2017 Highlights

December 24, 2017 butterfly

With 2017 coming to a close, we look back at the highlights of this incredible year.

banksywalled-off-hotel-1

Elusive artist Banksy has been very prolific throughout the year and politically engaged: between the opening of a new venture with the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, returning to Palestine after 10 years, highlighting the complex question of the UK leaving EU with a Brexit themed mural in Dover and revisiting the Girl with Balloon, paying tribute to Jean Michel Basquiat at the Barbican in London, to creating a new play with Film Director Danny Boyle ‘The Alternativity’

Banksy JMB Wheel 01 - Butterfly art News

Space Invader at Musee en Herbe in Paris

Following a roaring success, ‘ Hello My Game is… Invader’ featuring over 100 works and continues to be extented until 8 January 2018.

The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art is now open in Berlin, a unique center for exhibitions, research and exchange on urban art with over 150 artists on its launch.

Magic City – The Art of the Street continues touring after Dresden and Munich is now in Sweden, showcasing international street artists as well as local graffiti writers with their different practices and tools.

A big THANK YOU to all the artists this year for their creativity and involvement!

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Best wishes for the Festive Season

Thank you for your continued support !

Toulouse

Video: Creve Hivernale II

December 23, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

December 2016. A wasteland surrounded by barbed wire with a view on passing trains, home to travellers, migrants and less fortunate people. This is not a picture taken in a distant country, but actually in the center of Toulouse, South of France.

With Creve Hivernale II, local and international artists highlight the current socio -political situation, the refugee crisis with the inhumane living conditions in Europe by gathering outside and settling up in this wasteland for over a month, facing the cold and harsh elements to create immersive art installations, visual and audio performances using uniquely objects and trash found on the site, as well as collaborative artworks with children and families living there.

Participating artists include:

NADIA VON FOUTRE – JEAN DENANT – MANUEL POMAR – A4 PUTEVIE – MADEMOISELLE KAT – SID POLIEKOFF – MATHIEU TREMBLIN – TILT – MARDI NOIR – UPGRAYYDD RECIDIVE– MOLO MOLO – CLAIRE SAUVAGET – BERTRAND FRAYSSE– DON QUICKSHOT– LURK WARM – BUTTERFLY – SOPHIE BACQUIE – LUCIE LAFLORENTIE – ANNLOR CODINA – NATALIE SVIT-KONA EIFYRAN

Uncategorized

Video: Banksy ‘ Alternativity’ with Danny Boyle

December 15, 2017 butterfly 3 Comments

Following the reveal of two new street pieces earlier in Bethlehem (covered here) Banksy will be premiering The Alternativity film on BBC Two this Sunday, the 17th of December, an unique observational arts and documentary film directed by Danny Boyle.

This hour-long film follows director Danny Boyle on his travels to Bethlehem to capture a festive performance of the nativity, directed in collaboration between the Oscar-winning director and the local theater director, performance artist, actress and teacher at Bethlehem University, Riham Isaac.

The film premiere was announced with a new artwork from Banksy that mixes his commonly used chalk doodle style with more elaborate stencil and hand painted elements. In this particular case, the characters are doodled as simple stickmen figures, with obvious emphasis put on the drone hoovering above, one of the separation wall towers “watching” over them, and a can of CS tear gas, commonly used by the Israeli forces, laying in front of the stable. The image is a hint on the theme of the play and the movie, which places the story of nativity in the context of modern day Bethlehem, described by Banksy as “the least Christmassy place on earth.”

In advance of the screening, a short teaser presents the movie:

How do you stage a nativity in the car park of a Bethlehem hotel? And, more importantly, how do you make it snow? #TheAlternativity pic.twitter.com/DWbe6NIHKD

— BBC Two (@BBCTwo) December 12, 2017

Also coming out this week end, an interview in the Financial Times where Banksy discusses about his many travels to Palestine and involvement in Bethlehem.

When asked by Financial Times Art Director Jan Dalley about the possible effectiveness of his art, Banksy mentions “There aren’t many situations where a street artist is much use,” he says. “Most of my politics is for display purposes only. But in Palestine there’s a slim chance the art could have something useful to add — anything that appeals to young people, specifically young Israelis, can only help.”

Berlin, Shows

Berlin: Barbara Kruger ‘Forever’

December 10, 2017 butterfly

US artist Barbara Kruger, who initially inspired the logo for Supreme, has created an immersive installation called ‘Forever’ for the Berlin gallery Sprüth Magers. This exhibition marks exactly three decades since her first solo show at Monika Sprüth Gallery in Cologne.

The new site-specific work occupies all four walls and the floor of the gallery’s main exhibition space, with immersive room-wraps and several new vinyl works. Their boldly designed textual statements on the nature of truth, power, belief and doubt embody the distinctive visual language that Kruger has developed over the course of her forty-year career.

Since the late 1970s, Kruger has established herself as one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. Beginning with her earliest works, for which she combined language with mass media imagery culled from books and magazines, she has turned a critical eye toward consumerism, desire, political will, and the often-hidden mechanisms of power operating within contemporary society. In the mid-1990s, Kruger produced her first multichannel video works and room-wrappings, tapping into a long-standing interest in architecture and expanding the scale of her installations to envelop viewers in disorienting, but thought-provoking, environments. Her exhibition in Berlin extends these investigations, which are as timely as ever in a moment pervaded by pseudo-facts and alternative realities.

With ‘Forever’ Barbara Kruger takes a critical look at technology and humanity through her “bold textual statements about the nature of truth, power, belief, and doubt.” The exhibition transports viewers to contemplate iconic words typed in monochrome boxes and their connotations in relation to the wallpaper of the smartphone.

View the full set of pics here

Barbara Kruger – “Forever”
Until 22 December 2017
Sprüth Magers
Oranienburger Strasse 18
Berlin

Shows, Street, streets

Banksy’s ‘Alternativity’ in Bethlehem

December 4, 2017 butterfly 1 Comment

Elusive artist Banksy is back at his “Walled Off Hotel” in the city of Bethlehem in Palestine with a new stunt to celebrate the festive season with a “festive spectacular” titled Alternativity, and continue to raise media awareness in one of the most troubled parts of the globe. Alternativity features a play directed by Rihaam Issac and Danny Boyle and other surprises.

As a nod to the biblical events, two versions of the Alternativity flyer feature a heavily pregnant Mary sitting on a donkey while Joseph is looking perplexed at the separation wall while the star is shining on the other side. How do they cross?

Nearby the hotel, Banksy just unveiled two brand new street pieces.

The first piece “Peace On Earth” is a text based work which reads “Peace on Earth *terms and conditions apply.” Located in front of the Milk Grotto Church. The clever text-based works juxtaposes the spiritual and universal ‘Peace on earth’ quote and religious Christmas Star with a consumerism message ‘Terms and conditions apply’, highlighting the sarcastic turn of our modern day society.

It also references to the delicate balance to maintain peace.

The second piece shows two stencilled angels, equipped with a crowbar and trying to breakthrough the separation wall. One of the angels is wearing a handkerchief to cover his face while the other has a little beanie in true vandal style to carry out their mischief. As usual with Banksy, its a perfect placement for this cute and cheeky artwork.