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)

Sheep Station

The cool thing about New York is the surprises you experience just by being there. After a nice walk along the High Line, we walked into a filling station, a Getty Station. A derelict station with a green garden. I count 25 sheep on the lawn.

I learned that 'Getty Station' is a public art program based at the former Getty filling station curated by the art collector Michael Shvo and Paul Kasmin Gallery to bring outdoor exhibitions to a broad audience. The program centers on site specific installations with the idea to present twentieth century art icons in a contemporary setting. The sheep are made of epoxy stone and bronze and are "Moutons" made by Les Lalanne. Les Lalanne refers to the french couple, Claude Lalanne (b. 1924)  and François-Xavier Lalanne (1927 - 2008). They're known individually and collectively since the 1960s. Les Lalanne developed a style that defines inventive, poetic and surrealist sculpture and both found inspiration for their works in nature.

On the wall by the station there is a street art work by JR and Jose Parla ('wrinkles of the city'). The street art, the industrial gas station architecture and the 'Moutons' creates a surrealist landscape in the middle of the city. ‘Moutons’ have become Lalanne’s most iconic work and the 'sheep station' installation gave us energy and started lively talk among us as we migrated further into the urban jungle.

I call him Bansky!

- Hey!! Do you know who did this?
- Eh?
- I met the guy who did this, I own the building!
- It's DOLK!
- Yeah, he is a mystery guy Ah? Just like Bansky.
- Mm... Banksy
-  Whatever! Where u from?
- Norway! Just like DOLK
- And u come all the way from Norway to see this?
- Eh.. yeah! And New York of course!
- Tell Dolk that I keep his work there for at least 50 years, yes forever!
- Well... I probably never meet him....but you have to keep his work, that's a good thing!
- Yeah! And when I meet Banksy, I will call him Bansky
-Ok!

The owner starts up his car and I shoot some more photos. This piece of work outside is just awesome and location is perfect. I'm in East Williamsburg, New York City. I'ts September and the weather is still warm.

The streets of New York are incredibly long and I have walked around for hours and my feets are hurting. But I don't care because it's so much to see, to take in and discover.

Williamsburg is one of Brooklyn's most exciting neighborhoods and straddles old and new, commerce and alternative. It's a lively arts and music scene here and numerous small galleries, cafes and restaurants.

I rest my legs at a gallery/cafe/music venue and soak up the creative energy.

I love Dolk Outside! And finding this piece made my day. As far as I know Its the only Dolk piece left (outside) in Brooklyn and goes back to 2010.

Wildlife

A classic black and white stencil, a colored one and a toy version. One collector bought them all.

Dolk have moved inside. It's cosy and warm to see his works on a white wall in well a organized environment like the gallery. However, maybe freezing and wet, it's quite extraordinary and unique to gaze his illegal works otside. The works outside do not belong to anyone. It's for all and it is free. Outside is more wild and exiting. In a interview with local press Dolk says that he does'nt do illegal works anymore, but also states that he everyday sees walls around in town that he would like to paint. So there is hope.

Did Dolk kill street art with this piece?

 The "Wildlife" exhibition is regarded as the most successful exhibition in Bergen ever, by public interest and economically. Almost all the works were sold before the doors opened. About 30 000 to 50 000 dollars for each piece.

Classical cu

t outs by Dolk All three of them originally done illegal in Bergen

A new development in Dolk's art is installations. He exhibits two pieces this time. "Puppy Love" and "Goldrush".

"Puppy love" was originally made as a stencil. R2D2 is mounted by a dog (or wolf)

"Goldrush" is a wild bull crushing slot machines

I still think that Dolk's art is best outside, best as street art. The exhibition is interesting because it shows some developments in his art and and style. I think the figures or motives in newer pieces is more "seriocomical" now than before. I think earlier pieces was more warmer, and sometimes just clever and witty.

This piece is named "Dear Flasher" and was bought by a russian collector

This work is called "3D"

I'm was not suprised by this exhibition. I smiled a bit, but did not laugh. I reflected on some of the works, but they did not make me puzzled. And I was not excited.

Framed Dagger!

The piece isn't signed, but it smells argus!

A funny street art peace popped up in town yesterday. A framed "golden dagger"! The norwegian word for dagger is "Dolk". Dolk is in town and has his first solo show in Bergen called "Wildlife" at Gallery S.E. It's worth a visit. Dolk is showing original stencil works on canvas and a couple of installations. I think that Dolk found a nice venue for marking his 10 year anniversary. News can tell that he has sold for about one million dollars on his first solo show in Bergen. Hence, the "golden dagger".

Dolk "Wildlife" exhibition at Gallery S.E

Propaganda!

Some time back, in Berlin, me and some friends stopped by a small shop selling clothing and props from the Soviet Union era. My friends bought some stuff with red stars, decorated with hammer and sickle and other symbols. My friend from Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, didn't buy anything (me neither). He told me later that many Lithuanians still would feel offended by people wearing such symbols. Many Lithuanians still remember Soviet suppression. He asked if I would wear clothes with swastika or other Nazi symbols. I answered "Of course not!", but I was surprised by the question. I also told him that I had not thought of it this way before....

I later visited Cuba, a state which still hang on to communism and still hail the socialist revolution back in 1959. Fidel Castro was the main leader of the Cuban guerrilla back then and he is still alive. The power is now given to his younger brother Raul since 2008. According to the leaders on Cuba, the revolution still lives. Murals, signs, posters and billboards on buildings and along the roads try to make sure that Cubans don't forget that.

Fidel Castro (right) and his less charismatic brother Raul Castro (left) says: "Go Ahead!"

The propaganda machine on Cuba have been persistent, and have made Fidel Castro’s friend and war commandant Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, or Che Guevara as we call him, into an internationally famous and iconic figure. His portrait is all over Cuba, in schools, public buildings and his main monument is at the plaza de la revolucion in Santa Clara.

An enormous Che Guevara statue at the "plaza de la revolucion" in Santa Clara, Cuba

Che Guevara on the wall of the ministry of communication in Havana

Che Guevara (the Argentinean) left Cuba in 1965. His mission was to spread the revolution all over South America, and he died as a guerrilla soldier in Bolivia in 1967.

Che Guevara in Cienfuego "Your example lives, your ideas stays" (something like that)

 

There is a connection between street art and ideological propaganda. When the french stencil and street artist Blek Le Rat was a child, he travelled to Italy with his parents where he saw wall stencils which depicted Mussolini. This experience became a part of his inspiration to begin with stencil making in the streets. However, with a quite different attitude and ideological basis. Blek Le Rat first stencils where his black rats. The street artist Shepard Fairey (obeygiant) use the strategies of propaganda (easy recognizable pictures, often two or three colors, with short slogans) as part of his artistic project and participation in social movement campaigns. The advantage of stencils lies in its symbolic character, often black and white, and is easy to distribute and repeat with limited resources. The Che Guevara stencil is iconic, known all over the world and lives its own life, transcending any real historic and original ideological meaning of his ideas and life (except maybe on Cuba).

Fidel Castro Says: "Fatherland or death"

Propaganda often presents facts selectively and uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response. Propaganda can be used as a form of ideological or commercial warfare. On Cuba, propaganda is still an agent trying to influence peoples attitudes and values, but the power of the propaganda is vanishing day by day for most people. It's important to see that propaganda strategies is not just means of dictators or ideological systems. In the "free world" we often use the word "campaign".

Street sign outside Cienfuego with clear reference to the U.S. supported invasion failure at the bay of pigs in 1961

One day signs like these, depicted above, probably will be replaced by commercials for beer, burgers or perfume etc. In Germany, the old nazi symbols are still prohibited by law for good reasons and all over the world these symbols are loathed by the large majority. So why haven't the same happened with communist and socialist propaganda and symbols?

I don't have the answer to that, but parts of it may have something to do with the historical roots of many revolutions and parts about how the socialist systems fell. The raise against the social and economical brutality of the Batista regime had sympathy in Europe. After the horrors of world war II, fascist, military, racist and ultraconservative regimes were regarded worse than socialist regimes (which after all, at least on paper, had an ideology of making things better for all). In addition, U.S. and European democracies weren't perfect either. When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, people where just happy to gain freedom and the old system that had failed in so many ways was replaced without a massive war to break it down. The notion of the socialistic society was over, and communism had failed. All that was left was the cultural artifacts and the symbols. There were no "propaganda power" left in them for most people, both inside and outside of the wall. Just an aesthetic value from a political system that actually died from within.

Street Art is Dead...?

Sever - Street Art Funeral. Picture by Jsinghur

It's some time now since Sever made this piece in Detroit. I've been thinking some time about this piece since I saw it on the net some months ago. What do Sever wants to tell us with this. All the figures in the piece, Shepard Fairey (Obeygiant), Os Gemeos, Twist (Barry McGee), Banksy, Futura and Kaws are artists that began their career doing illegal graffiti and street art. Now, they are recognized artists doing gallery exhibitions, sell prints and merchandise, and do commissioned work around the world. Their works are sold for huge figures on art auctions. They have a commercial market value and have become part of the establishment.

 If street art is dead, it refers to a certain opinion or notion about what street art was and how it died, And yet, It's quite difficult to find a common understanding of what street art is or was.

We could think of Street Art in a broad sense as art in different genres made outside (in the streets) and free for the public to see. Then we would have to include art genres as graffiti in all its forms, murals, sculptures, performances, installations, music, dance, literature etc. One criteria could probably be that you could distinguish these works from business signs, commercials and event posters. This definition does not distinguish between public art placed or organized by officials or legally by private interests and art work which is done spontaneous or illegally in the streets. With this definition we could say that Street Art is still alive, even if time have made the boundaries between public and private interests, commercial and non-commercial art, and legal and illegal art more blurred and unclear. So, when Os Gemeos paints a huge wall legally in Boston on commission (which may or may not be paid), it's regarded as Street Art because it's in a public space and free and for everybody to see.

Another way to look at it, is to see Street Art as part of the Graffiti movement, a culture, which started in US, France and UK in the late 70's together with rap music, punk music and politically radical communities. It was illegal, anti-commercial, subversive, political and regarded as underground activity and vandalism by the officials and the establishment. In the 80's and 90's the culture grew, expanded and differentiated into a multivariate of styles, technics and inspirations. New York based train painters influenced kids in Europe, and French stencil makers gave ideas to US and Australian artists and so on. The graffiti and street art culture became international, but also divided into subcultures with different "rules" and views on what their work was about. During the 2000s, the globalization of graffiti and street art have continued and the respective subcultures too. When these subcultures clash, they are referred to as "Graffiti War.” I think Sever's work in Detroit must be seen as a comment on the parts of the street art culture that have been commercialized, and that the main representatives (the coffin carriers) are ruining, in his view, what street art is about, the spirit and values.

The situation is confusing because today, the same "vandal" can be exhibited in a famous art institution in L.A., and arrested for vandalism in another state or country; A stencil piece raising awareness about child labour made illegally on a wall in North-East London, can be removed and sold on a art auction in America for more than a million dollars; President Obama have a street art print in the White House presented to him by the conservative prime minister in UK made by an artist who have been arrested and fined several times for vandalism.

In this view, the street art culture may not be dead yet, but the idea of a street art movement is deconstructed and transferred into a pop culture with present "street-art-stars" which travel the world. The public follows and everybody with an artistic talent wants be like them. The visited city gets free publicity on internet worth millions. Organised street art festivals around the world even use the word "Line up" when they refer to which artists that will be presenting their works.  When "the biggest of them all" Banksy is asked: "Why are you such a sell out?" His answer is "I wish I had a pound for every time someone asked me that."