Hackney Wick

Hackney Wick Coca Cola mural with the Olympic Park stadium in the background

My interest for street art takes me to new places and my two last trips to London have introduced me to a very interesting part of London: Hackney Wick. This area have a long industrial history. Huge fabric buildings made of yellow brickstones dominates the area. Once filled with thousands of workers, now, made into residential buildings, cafes, galleries, art studios and store houses.

Hackney Wick is the neighbour to Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park.  The development of modern facilities for the olympics contrasts the old and partly derelict area of the Wick, but Hackney Wick have something that the olympic park doesn't have. A vibrant cultural life, street art and Lee Navigation (or River Lea).

The canal served historically as a major transport route of cargo and goods to London. Nowadays the rives is used for pleasure boating and many riverboats serves as homes for people. It's a relaxed life along the river and people uses the walkway to exercise and for leisure walks.

    
The place is perfect for art and street art and colourful graffiti gives the place a an alternative and vibrant look.

it's a beautiful day and a relaxed atmosphere. It's perfect for a pizza and a beer at one of the cafes along the river. A riverboat comes up and gives us music. A street artist comes up and finnishes his piece. The work is good and people gives him a interested and chilled look as nothing unusual have happend.

It's a good place for photographing and there are works of street art everywhere. I can just wander around and enjoy.

urbex: The MUNCK building

It's a facinating building and part of industrial history here in Bergen. The building was was abandoned in 2005. The owners moved into more modern and efficient premises. The Bergen Art Academy was supposed to take over the building with 7000 square meeters for the students and their work. But the security of the building was assessed  to be bad, and the costs to secure it was to high. It was left to decay.

 The building is quite functionalistic, but the window works is quite unique and gives the building a touch of Art Deco. The huge windows probably was made to give the workers as much day light as possible.

Sverre Munck started his business in 1924, trading with electrical equipment. In 1949 Munck enteprises buildt their own factory right outside Bergen and became Munck Cranes. The idea was to make electric trolley buses, escalators and cranes.

 

When Munck Cranes moved out in 2005, the state bought the property. The plan was to demolish the building in 2007 and build a new Art Academy on the property. For some reasons the plans have been stalled and the building is still standing.

The building was designed by the architect Per Grieg (1897 - 1962). Per Grieg was educated an architect in Trondheim in 1922 and set up his own private practice in Bergen in 1923. Per Grieg have drawn and designed numerous monumental buildings and houses in Bergen and the Munk Building is part of his legacy. 

When 'masters' of fine art couldn't work there for security reasons, the graffiti artists didn't care so much about that. This was a perfect space for aerosol masters. The huge space and blank walls are perfect for graffiti.

Homeless people also appreciate a roof over their head.

Rumors tells that now is the time to demolish the building and give space for a totally new building for the Art Academy. Industrial history will vanish, the homeless and the graffiti painters have to find new places to be.

5 pointz is gone, rest in power!

Photo: C.S. Muncy, The Village Voice

5 Pointz street art and graffiti was buffed over by white paint the night of 19 November 2013, without warning to artists and it came as a shock to fans of street art all over the world. The dispute about 5 pointz and the future have been going on for years, but now it seems to be over. The biggest outdoor street art gallery in the world is gone and the huge property and buildings in Long Island City (Queens) is now getting ready for demolition. New stores and luxury condos will be raised. The owner Jerry Wolkoff defended the overnightdestruction in interviews and told that "I know they're upset but it's over with. I can imagine going one piece, one piece, and then going through hell and torture to everybody," He said, and told further: "So I said, 'Let me do it one time, and end this torture one time'" The street art community is upset and called it an act of cruelty. More than 1500 pieces of street art and graffiti works was wiped out over night. I visited 5 pointz in september 2013. I took line 7 from grand central towards Queens and right after crossing east river an amazing view hit my eyes. There it was, the legendary 5 pointz.

5 pointz 19 of september 2013 (photo: o. m. eyra)

Below is how it looked like the the 19th of november 2013. The paintover was really sad news and the media photos showing the white walls were heart breaking.

Photo Wall Street Journal

 I am really happy that I got to see the art works before they dissapeared. Lets go a couple of months back and below is some of my photos from september 2013:

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Toofly photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

 Work by Esteban Del Valle, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Jimmy C,  photo o.m.eyra

Works by Dis_Satisfied and Adub, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Dase (morc alvarez) photo o.m.eyra

Work by Onur Dinc, photo o.m.eyra

photo o.m.eyra

Work by Shiro, photo o.m.eyra

And there were so much more........Click on this link to see more of my instagram photos from 5 pointz online.

Artists have been painting on the property since the early 1990s, with permission from the Wolkoffs. In 2010,  the owners decided to demolish the building. Since then, Jonathan Cohen, also known as Meres One, and fellow curator Marie Cecile Flageul have been fighting a battle to save 5 pointz. 5 Pointz launched a lawsuit against the Wolkoffs, but the federal district court ruled in favour of the Wolkoffs and the decision to paint over the murals came just after Banksy held a month-long New York residency in October, which ended with him writing a brief comment on his website to "Save 5 Pointz."

Queueing for three hours (Tour Paris 13)

Last day in Paris. After a lazy morning, I arrived at Tour Paris 13. Tour Paris 13 is an abandoned apartment block in Paris 13th district by the river Seine. At arrival I saw the big crowd outside the building queueing for entrance. It's a grey and cold Sunday in October and I find my place in the queue.

Tour Paris 13 on the quai d'Austerlitz. Calligraffiti by eL Seed

Tour Paris 13 is an unique exhibition for street art. About hundred international artists have used seven months to paint the building and apartments inside. 4500 square meeters over 9 floors. I would really like to see this.

piece by Tore

The queue moved really slowly and I got to know that they only let 45 people inside at the time. After 1 hour I had just moved some meters.

Dan23 portrait and Elseed Calligraffiti

The organisers believes it is the largest temporary street art and graffiti project of its kind and open for one month, October 2013. The building is planned to be demolished by the end of the year, but there are still people who refuse to move out. After two hours in line, I was starting to loose hope. Two hours to closing time and people around was restless. We began to think that this would not go. Some left, but I decided to stay for a while more. This was my last opportunity to see this during my visit to Paris this time.

After three hours it was beginning to get dark and it began to rain. A security person came by and told that we would not be able to enter before closing time. We were wet, cold and hungry and I realized that I would never see this exhibition inside. I was really disapointed. Can't be lucky every time. I had a good time in the line and learned something important: The project and street art is way more popular than I had anticipated, and I have to plan more carefully around this next time.

Mona Lisa by Inti

Relaxing on fron of a piece by Kazar

Raiden by STeW

After a while the crowd dissolved and many went dissapointed home that evening. I got a feeling of the project at least and took photos of the works outside.