Humans of Seville

Seville is a beautiful city and the capitol of Andalusia. The say that Seville is the most romantic city in spain, I agree. They also say that the people of Seville is the most stylish.....

Street Art in Malaga and introducing Dadi Dreucol

A disney like mural with easter island statues

Malaga is the birthplace of Pablo Picasso, probably the most influential artist of the 20th century. Picasso was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer and a street artist. In 1937 he painted a wall in Guernica as a protest against the german bombing of the city and the coming of General Franco's dictatorship. It's an amazing mural. And if you ever go to Malaga, please visit the beautiful Picasso museum. 

The beautiful patio of the Picasso Museum

Nowadays the andalusian city Malaga is not known for street art, but when you walk around, you see murals and shutter paintings. Small shops and cafés often use murals and paintings  as part of their public image. In addition, as all cities of some size, there are graffiti artists and writers around, using the spray cans with varied skills and experience.  An artist who signed  the works with "Doger" was of the high quality kinds.

True Love by Doger

Dadi Dreucol

However, there was some quite interesting and original stuff in the streets I hadn't seen before. The style reminded me of Escif, the more internationally known brother from Valencia. Dadi Dreucol is from Malaga, but lives and study art in Valencia at the time. In the near future, we probably will see his works in all major street art cities in Europe.

He has a funny/serious characteristic style and go to his web page to see more of his works

Jef Aerosol: Shhh!

When I'm in Paris, I always find my way to the open space outside the Pompidou Centre. Its so nice to sit and relax by the Stravinsky fountain. I's like a peaceful small island in the middle of the city where the old meets the new. The fountain is between the old church of Saint-Merri and the contemporary centre of modern art, Pompidou. The fountain is inspired by the music of Igor Stravinsky. The sculptures in the fountain is colourful and funny, while others are iron figures painted black that moves like simple mechanical devices, empowered by the water it self. Behind the fountain, you'll see a huge piece of spray painted street art, a face on the wall saying: Shhh! According to the maker Jef Aerosol the message of the mural is “Stop, look and appreciate the city.” And yeah, like me, many stop here to slow down and enjoy the space and the atmosphere.

Jef Aerosol, from Lille in france, is one of the pioneers of urban art, stencil art and street art. He made his first works in the streets in 1982 and the piece on the picture above is made in 2011. It's probably the most photographed street art piece in the world. I had a good rest and was quitely appreciating the city I love so much.

Can't find a better song to accompany this post than "La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf (click on the link or the "play" button in the box below to listen).

Run: Spreading Colour in Cork

Run is an italian that thinks big is better, especially in a era when the mass communication from corporate advertisements are so massive everywhere.  Tags and wall writing graffiti are almost invisible in a busy visual environment. The street artist should create a contrast.  If the background is gray, Run will use as much colour as he can.

Run has created big murals all over the world and travel all the time. I ran into Run for the first time in Cork, Ireland. I love Cork and the area around and I'm always feel at home there. The fresh air from the sea, the green suroundings and the atmosphere is calm and easy. Maybe thats just on the surface, 'cause Cork is known as the "rebel city" (a name that originates from their support to the Yorks against the Lancasters)  and my friend in Cork says that they're still "rebels", nowadays against the more influential big brother Dublin and Corkians refer to their city as "the real capital".

The city is divided by the river Lee and it was on a walk along the canal i discovered these strange figures and human like wall paintings. Like Run him self, the figure on the photo spreads colours from his hand. His style is unique and easy recognizable by the way he paints faces and hands. His figures are colurful and supernatural. Run have his own motivation for painting and says in an interview: "Let’s just say that I paint because I want to travel.  There’s no better thing than to see another country and culture and possibly work during the trip.  If I can keep my travel wheel spinning that’s enough for me to be happy". I think that's a really good idea. Run is hard to reach. but have his own website for for followers who wants to know whats going on, here. Fairport Convention with "Who Knows where The Time Goes" follows this post (click on the link or the "play" button below to listen).

An old mural in Glasgow

I have visited Glasgow once and I walked around from morning to late evening. My feet and legs were sore for a week afterwords. In the afternoon I walked along river Clyde up to the Scotland BBC centre. On my way I passed a derelict area and I "smelled" graffiti and street art. On brick walls of an old industrial site I saw the beauty among layers of spraypaint. Three goddesses, or three graces came through.  

I don't know the artist behind this, but the number three is a frequent aesthetic and spiritual structure present in mythology, religions and art: the Virgin, Mother and Crone; Sexuality, Fertility and Wisdom; Holy, Divine and Sacred. In hinduism there is the Tridevi: Saraswati (the goddess of learning, arts and cultural fulfillment), Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth, fertility and material fulfillment), and Parvati (the goddess of power, love and spiritual fulfillment). In Greek and Roman mythology the Three sister goddesses, known as Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, who dispense charm, beauty and grace. Carl Gustav Jung described the triple goddess as an archetype. Jung considered the general arrangement of deities in triads as a pattern which arises at the most primitive level of human mental development and culture. 

I felt spritual and graced with a beautiful evening in Glasgow.

"Where the streets have no name" by U2 is a special song and I connect the song with travelling (Click on the link or the "play" button in the box below). 

 

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).

Travel: Poitou-Charentes

France is divided into 22 regions with all together 96 departments. Poitou-Charentes is a region in the middle western part of france and consists of 4 departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne.

This story is mostly about Charente. In the heart of Charente is the biggest town Angouleme. The department of Charente is named after the river Charente which runs through the district.

The biggest cities is Angouleme and Cognac. For me, both were new places, I’ve of course heard of Cognac and the famous alcohol drink made of grape wine. The area is famous for their cognac houses and destilleries. I was more exited about Angouleme. The city organises the largest comic festival in Europe, and every january about 200 000 visitors travels to the city for Angouleme International Comics festival. It’s the beginning of July, so I am far to early for the festival, but I’ve heard about the murals and wall paintings in the town. And I have a friend who lives there and could show me around.

Angouleme is a beautiful city on the hill. In the middle of the city I found a statue of Herge, the creator of Tintin

The city is full of beautiful murals

The river Charente runs slowly through Cognac and is a popular for boat trips

Except the cities, Charente is a fertile agricultural district with beautiful nature and small villages. I lived in the small village of Massac while staying there. Grape and Sunflower fields as long as the eye can see.

Small villages and easy atmosphere

Beautiful landscapes

In the west (Charente-Maritime), Saintes and Saint-Jean-D’Angely are two beautiful cities west in the region. Old towns with calm atmosphere. Its nice to travel around in the area and quite relaxing. There is much to see and this time I didn’t go to the coast and the main cities there, I was driving out of the region down to Bordeaux.

Saint-Jean-D'Angely

Saintes

Bordeaux