Sorry! We're closed today! (Nuart 2013 Inside)

DAL east (Tou Scene 2013)

While doing some work in the area, I decided to visit Nuart 2013 at Tou Scene in Stavanger. When I arrived the doors were closed and a sign that could tell it was closed on Mondays. "Fuck!" I went up to the administation office and begged on my knees to have a look. Well, I didn't actually beg on my knees, but said that I had travelled far to see the exhibition (that was true). A kind person said "Well we have to open it for you then" I took me to the old halls of the old brewery open the gate, turned on all the lights and said "enjoy". I was left alone in the in the huge halls made of concrete with all the art made by the best street art artists in the world.

Hush (Tou Scene 2013)

C215 / Christian Guemy (Tou Scene 2013)

Tou Scene and the old brewery halls are a good venue for Street Art. The place is unpolished with dark concrete halls.  The space is limited and the artists really have to think about how to use it.

Faith47 (Tou Scene 2013)

 Nuart 2013 is inspired by Italo Calvino's book 'Invisible Cities'. The book is a masterpiece and very poetic with small chapters on Cities & Memory, Cities & Desire and Cities & Signs.. and so on. The novel begins with an imaginary meeting between the great mongol Kublai Khan and the traveller Marco Polo: "Kublai Khan does not necessarily beleive everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions, but the emperor of the Tartars does continue listening to the young Venetian with greater attention and curiousity than he shows any other messenger or explorer of his"

m-city (Tou Scene 2013)

Nuart festival in Stavanger is known world wide. News and Pictures from the festival is spread by internet (newspapers and blogs) to street art and art lovers. The works have high quality and show the latest developments in street art and fresh works of street art based artists.

Ernest Zacharevic (Tou Scene 2013)

I enjoyed Ernest Zacharevic's works both inside and outside. Ernest Zacharevic (from LIthuania) became know for his street art work in Malaysia, where he created interactive murals in the streets. His works at nuart (both inside and outside) were great. Visit his webpage to see more of his works.

AIKO (Tou Scene 2013)

I had a nice time wandering around in the huge empty gallery in Stavanger and thanked nuart for their generosity towards me, and I went outside to see the works around in town.......

DotDotDot (Tou Scene 2013)

C215: City Portraits!

I took this photo this summer (2012) in Paris. I was sitting on the tube on my way to a public park, Bois De Vincennes, right outside the centre of Paris. The train had just crossed the river Seine when I spotted this piece of street art. I forgot about the park for a while and jumped off at the next station and walked back to the river and took a closer look. The signature, C215, was familiar to me. I had seen works of this artist in Bergen, Oslo and London before. 

C215 is a nickname where C stands for Christian which is his real name and 215 is the number of the room where he decided to be an artist, full time. His full name is Christian Guemy and have not been as secretive about his real identity as Banksy. C215 started with stencil art in 2006 and uses a self developed and advanced stencil technique in making his street art. He is known for making illegal works in broad day light and work on several pieces simultaneously in the same area. This video gives and impression of how C215 works. His motives are various, but mostly portraits of humans (e.g. beggars, street kids, homeless people), his daughter and cats. Motives that fit quite well in their urban environment and he seems to avoid prosecution or other forms of sanctions for his work.

It was a lovely day in Paris and my walk in Bois De Vincennes was beautiful. My interest for street art have trained my eye to see and find art in the urban environment. I pick Downtown Train by Tom Waits to accompany this post (click on the link or "play" button below to listen).