine brushwork on the characters if you look closely. All tolled the unique relief approach takes her work in a new direction and lifts the sky toward you.

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

 

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Mona Tusz for UNIQA Art Lodz Project. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

Please visit LODZ Murals below to learn more about this project.

www.facebook.com/lodzmurals

https://instagram.com/lodzmurals

Artist: Mona Tusz
Address: Gdańska 132 st.
Project: UNIQA Art Łódź #uniqaartlodz
Curator: Michał Bieżyński
Organizer: @lodzkiecentrumwydarzen

 

 

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch Welcome Autumn : “Enjoy The Silence” In Łódź, Poland

Etam Crew and Robert Proch Welcome Autumn : “Enjoy The Silence” In Łódź, Poland

In the northern hemisphere and in dirty Brooklyn the new season of Fall is upon us and in our minds we begin to hear Sinatra’s “Autumn in New York” intermingled with Van Morrison’s “Moondance” under the cover of October skies.  Yet on a hike through the Catskills just north of the city to see the leaves as they turn colors you reach a peak and look down on the rolling hills and the Hudson River below, smell the crisp clean air and listen.

What is that sound?

The buzzing of the city has left you momentarily and there is nothing but silence, spare the rustling of leaves blowing by your boots.

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Perhaps this is the kind of silence that Etam Crew and Robert Proch are speaking of in their home country of Poland, which is also enjoying this turn from summer to autumn. Their new mural “Enjoy the Silence” combines the distinctly different styles through a shared palette of earthen tones, with Proch subtly softening the sharp illustrations of Bezt and Sainer with an impressionism that unifies. This is the harvest of three artists who have been working hard on their respective crafts.

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

Part of the newly branded initiative UNIQA Art Łódź, “Silence” is one of the few murals that will be made in this mural-soaked city as curator Michał Bieżyński slowly moves the focus to sculptural installations in public space.

Happily, BSA has been there since the inception of the Łódź project and we’re pleased that we can continue to partner with Bieżyński to bring BSA readers these exclusive images of the new mural and a fresh new YouTube video of it’s process.

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch. “Enjoy The Silence” Detail. UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch. “Enjoy The Silence” Detail. UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch. “Enjoy The Silence” Detail. UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch. “Enjoy The Silence” Detail. UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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Etam Crew and Robert Proch. “Enjoy The Silence” Detail. UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 


Our most sincere thanks to Mr. Bieżyński for sharing this project in exclusive with BSA. For more about UNIQA Art Łódź Project visit:

www.facebook.com/lodzmurals

https://instagram.com/lodzmurals

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“UNIQA” Public Sculpture Project Begins in Łódź with “LUMP”

“UNIQA” Public Sculpture Project Begins in Łódź with “LUMP”

One of the most successful mural festivals in Europe is shifting the focus to the sculptural, considering seriously the public interaction with objects in the 3rd dimension.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

6 years of Łódź Murals is now giving way to the UNIQA Art Łódź Project and, by years end. 6 new artists will be installing temporary and permanent sculptures, bas-reliefs, installations, and site-specific realizations in this Polish city of 722,000.

Today we have the first series of installations that reclaim public advertising columns as oversize kitchen objects commonly found in Poland during the 1950s-1980s, when this country was called The Polish People’s Republic.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

A subtle ode to a period that the new generation of Millenials will not be familiar, the “Kingsize” project by the artist named LUMP recreates a coffee machine, vacuum flask, pepper shaker, jub, washing machine, and seltzer bottle that all would have been common in homes during those decades.

The three month installation along Piotrkowska Street by the Szczecin-based artist are meant to revive a sort of common memory, if not a longing for an earlier time – or maybe just to remind you of Grandma’s kitchen.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

“ Łódź’s murals are famous all over the world and have become major icons of the city,” UNIQA director Michał Bieżyński, as he explains his new vision for these new artworks in the city that people can view from a different perspective.

“Diverse materials and technologies will be employed to make the project as varied as possible. It is essential that residents be presented with the broadest possible range of graphic solutions so that the project, beside the purely artistic format, will offer some visual education.”

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

Our most sincere thanks to Mr. Bieżyński for sharing this project in exclusive with BSA. For more about UNIQA Art Łódź Project visit:

www.facebook.com/lodzmurals

https://instagram.com/lodzmurals

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