We were pleasantly surprised this week to find Nuart being featured in what is probably the worlds largest News site.
FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST
The small, oil rich coastal town of Stavanger in Norway must be feeling a bit blue right now, if elated; with all these new super-sized paintings in the streets. The Nuart 2010 artists have packed up their brushes and dispersed after two weeks of scaling walls and leaving monumental murals for the town to help endure the long, dark winter months ahead. The festival, in it's 5th year under curator Martyn Reed, featured some supremely independent masters of the craft including Street Artists like Blu (Italy), Vhils (France), Roa (Belgium), Dolk (Norway), Erica Il Cane (Italy), EVOL (Germany), Vasmoulakis Alexandros (Greece), Sten & Lex (Italy) M-City (Poland), and Dotmasters (UK).
But Mr. Reed, the visionary engine behind this elaborate and accessible street art installation, doesn't limit himself to organizing just one large festival. Instead he double-tracks it with a hefty electronic-based music festival born from his years as a techno DJ and promoter. Numusic this year featured performances by luminaries like Kraut Rock granddaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.
The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.
Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?
Martyn Reed: Actually, this year, though the largest in scale, was a much easier production than we've been used to. We've learned so much from previous events. All of this years artists were painters, so once set up, people were pretty autonomous. It helped that we spread out the production period to cover two weeks.
Brooklyn Street Art: What has been the town folks' main reaction when they see all the big creatures on the walls of their city?
Martyn Reed: It's incredible, there's nothing but love for Nuart in this city, and it's spread across a really broad demographic, from toddlers to grandparents, and from bakers to the city mayor.
It's interesting because in a city this size anything new, any new developments in culture for example, are judged on their intrinsic merits and not due to media hype or "trends". The city has a population of 120,000 and though a few will be aware of Banksy, Dolk etc., that will be it.
The art isn't really tied to a "culture", to Juxtapoz, or hipsters or the gallery set or to limited edition sneakers and vinyl toys or any of the other commercial detritus that's blossomed around the scene. It's simply art on the street; big bold beautiful artworks that noticeably improve the surroundings. It's astonishing to me that more city councils around the world haven't yet embraced and recognized the value of Street Art.
Brooklyn Street Art: You have combined music with the plastic arts. Is there a cross-over between the two? Does one influence the other when curating the festival?
Martyn Reed: Interesting question, but the short answer is no, not anymore. It's interesting in that Nuart was established to explore the questions you raise.
The Numusic festival, like many other European electronic music festivals, was born from an involvement in early rave and club culture. The social lives of art students began to merge with their studies and aspects of their academic pursuits began to influence club culture; especially with VJs, the early web, digital arts and new media. This proved an especially fertile and creative arena for subversives and artistic outsiders who naturally gravitate to these still lawless new frontiers.
I'd developed an interest in Street Art through being exposed to Banksy, I DJ'd at Cargo in London back in 200o/2001 he was having his first show there in the bar and courtyard.
But Mr. Reed, the visionary engine behind this elaborate and accessible street art installation, doesn't limit himself to organizing just one large festival. Instead he double-tracks it with a hefty electronic-based music festival born from his years as a techno DJ and promoter. Numusic this year featured performances by luminaries like Kraut Rock granddaddies Neu! and American hip-hop cornerstone Grandmaster Flash.
The affable bad boy Reed took a moment this week to look at his route to success so far and tell BSA about what the Nuart festival is and why it is important to him.
Brooklyn Street Art: Putting on a festival of this magnitude must be a big task. How do you do it?
Martyn Reed: Actually, this year, though the largest in scale, was a much easier production than we've been used to. We've learned so much from previous events. All of this years artists were painters, so once set up, people were pretty autonomous. It helped that we spread out the production period to cover two weeks.
Brooklyn Street Art: What has been the town folks' main reaction when they see all the big creatures on the walls of their city?
Martyn Reed: It's incredible, there's nothing but love for Nuart in this city, and it's spread across a really broad demographic, from toddlers to grandparents, and from bakers to the city mayor.
It's interesting because in a city this size anything new, any new developments in culture for example, are judged on their intrinsic merits and not due to media hype or "trends". The city has a population of 120,000 and though a few will be aware of Banksy, Dolk etc., that will be it.
The art isn't really tied to a "culture", to Juxtapoz, or hipsters or the gallery set or to limited edition sneakers and vinyl toys or any of the other commercial detritus that's blossomed around the scene. It's simply art on the street; big bold beautiful artworks that noticeably improve the surroundings. It's astonishing to me that more city councils around the world haven't yet embraced and recognized the value of Street Art.
Brooklyn Street Art: You have combined music with the plastic arts. Is there a cross-over between the two? Does one influence the other when curating the festival?
Martyn Reed: Interesting question, but the short answer is no, not anymore. It's interesting in that Nuart was established to explore the questions you raise.
The Numusic festival, like many other European electronic music festivals, was born from an involvement in early rave and club culture. The social lives of art students began to merge with their studies and aspects of their academic pursuits began to influence club culture; especially with VJs, the early web, digital arts and new media. This proved an especially fertile and creative arena for subversives and artistic outsiders who naturally gravitate to these still lawless new frontiers.
I'd developed an interest in Street Art through being exposed to Banksy, I DJ'd at Cargo in London back in 200o/2001 he was having his first show there in the bar and courtyard.
It hadn't occurred to me until around 2005, when I took over the curation of Nuart, that Street Art was occupying the same ground as these early digital pioneers. They had a similar message but potentially much greater coverage, were generating mass appeal, and all for the price of a craft knife and Internet connection. Suddenly new media looked like the bloated expensive state sanctioned art-form it was, obsessed with the technology of production when it seemed the real technological revolution was going to be in its ability to distribute.
Read the full article here
Read the full article here
The original article appears on Brooklyn Street Art
No comments:
Post a Comment