Celebration of life

Late summer, I was visiting  a friend in Oslo. The weather was great, the city was busy and we tried to find somewhere to eat at Karl Johan (Oslo main street). While waiting for food, I looked around and my attention was drawn towards a statue in the park across the street, and people's reactions to it and interaction with it.

The statue depicts the pagan god Pan and Pan was known for his sexual powers. So there he was in the middle Oslo with an erected organ and was getting a lot of attention from people passing by, young and old. A great photo opportunity.

I loved to sit and watch the 'buzz' and the playful interaction the statue created with it's 'audience'. So simple and joyful. A lot of neglected public art would envy this attention. The statue is a creation of Per Ung who died recently (2013). Per Ung was/is probably one of the greatest norwegian artists of our time and I guess that he would love to see his statue becoming 'alive' this way.  A celebration of life.

The World of Mr. A

The iconic Mr A

The man behind Mr. A, Andre Saraiva (born 1971) have been in the graffiti business for about 30 years and have had success as an artist, film director, designer, editor and club owner and probably more. His signature piece in the streets is the cartoonish character Mr. A. Mr. A is a kind of a "tag", fast and easy to spray paint illegaly at night. According to Saraiva, he has painted Mr. A about 200 000 times all around the world.

This autumn Andre Saraiva occupies the front wall and top floor at Mude Museum of fashion and design in Lisbon. His largest show up to date and exhibits different modalities of Andre Saraiva's art and design work. His surf boards, Mr. A in different shapes and forms, his fake event and concert posters, his Mickey with a boner, his Love project and Andrepolis (an urban landscape installation).

Varieties of Mr. A:

Micky welcomes you to Andrepolis:

Andrepolis

Fake posters and the Love project:

Andre Saraiva's art is characterised as pop art and I was mostly impressed by the amount of space he manages to fill. There is coolness to the show, but no message, vision or provocative taste. The Andrepolis doesn't look interesting and exciting (or sexy), and the love project seems to have stranded (at least on internet) and, at last, Micky isn't that provocative anymore. Andre Saraiva is a smart guy, street smart and successfull (baronandre) and that's cool, and he knows how to 'cook soup on a stone'.  At the end, I post a photo of Mr. A from the streets of Lisbon which, after all, still connects him to the street art world.

Alexandre Farto Aka Vhils "Dissection" Exhibition @ Lisbon's EDP Foundation

I first stumbled upon a Vhils solo exhibition in Paris 2012 (Magda Danysz Gallery) and was strucked by the variety of materials and technics this artist possess in his repertoire. I had previously been impressed by his works in the streets, making beautiful portraits on walls by chipping pieces off the wall, not spraying paint on the wall as usual for vandals. His exhibitions display works in paper, polystyrene, wood (old doors) and metal. Mostly portraits, but lately more and more with words or text. The "Dissection" exhibition at the EDP foundation museum in Belem Lisbon also showed light works and huge installations. The "Dissection" exhibition is just awesome and is open untill 5 of october this year.

Museu da Elecricidade is the EDP foundation's venue for the Vhils exhibition. The venue is located in the Belem area by the Tagus river (Tejo RIver).

The Electricity Museum (in Portuguese Museu da Electricidade) was set up by EDP (Energias de Portugal) in 2004. The EDP museum is a museum of science that presents the evolution of energy and it is a cultural centre where themed and experimental exhibits live side by side with a great variety of cultural events. The Vhils exhibition required huge adaptations of the space in the musuem and is the most extensive display of a Alexandre Farto Aka Vhils works up till now. I see it as a celebration of the portuguese artist and, so to speak, a really powerful liaison. The photos below show some of the works from the exhibition.

 

 

 

 

The biggest polystyrene structure I've ever seen. On have to climb a scaffolding about 5 m and see it from above

 

The exhibition is a visual feast and a mind-blowing experience.

NUART 2014: Inside

As usual the Nuart venue for the exhibition is Tou Scene right outside the city centre. Tou used to be a brewery and the old beer caves is the main stage for the street art exhibition inside. The beer caves is not a place for fine art on canvas, but perfect for experimenting with installations, video, light and works directly on thick concrete walls. During the Nuart Festival, the most of the artists do works inside and outside. I think that the inside works shows a different side of the artists creativity, than we usually see in the streets. There are more variety in use of materials and means to express their ideas and artistic visions. By avoiding canvas and presented in a rough environment, the art still smells like street art in form and spirit. The exhibition is open untill 12 of October.

The line-up this year is:

Andreco (IT), Borondo (ES), Dotdotdot (NO), Etam Cru (PL), Fra.Biancoshock (IT), Icy & Sot (IR), John Fekner (US), Levalet (FR), M-City (PL), Martin Whatson (NO), Mathieu Tremblin (FR), SPY (ES), Strøk (NO), Tilt (FR), ± Maismenos ± (PT)

Work by Borondo

Work by Fra.Biancoshock

Work by Martin Whatson

Work by Strøk

Work by DotDotDot

Work by Levalet

Work by Tilt

Works by Levalet

Work by Maismenos

Work by John Fekner

Work by Levalet

Work by Maismenos

Work by Andreco

Work by Icy & Sot

Work by M-City (seen from two different angles)

Work by Fra.Biancoshock

Time for NUART 2014

Tilt (Fr) installation at NuArt 2014

I'm back after a great weekend in Stavanger and the opening of the NuArt festival 2014. The event is one of the first street art festivals of it's kind and the biggest annual street art happening in Norway. The festival gather artists, media and street art enthusiasts from all over the world. The main venue is Tou Scene, a closed brewery right outside the centre, and there is street art outside, inside and around the city. In addition there are street art tours, discussion evenings, talks, movies, workshops and more. 

The line-up this year is:

Andreco (IT), Borondo (ES), Dotdotdot (NO), Etam Cru (PL), Fra.Biancoshock (IT), Icy & Sot (IR), John Fekner (US), Levalet (FR), M-City (PL), Martin Whatson (NO), Mathieu Tremblin (FR), SPY (ES), Strøk (NO), Tilt (FR), ± Maismenos ± (PT)

This year's strongest statement by the italian artist Fra.Biancoshock

A lot of text around

Works by Martin Whatson (right) and  Levalet (left

Works by Icy & Sot

Doing media work and PR is part of the game. A magazine is doing an article about Tilt :-)

Icy & Sot doing a street art work shop

Me

The exhibition will last all september and untill 12th of october this year. There are lots of works both inside and outside, and I will post more from the festival the in coming time.