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.

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.

Street Art and renewable energy at Utsira

The Lighthouse on Utsira is a landmark and the main attradction on the Island

While I was travelling in europe this summer, something happend on Utsira in Norway. Utsira is a small Island far out in the north sea and is the smallest municipal community in Norway. The population is about 215 on about 6 square kilometers (2 sq miles) land. The first days of august street artists from UK, Norway and Spain transformed the Island with their art. Stik (uk), JPS (uk), 3Fountains or 3F (uk), ATM (uk), Pichi&Avo (spain) and LaStaa (norway) painted on literally everything on the Island, e.g Stik painted on two 26 m high wind turbins and LaStaa painted two silo towers on a farm house.

Hopscotch by 3F or 3Fountains

TOROS: The Oslo Stew and the Utsira Lobster Soup! LaStaa transformed two farm house silos into soup boxes inpired by Warhol and Campbell's soup

Sheep with wool knittet with traditional patterns by LaStaa

The ferry trip to Utsira takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes. And just off the boat I'll meet this sheep from LaStaa. The ferry usually comes in on the northern part of the Island ( the northern bay) and I am heading for the south bay to "Sildaloftet" a hostel on the very South edge of the Island. The Island is perfect for biking and the is only one real road, and this road is the North - South connection. In addition there are a few small side roads. It takes about 10 - 15 minutes to cross the island by bike, but the street art along the way, requires several stops.



War victim by 3F (3Fountains)

Fox by JPS

Stencil work on a private house by 3F (3Fountains)

A heart constructor by 3F (3Fountains)

The white building is 'Sildaloftet', an old fish factory is now a great place to stay at Utsira. I'ts beautifully located on the south tip of the Island

View from 'Sildaloftet'. Work by LaStaa

Modalities of art! A coop by Pichi&avo and 3F (3Fountains)

Batman and Loki seen on 'Sildaloftet' by JPS

Girl in traditional costume, painting a traditional pattern in a traditional environment by LaStaa

At the south side of the Island, a small side road leads to the eastern part of the Island, toward the windmills. There is two wind turbins on the island and since 2004 the windmills have provided stable power supplies for 10 homes. I've heard that Stik has painted the towers of the turbins, but again several stops are made on the way.

Work by JPS

Work by 3F (3Fountains)

The artis ATM is known for painting endangered birds and Utsira is known for beeing a good place for birdwatching

Finally the towers comes up, bu it's quite a challenge to photograph the works by Stik because of the light from the sun created a strong baklight that day, but I tried.

tower 1 painted by Stik

Tower 2 painted by Stik

Windmills and windpower are becoming more and more common, and provide carbon dioxide free power. But the wind is unreliable, and stabile energy supplies are one of the preconditions for a sustainable society. So what do you do when the wind stops blowing? They have solved this problem at Utsira (on a small scale). Surplus wind energy is used to make hydrogen in an 'on-site' electrolyser. The manufactured hydrogen is compressed and stored in tanks, and when needed, fed into the plant’s fuel cell, or a hydrogenbased generator, to provide the homes with power until the wind resumes blowing. The plant is completely emissions free. The only residual is water. The significance of Utsira is that it’s a model for sustainable renewable energy supplies of the future, and the world’s first hydrogen society.

Work by LaStaa

Statoil is the main owner of the wind/hydrogen power plant and I wonder why this idea haven't been developed further at Utsira since 2004 and to other parts of norway. Our coastline is about 103,000 km long. My theory is of course that since Statoil is the major and biggest oil company in Norway, it's not in their interest to develop and use this technology 'big scale'.

After visiting the windmills, the trip goes west on the Island, to the lighthouses. They buildt two lighthouses around 1843 and one of them (the red lighthouse above) is still in use. The other one still stands, but is inactive.

The old lighthouse at Utsira

Inside the old lighthouse, LaStaa has made is own version of the official norwegian coat of arms were the lion holds an oil pump instead of an axe

Near the lighthouse, Pichi&Avo has painted a portrait of Usira's first female mayor: Aasa Helgesen (mayor from 1926 to 1928). The work is made after a bronze statue of the mayor.

I hade a great time on Utsira and the island is really beautiful. During my stay the weather conditions chaged rapidly, from sunny and warm to rain, thunder and strong wind. Climate can be harsh on the Island at times, I guess, but people I met was very friendly and welcoming. I photographed about 35 unique pieces of street art at the Island, some are unfortunatly gone because of demolition work and some I probably didn't find and are still there to discover.