A lot of issues of public space that were issues before the crisis-like increasing privatization, surveillance, increasing marginalization, corporatization, housing-are coming forward with the crisis. One of the spaces where that debate can emerge, especially among those who are marginalized or less able to speak within the media, is the street. We’re also in a time where scrutiny of public policy, discourse and debate is hugely important. The very concept of ‘the public,’ both in terms of people and in terms of space, is really being stretched right now. My Google search on this question led to the words of Rachel Schacter, anthropologist and curator focusing on public and global art, senior teaching fellow at the University College London and author of The World Atlas of Street Art. Homer! Nello Petrucci, Sweet Home, Pompei, 2020 from The Smithsonian article And Nafir’s painting (he’s from Iran where street art is illegal) taken from an old school book of Molavi poetry, which literally translates as “scream.” And Strøk (Anders Gjennestad, lucky guy who splits his time in Berlin and Oslo), with his “moving on” images. And the 2015 sculpture of a man on a balcony, part of the Cement Eclipses series criticizing modern society by Isaac Cordal, a Spanish artist based in Belgium. (You may be ready for a drink yourself yourself given the length of this post-Cheers!) We especially like “Slave Labour” by Bansky, one of the world’s best street artists. Julien pasted-up portraits of characters plucked from classical paintings, liberating them from their institutional homes “to merge the perceptions of museum and street art and punctuate neglected spaces with beauty.” There was so much to see that we stopped at a pub overlooking the art at halfway time. Created by the Outings Project, the art here was initiated by the France’s Julien de Casabianca. We had covered about fifteen kilometres that day, stopped a few times for coffee (and lunch) before we arrived to Tou Scene, a hub of street art. Kindly, he allowed us in to capture this cheeky piece. It was nearing 4 pm and a young man on his bike was about to lock the gate. The response is usually, “I don’t know,” or “That building was torn down,” or in Norway, “Yes I’m the last one to leave and I have to lock the gate but take your time to get a photo.” By happenstance, I noticed this iconic piece in a narrow alleyway. They are first and foremost united in the belief that the streets belong to citizens, not to commercial parties that impose their flashy images on all and sundry.” His excellent article (see the link below in Navigation) is worth a read for his analysis of the origins of street art, its place in the world and its potential fall to “neo-Muralism” and “municipal cleansing.”įinding street art is usually a challenge, for us anyway. Daniël says, “street artists, for their part, consider the city as a canvas which provides many opportunities that can never be offered by a museum. Street art is a branch of “artivism” that Daniël De Jongh describes as “a movement that came up in the ‘90s and whereby artistic expression goes hand in hand with social protests and political activism… the visual language of pop art and the nonconformism of the punk subculture” that shares common ground with the disruptive nature of Dada. Nuart also produces an app for finding the city’s street art, which Magellan downloaded and we found quite helpful. Every September since 2000 Stavanger has hosted Nuart, the most prominent street art festival in the world. Through lectures, discussions, interviews, film screenings, workshops, educational programmes and the publication of a journal, Nuart (with its slogan Beauty is in the Streets) has raised street art to a higher level. Stavanger is a coastal city of cobbled streets, white wooden houses, pedestrian-only streets and about 132,000 people. Not quite the double-shot espresso of street art in Buenos Aires but Stavanger’s is a strong brew that gets your heart pumping. Art that propels expression and invites dialog. Art that illuminates political, philosophical and poetical meanings. So it may surprise you, as it did us, to find that in Norway of all places, that Stavanger, the city that oil lifted, is one of the world’s leaders in street art. Birds, bees, butterflies, sanctioned mural festival art that, for the most part, doesn’t challenge your thinking beyond “where’s the nearest place for a decaf, low-fat, no-sugar latte?” Vancouver, alas, subscribes to what I call “Hello Kitty” street art.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |