Bien Urbain 2013 Update

With a theme of “Recover the Streets” the Bien Urbain festival is not so much a Street Art festival as an experiment with public space and our interaction with it. It has been interesting to see how the current romance with Street Art is absorbed by a variety of constituencies during the last decade – whether as tools of change, gentrification, commodification, commercialization, education, or simply celebration, artists are being challenged to see their work differently as well. Here in Besancon, France, we find a very inclusive experience where students and citizens and planners are all invited to participate, discuss, and evaluate the impact of the artists work on the built environment.  It’s culture as a wholistic practice.

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108 from Italy at work. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo) His bio says he spent 15 years working with traditional graffiti abstract shapes and feels that all of which contain organic roots.

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108 from Italy. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo)

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Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman) With a background in graffiti and lettering, Erosie has been working on a series of paintings and cycles and is a fervent proponet of urban art without blinders.

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Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman)

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Akay from Sweden. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © David Demougeot)

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)

OX has been repurposing billboards and commercial space to bring it back to its more basic elements. With relatively simple changes directed at the viewer, his reconfiguring gives a new sense of context and purpose to these places, now acting as geometry and sculpture instead of simply a vehicle for commercial messages. The result also makes you reconsider the environment it is placed in.

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

With our gratitude to David & Johanna for sharing these exclusive images with us.

http://bien-urbain.fr/en/

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