Who says old people don’t like streetart??

Burpk

Short trailer for a new documentary film about Burpk: Graffiti artist, graphic designer and rapper. Real name: Thijs Reinders, from Holland, Kerkrade. He showcases his work on walls, billboards, hats and sneakers. The première is in February 2012.

(Music: Flying Lotus – Computer Face / Pure Being)
Video: Marijn Vanderheijden

Can Street Art Survive the Mainstream?

We posted this article from http://www.good.is on our blog because it gives interesting opinions about Street art going mainstream. Also this article gave us an impression  about the future of street art..

Street Art Beyond the Spray Can

Global Street Art

These days, if you’re looking for innovative and vital art, skip the galleries and take a walk down the streets of any major city.

The street art blog Wooster Collective helped GOOD curate some of the best examples of this new global art community.

PHOTOS  Courtesy of woostercollective.com

Source:

Good Global Street Art. Consulted on 25 oktober. From: http://www.good.is/post/global-street-art/

Must Haves

It’s almost an impossible task to collect your favorite pieces of street art within a reasonable time.  Almost. Urban Pride Street Art has compiled a list with masterpieces, all included in great books.

Amsterdam Graffiti

The Scene

Amsterdam has a rich, so called street art scene, where graffiti plays an important role. Much of this young people activity is closely connected to some sorts of music as hip hop, a few sport disciplines as skating and BMX biking, selected video games and a specific fashion. Groups of graffiti artists call themselves crews. Amsterdam crews like USA (United Street Artists), TMP, 3rd Eye or LF (The Lame Face) exist now for about fifteen years.

The writers
Graffiti artists used to call themselves writers or bombers. “Putting shit” – as they themselves call it, or in our language painting graffiti, happens mostly at night. This is because of the regulations, which are very simple – a graffiti artist has to pay for the damage done by the painting. Since the basic cost of a simple graffiti cleaning is € 150,- ($ 220,-) per square meter, whilst cleaning of the bigger stone surface of the wall may go into hundreds of thousands of euros, only some very small graffiti are actually affordable. When caught, graffiti artists are usually arrested for one night, but they can be kept in detention up to three days and six hours. Judges are lenient only at the first apprehension, usually giving an offender a small fine for vandalism and a cleaning task. When caught for the second time, you may end up in jail and pay a big penalty for the damages. That is why many of the graffiti cases end up in a settlement, where graffiti artists pay for and cooperate in removal of the paintings, with 10% paid of the damages paid to the court. No wonder most of the graffiti appear on houses doors, gates and fences – these are the most unproblematic places to renovate.

The Dutch approach
Amsterdam municipality has an interesting approach towards the graffiti artists, trying to decriminalize the whole activity by creating legal opportunities and places to paint, by promoting the most interesting graffiti painters to the status of an artist accepted by the society, by sponsoring them, giving them commissions to decorate, trying to convince them to move with their painting to canvas, promoting exhibitions and finally purchasing most interesting works to the museums. Last years several museums of reputation as Noord Brabantsmuseum in s’Hertogenbosch and Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo have exhibited graffiti.

The Graffiti Laws in Barcelona

The regulations to paint in Public Barcelona are quite strict. It is interesting to read in which way the government is involved in this industry.

Streetart Barcelona

During my visit in Barcelona I saw tons of interesting street art. Street art in Barcelona is different in some kind of way than in Amsterdam. In my opinion the street art in Barcelona is far more creative, colourful and expressive.

If you have interesting photo’s of street art in Barcelona, please share!

Street Artist Interview – Kenor, by BCN Style

Barcelona is a great place to see and point out the relation between the Street artists and the government. This article dives a little deeper in the mind of a Street artist. We’ve posted this interview on our blog because this artist has his own interesting perception of streetart and the city.

Artist name: Kenor
Website: www.elkenor.com
Likes: the noise
Dislikes: the vampires blood suckers.

Read the original Kenor Interview in Spanish

What do you want to express when you paint?
The essence of the village comes from the people. This is our vital space, and we don’t want a grey Barcelona. We exist and nobody asked us for our opinion. This is the unity of the grey. Decorating your own street is something illegal! The worst vandalism, comparable to Franco’s era, nowadays, is painting in grey without asking anyone.

Do you think that if Barcelona had a Banksy, the Government would leave his paintings in the street?
Recently there was a problem with the people and the government because the government had painted a banksy wall in gray (a lot of money lost?) There are people like Banksy in Barcelona. But the problem is that in spain, they instruct us how to live. They don’t want the meetings in the streets, and the skaters are not welcome. They made their own city, and their evolution goes the way they choose, and it also contaminates the future, keeping marks for another kind of culture in our streets. You have to live with their kind of thoughts: the city is much more turned off when it’s only full of shops.

They want to promote only for their interest. What interest do the government have in paying us to paint their parking? the public will think the government is with us, because they give us a place, pay for the paints, and pay the artists. Also there are the break-dancers, even they cannot practice that in the streets. They support for a day the same people they punish to win the sympathy of the young people. This is not support. It’s called despotism.

I’m getting depressed from answering this interview. Everything is depressing. On wednesday I’m going to sevilla, and maybe I don’t return. I cannot feel that: The evolution of a city that goes with government ideals: you cannot eat a sandwich in a park (you will be punished if you do), as an example. We haven’t got cold weather, so we are used to living in the street.