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.

Nuart 2014: Outside

The real thrill for me about Nuart festival is the works that comes up outside, in and around the city. I think the organizers in Stavanger really makes a great effort to keep their tradition of making an outdoor gallery for the visitors and even surprise us with outdoor stunts that have never been done before. This year M-City painted a 150 m long supply ship. When I arrived for the opening, the ship was at sea and I couldn't get my own photos. See here. Hope to get it on another occasion.

Last year M-City painted the control tower at Stavanger Airport Sola, and this year Martin Whatson made his work "Chinook Hearts" at the same airport.  A cool thing about the outdoor gallery in Stavanger, is that you can walk around in the city and see street art works that have been done for Nuart over the years. Awesome and Iconic works by Roa, Pøbel, Phlegm, Swoon, David Choe, DotDotDot, Dolk, Faith 47 and many more. This makes Stavanger the street art city nr. one in Norway.  The photos of the works below are fresh and made for the Nuart Festival 2014. The weather in Stavanger was terrible the opening weekend of the festival and I think my pictures reflect that.

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 Martin Whatson, bon (muebon) and Alex Face

Work By John Fekner

Work by Tilt

Work by Etam Cru

Work by Icy & Sot

DotDotDot (2013 and signature work by Icy & Sot

Work by Strøk

Work by Martn Whatson

Work by DotDotDot

Work by Levalet

Sunday morning photographing works by Levalet

Work by spY

Work by Strøk

Work by Bon (Muebon) and Alex Face

DotDotDot did this piece for Nuart 2013 and Muebon added the bird in 2014

Work by Maismenos

Work by Borondo

Work by Icy & Sot

Work by Andreco

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.