CtG Street Art

Art crimes? Can they exist? Thieves and artists do not make the most obvious bedfellows. Their interests and skill sets seem diametrically opposed. The former snatches property from its rightful owners, while the latter creates new material to enhance or comment upon the world as he or she sees it. A less literal examination, however, of these two activities—theft and artmaking—reveals that they do share common attributes. Thieves, after all, often rely upon ingenuity and creativity: there appears to be an art to good theft. Likewise, artists often rely heavily upon the developments and creative achievements of their predecessors, and to be sure, borrowing freely from the past is omnipresent in today’s art world.

‘Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst’ (There is a Criminal Touch to Art) documents the ‘live event’ that Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen) carried out in Berlin; he stole a painting from the Neue National Galerie. In contrast to the ‘Relation Works’, which Ulay made with Marina Abramovic and whose developments and duration were not known in advance, this work was carefully planned. Ulay’s action took 30 hours, his video document 30 minutes. Da ist eine kriminelle Beruhrung in der Kunst begins, and ends, with a report of the event in the form of newspaper cuttings and radio commentary. Then Ulay’s voice can be heard explaining his plan in fourteen steps. Abramovic filmed Ulay at the Neue National Galerie, where, after distracting the guard, he removed the painting, Carl Spitzweg’s Der arme Poet, from the wall. However, the painting was connected to the alarm system, and the museum doors started closing the moment Ulay took the painting. Using the emergency exit, he ran out of the museum, reached his van, and drove off, taking Der arme Poet with him. During the subsequent tour around Berlin, Mike Steiner, who was following his car, filmed Ulay. In the final scene, Ulay hung the Spitzweg painting on the living-room wall of the home of a Turkish migrant family in Berlin. He then phoned the Neue National Galerie, and two hours later the director and the police turned up at the location where Ulay had left the painting. Ulay was arrested, and Der arme Poet was returned to the museum where it was hung back in its place, this time behind glass.
Ulay did not choose the Spitzweg painting by chance. Der arme Poet had a special reputation in Germany. It was the most expensive and famous work, and was regarded as an icon of German national pride. By transferring it from the proud Neue National Galerie to the working-class dwelling of a Turkish migrant family, Ulay meant to expose the attitude of German nationalists towards Turkish immigration in Germany. Ulay was first portrayed as an extremist left wing activist. Once the action was announced as an artistic performance, he was described as a mentally disturbed man. Today, both the Der arme Poet and the Ulay performance (photos and video) are art pieces, seen by thousands of visitors in Berlin’s museums.

Some seconds of the original video:

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/werke/da-ist-eine-kriminelle-beruehrung/video/1/

VladyArt

Ladri e artisti: non è la più logica delle associazioni. Questi due profili hanno vite diverse e i loro interessi sono diametralmente opposti: i ladri sottraggono, gli artisti aggiungono. Ma, spesso la loro astuzia, la loro intuizione e le loro soluzioni creative rivelano dei tratti in comune. Chi del resto non ha mai sentito parlare dell’arte del furto, o del “furto” nell’arte? Entrambe queste categorie di uomini fanno tesoro delle scoperte di predecessori e rivali per superare i loro ostacoli e raggiungere una meta. Ma vi sono stati dei casi nella storia dell’arte che hanno visto gli artisti impegnati in veri furti, con tanto di inseguimento e arresto.

Una delle storie più incredibili ebbe luogo a Berlino nel 1976. ‘Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst’ (C’è un tocco criminale nell’arte), è un’opera performativa dell’artista Tedesco Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen), ben documentata da foto e video. Ulay rubò dalla Neue National Galerie una delle tele più celebri della storia tedesca, il Der arme Poet di Carl Spitzweg. Contrariamente alle esperienze condivise con l’artista Marina Abramovic, quest’azione fu attentamente programmata in anticipo, studiata e ponderata al minimo dettaglio. Le operazioni, durate 30 ore, vengono raccontate in 14 passi in un video di 30 minuti. Il video inizia e termina con immagini e voci tratte da giornali e notiziari nazionali. Lo stesso Ulay fa da narratore. La Abramovic, che nel museo distrasse le guardie, filmò pure i primi attimi del furto. La tela era connessa al sistema di allarme che suonò non appena Ulay la staccò dal muro. Iniziò così una rocambolesca fuga verso le uscite di sicurezza, le uniche rimaste aperte. All’uscita corse verso il suo furgoncino che riuscì a raggiungere e mettere in moto in tempo, partendo di scatto. A seguirlo un’auto guidata dall’artista americano Mike Steiner, che effettuò alcuni minuti di riprese, come una fuga simbolica da Berlino a Berlino, dai musei alle zone dei residenti meno abbienti. Si distinguono chiaramente alcuni luoghi chiave della città divisa: la Colonna della Vittoria a Tiergarten e la porta di Brandeburgo. La meta di Ulay fu una casa di immigranti turchi, dove Ulay si introdusse come un ladro dal balcone, per posizionargli l’opera nel loro modesto soggiorno. Der arme Poet non fu un’opera a caso: questa tela simbolo ritrae un povero poeta nel suo letto in un’umile soffitta. Dal telefono di questa casa Ulay contattò il museo, e due ore dopo accorsero il direttore con la polizia. L’opera tornò al museo (seppur dietro una teca di vetro) e Ulay finì in cella. La notizia ebbe grande rilevanza su tutti i media: inizialmente parlarono di un’estremista di sinistra, poi, conosciuta la rivendicazione, semplicemente di un matto. Oggi anche la performance di Ulay è un’opera da museo, diversa ma legittima quanto la tela trafugata, esposta a migliaia di visitatori presso l’Hamburger Bahnhof di Berlino.

Alcuni secondi del documento video: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/werke/da-ist-eine-kriminelle-beruehrung/video/1/

VladyArt

(Source: catalogue.nimk.nl)

Stickers around Alexander Platz. Signs of underground activity.

The German capital is arguably the most “bombed” (slang for graffiti covered) city in Europe. An unstoppable sense of freedom and desire of comunication has crossed Berlin since the fall of the Wall. The roots of graffiti culture can be traced back to West Berlin in the early 1980s, when the American-occupied sector was the reluctant melting pot of anarchist punks, Turkish immigrants and West German draft resisters. Kreuzberg, a neighborhood surrounded on three sides by the Berlin Wall, blossomed particularly well, with miles of wall space and little police scrutiny.

One of the most unbelievable stories of bombing: known as “mr. 6”, 4rtist has left some 650,000 number 6 of any size around Berlin. Since 1995.

The first so-called writers were heavily influenced by the New York City scene. Works about the time, like the 1983 film “Style Wars” by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, and the 1984 book “Subway Art” by Mr. Chalfant and Martha Cooper, enjoyed a cult following.

Little Lucy by El Bocho. This mural “saga” sees a nice little girl named Lucy trying to kill her cat, in many funny ways. El Bocho is well known in Berlin for his paste-ups and cut-outs.

But while the west face of the Berlin Wall was blanketed with graffiti, the east face was orderly and gray. The notorious Stasi police kept graffiti under wraps, and writers in East Berlin risked imprisonment or worse if they were caught red - handed with spray cans - assuming they could even get their hands on paint.

This partially covered poster could say nothing if you don’t know the “saga” of Linda’s Ex. The artist (Linda’s ex boyfriend) has left many love declaration and sad messages for Linda, asking her to get together again and more romantic stuff… but it’s all for art sake: there is no Linda and no broken hearts. Still, Berlin felt great partecipation to these love messages, with lot of irony too.

All that changed, of course, with the fall of the wall in 1989, which opened up vast new blank walls virtually overnight. Artists, musicians and young people flooded East Berlin, heralding a shift in the youth culture from west to east. The pockmarked walls of Mitte, Friedrichshain and other gray neighborhoods were soon carpeted in colorful squiggles.

RALLITO X, from Spain, to Berlin. The number of people that here have left a visual sign is simply amazing. It seems that anyone did something on the walls. There is so much on the street that being artistically different would mean not to be on street art at all.

Various & Gould

Berlin today appears tollerant and pro-graffiti. Berlin seems the pole of attraction for an entire generation of artists, from big names to beginners, of any field. Berlin is alternative indeed. A hardcore capital of fun if you want, but not at all the type of fun you could see in an amusement park.

Since 1986, the Cologne-based artist Thomas Baumgärtel has been stenciling Warhol-like yellow bananas outside his favorite galleries. Several hundred galleries have received the yellow seal of approval, offering gallery hoppers a highly regarded rating guide to the city’s art scene.

Why Graffiti are everywhere, is it legal? The police were painfully slow to respond to graffiti, and a special task force formed in the early 1990s remains largely ineffectual. Graffiti may be vandalism, but it is also celebrated as street art and even regarded as an integral component of Berliner Strassenkultur. It’s hard to disagree: today’s art and street art are contributing to the capital fame, calling troups of tourists and large events.

The simple and iconic smile by Prost. Paste-ups are in a grey area: it is illegal but tollerated. That’s why is so widely used.

Graffiti culture and street art has entered the galleries network in a natural way, here in Berlin. Galleries like Circleculture, a stark storefront in Mitte, regularly exhibit internationally known street artists like Anton Unai, who often works with objects he finds on the street, and Shepard Fairey, the creator of “Obey, Giant” and, most recently, a popular poster of Barack Obama.

Kripoe, a writer known for his yellow fists on amazing locations.

The Tacheles is an occupied building in the centre of Berlin. For two decades has been home and refuge for many artists, a place to live, work and meet the people. A true institution, a free art centre, one of Berlin’s symbol. Today is about to close down forever, the site has been acquired.

Rents are still low in the eastern part, making the area desiderable for students, artists, young families, from around the world. The spaces available are greater than the demand and this keeps the prices affordable for anyone. The art scene enjoyed a fast grow, and a great number of indipendent shops and art galleries have opened in the former east Berlin.

The italian artist Blu is well considered by the authorities. Several massive murals are found in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg districts.

The city today has a great offer of art and culture and great is still the demand. There is something for everyone: fashion designers, sculptors, photographers, painters, dj’s, any classes and courses, no profit project and commercial activities, underground or main stream. There is Berlin for anyone, and a shop too.

Big walls, big commecials. The advertisement agencies are recruiting the graffiti artists to conquer a new public.

If you are looking for design, particular - indipendent - shops and art galleries (street art too) the areas where you should head are Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg. But you can find a spot of “multiculti” life basically anywhere in Berlin.

Higher and bigger. Political fight, also rooftop.

The residents of these areas (kieze or Kietz) identify strongly with their neighborhoods, and this is particularly evidend in street art, graphic art, communication. A great sense of belonging that are keeping the citizen active on any public issue - first of all, the gentrification.

Today the Berlin wall is a tourist attraction, famous for being all decorated, but probably overrated. Artistically speaking, the best murals are everywhere else but not here.

This is why a good slice of Berlin’s street art is politically, socially and enviromentally aware. So, fun and tollerance, but also with a message.

The street-photographer “Jr”

Roa

By Vlady Art.

Contemporary art is a wretched rot! Contemporary artists are fucking freaks. I’d like to burn them in the blastfurnaces or crush them with a heavy catterpillar tractor. Fuck your mothers in the pension fund and make pictures of that, art-morons. We have way too many fucking premature bustards! Morons are now to be called artists. Eat shit! You better kill yourselves in full view of everybody. It will be more useful. Contemporary art, mother fuckers! Contemporary artists are fools! Amazing! Contemporary art is shameful and loathsome. Such a raving! Contemporary art is an orgy of the ecstatic morons! Contemporary artists are promptly to be sent to the mental hospital and to be fed with vitamin H. Contemporary artists are to be kept in the holding cell for a few days and than to be judged and put to the compulsory treatment. Contemporary artists are stupid brutish cattle, fascists and betrayers of the motherland. Contemporary art is a spit into the face of Russians. I’d like Russian authorities to react severely on that. If the reaction is feeble, authorities should be swept away! Contemporary art is a cheap stuff. Fake and bullshit. It’s incredible that people still react to this kind of miserable experiment. Contemporary artists are a batch of degenerates, whose behavior evidences the decline of the Russian Federation biomass. It’s impossible in the nation state. Only nationless quasimodos are capable of this. Russians suffer of syphilis in extremis and there is no possibility to cure them. Contemporary artists are mutants, a batch of moral monsters and degenerates. Such an outrage is impossible among other nations, that would probably slaughter these morons in 3 seconds, and they would be right about it. The question is – «Who is responsible for these freaks?» «100% - Jews are». Contemporary art is a spit into the face of normal people. Since more and more nuts occupy the world. And it’s important for them to know whether mentally sane people are left and whether they will react to that or not. There are things that are not to be demonstrated in the normal society. Go home fucking morons and perform your actions, fuck and defecate in full view of your children, mothers, fathers. Your have lost your right to live in a normal society. And remember – it’s our right not to see your brutish abomination. Contemporary art is simply a disgrace. Artists behave outrageously and after that whine about lawlessness! Fuck, you should think first before acting. Contemporary art is dissolute and immoral. You can name art any villainy… Contemporary artists should be batoned unmercifully by the militia… They should be deprived of parental authority and their children should be adopted in order they have no possibility to raise such scums as they are. Contemporary art destroys morality, evolutional potential of humanity, destroys chastity and family, and mankind. And contemporary artists are a sensual mould, which eats up and smacks social reality. It’s high time for «Russian» artists to leave for fucking Israel and fuck each other near Wailing Wall. Contemporary artists are enemies from Israel. They laugh at our beliefs. Using deception and low craftiness they have tortured a lot of people. They lead Russia to the graveyard. And Russia has her hands tied and she cries out loud and calls for Russian sons and waits for their help only. Contemporary art insults our dignity and perverts juveniles. Let Jews pay bucks for it! ‘Cause we are drowning in shit! Contemporary artists are Jews, who throw shit at everybody. They wail about purity and sufferings and do it in the high style. Contemporary artists are enemies. They took away bright dream from everybody. They doomed the whole nation to slavery. I’d like to send them to mines. They turn contemporary art into sex-shop. Russia is a Russian country. And in Moscow synagogues multiply. Russia is being brought to her grave. Contemporary artists should be fucked on their heads with scrap-iron. They are moral ugly creatures. Contemporary artists are the shit of the nation! Contemporary artists are a batch of idiots and block-heads, who spoil the reputation of the country. All the so-called contemporary artists are racial Jews. Contemporary artists are cattle and brutes. Contemporary art is a mob of furious scrappers. Shoot all contemporary artists. Only then the motherland will gain peace and order. If it won’t help, the procedure should be repeated. I got tired repeating that only mass killing will save the motherland. Contemporary art is an idiotic company of dishonest fanatics with a weird ideology. Contemporary artists are idiots, schizophrenics, hysteric men and deviant persons. Mentally ill people should be watched after. They are to be kept in mental hospital. Contemporary art is a child pornography. It is a pitchfork that should be driven into the balls of the rotten artists, who are ready for everything for the sake of their glory. Contemporary art is a wild porno for wretched freaks. Contemporary art is a dick without head. The dick of contemporary art means nothing in compare with the dick of Michelangelo’s David. It is no more than weak attempts. Contemporary art is worth jacking off only. Contemporary art is a vomitive fuck. Contemporary art heat international dissention. Contemporary art is Hell. It’s time to turn contemporary art into the propaganda team supporting our favorite president. Contemporary art is a dull, common and graceless foul work. Special services and militia are to be occupied with it, not the curators. Contemporary art is a nightmare. The only thing contemporary artist is able to do is to defecate in the museum. I’m sick of such art. Contemporary art is suffering of impotence and automanipulation. Let’s prohibit it! Contemporary art is a gathering of pederasts and lesbians! Contemporary art is a shit-eating! Contemporary art is a parade of freaks and fucking morons! Contemporary art is a heating of xenophobia! Contemporary art fucks itself. Contemporary art should be castrated. Let’s stop its multiplication! Contemporary art is a degenerate and lacking vitality part of world community. Contemporary art is a Satan heresy! Contemporary artists are to be executed via impaling them on sharp sticks. Contemporary artists spoiled everything! Museums, temples, icons, belief, people’s dignity and moral. Contemporary artists are stupid whores and brainless morons! All contemporary artists should be denationalized, forbidden to cut hear and turned out of their homes. Let them ramble along the streets of Russian towns like the real fucked bears. Contemporary artists lost self-respect. They chop icons, crucify themselves in the squares, bite passers-by in the streets. It’s time to bring order! Contemporary artists are to be burned alive along with their so-called pieces of art to wipe out Russian culture. Contemporary artists are pig-fuckers! Stay out of contemporary artists! Will get into a mess, won’t pull through. Lets fuck artists in the asses with a thick dick to make them change their mind! Let’s amputate genitals, hands and tongues of contemporary artists. Let’s burn that all on the ritual fire, scatter dust to dung the soil. Let’s birch artists and burn them down in public in Red Square. We don’t need half measures… Contemporary art is irresponsible. It should be responsibility, sense of proportion, taste, tact, respect to public decencies, intellectual wealth, reserve, idea of background…

(Source: plucer.livejournal.com)

Though it is legitimate to recognize and appreciate the career of the genius Banksy, is a duty for those who quote his talent to go back and get to know a French artist, born in 1952, named Xavier Prou, better known by his stage name Blek Le Rat.

Who is Blek Le Rat?!

Without mince words we can say that it is the artist who has implemented the stencil as a form of urban art, and one of the first graffiti artist in Paris.

The beginning of Blek Le Rat were influenced by american graffiti, following a trip to New York in 1971, but ten years later he had already found a personal language, filling the walls of Paris with curious stencils. The rat (Rat, an anagram of Art) was now the symbol, which will soon “take” the city. In 1991, ten years after his debut with the stencils, the artist was recognized by the authorities as guilty of several “criminal actions”: Blek Le Rat was condemned and released on one condition: do not spray paint anymore or go to jail. Nevertheless a new star in the art sky was already set in Paris. Since then Blek Le Rat began the creation of stenciled posters, becoming a pioneer also of this genre. This was a way to circumvent the law and continue to express his irrepressible desire to communicate, and problems with the law became a great source of inspiration.
“Why Paris is full of dog shit and their masters get away with it, while I should even risking prison with my own stuff?”.

Blek Le Rat’s influence on generations to follow and guerrilla art has been enormous. He was an artist able to hear the new impulses of urban art long before anyone else, and not only in Europe. There is a famous Banksy’s quote that should clear up any doubt: “Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well. Only twenty years earlier…”

Blek Le Rat, who is now nearly sixty, is a true art authority, who lives and works in an elegant abandoned castle. Art as a way of life.

http://bleklerat.free.fr/

Benchè sia legittimo apprezzare la carriera e riconoscere la genialità di Banksy, è doveroso per chi ne cita il suo talento fare un salto indietro e andare a conoscere un artista francese, classe 1952, di nome Xavier Prou, meglio noto con il nome d’arte Blek Le Rat.

Chi sarebbe Blek Le Rat?!

Senza troppi giri di parole possiamo dire che si tratta dell’artista che ha implementato lo stencil come forma d’arte urbana, nonché uno dei primi graffiti artist di Parigi.

Gli esordi di Blek Le Rat furono influenzati dal graffitismo americano, in seguito ad un viaggio a New York nel 1971, ma dieci anni più tardi aveva già trovato un linguaggio tutto suo, riempiendo di curiosissimi stencils i muri di Parigi. Il ratto (Rat, anagramma di Art) fu da subito il suo simbolo, che presto “conquistò” la città. Nel 1991, a dieci anni dal suo esordio con l’arte dello stencil, l’artista fu riconosciuto dalle autorità come colpevole di numerosissimi “reati”: Blek Le Rat fu condannato e non incarcerato alla condizione di non ripetersi mai più in simili atti “artistici”; tuttavia a Parigi il mito era iniziato. Da allora Blek incominciò a dedicarsi alla creazione di posters sagomati e lavorati con gli stencils, diventando peraltro pure un pioniere di questo genere. Questo fu un modo per raggirare la legge e per continuare ad esprimere la sua irrefrenabile voglia di comunicare, ed i problemi con la legge divennero una grande fonte di ispirazione.

“Perché Parigi è piena di merde di cane e i loro padroni impuniti, mentre io devo addirittura rischiare il carcere?!”.

L’influenza di Blek Le Rat sulle generazioni a seguire e sulla guerrilla art è stata enorme. É stato un artista capace di sentire le nuove pulsioni dell’arte urbana ben prima di ogni altro, e non solo in Europa. C’è una celebre frase di Banksy che dovrebbe chiarire ogni dubbio: “ogni volta che faccio qualcosa di abbastanza originale mi rendo conto che anche Blek Le Rat lo ha fatto, e vent’anni prima di me”.

Blek Le Rat, che oggi è quasi sessantenne, è una vera autorità, artista venerato che vive e lavora in un elegante castello abbandonato. L’arte nell’arte, l’arte come stile di vita.

http://bleklerat.free.fr/