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

Now screening :

1. Germen Colectivo Brings Color to a Mexican Town
2. NEVERCREW at Wall\Therapy 2015
3. JR’s Ballerina Welcomes New Film and New Condos
4. Hitnes: The Image Hunter. On The Trail Of John James Audubon

BSA Special Feature: Germen Colectivo Brings Color to a Mexican Town

It’s raw video, with no narration, slipping audio, and uncredited interviews, but it doesn’t matter because this community project in a Mexican town called Pachuca is brightly hued after 14 months of painting the hillside neighborhood by the Germ Collective.

According to Ricardo Lopez of the Associated Press

“It’s an homage to the wind: the city of Pachuca is nicknamed “la bella airosa,” a Spanish phrase that loosely translates as “the beautiful breezy city.”

Project director Enrique Gomez said the goal is to promote community integration and change the negative image of the neighborhood.

“I never thought we would have such a big impact,” said Gomez, a tattooed and goateed former gang member who turned his life around when he rededicated himself to graffiti art and muralism.

Before, he said, Las Palmitas was a sketchy area where people avoided going out after dark or interacting with each other. But as the project nears its final stages, you see people talking to each other more, children hanging out on the steep stairways that cut through the neighborhood.

“Honestly, what surprises me the most is that people are really changing,” Gomez said. “They are growing, there is more community spirit. People are taking the security of their neighborhood into their own hands.”

NEVERCREW at Wall\Therapy 2015

“Swiss-based duo NEVERCREW adorned a wall with a magnificent addition to their ongoing series of murals celebrating whales. With reflections of the Rochester skyline in the external whale, this mural is part of their current body of work, bringing attention to the preservation of these massive denizens of the deep.”

JR’s Ballerina Welcomes New Film and New Luxury Condos

This well heeled flying ballerina by JR graces the site where an eight story luxury condo is slated to land in Manhattan. A great stop action video here shows the French artist beginning the project in the bucket with DDG real estate CEO Joe McMillan and then speeding away fashionably on two wheels through busy Manhatttan traffic.

Discussing the 75 foot tall dancer in mid air, DDG, the developer who owns the site explains on their website that “JR’s interest in ballet inspired his art film Les Bosquets, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring. His new street artwork bears a striking similarity to the image promoting the film on the Tribeca Film Festival’s website.” DDG tells The Real Deal website, “the installation will ‘remain indefinitely,’ or, at least until the condos start rising.”

Hitnes: The Image Hunter. On The Trail Of John James Audubon

Muralist and Street Artist Hitness has begun following the Audubon Trail, and is painting all along the way.

He began in Philadelphia and made his way to Mill Grove, which was Audubon’s first home in the US, and then moves southward to Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary in Easton, MD.

Keep track of him on theimagehunter.org

Direction: Giacomo Agnetti