The Messages on Walls by Alsa - France

 AlsaWebsite: http://alsacherie.free.fr/video/video.php

Urban Art - Addict Galerie Show - Paris

Addict Galerie - Paris

URBAN ART
... from walls to studios...
The street - a laboratory to new modes of expression

A work of art is born on the streets because its authors do not define themselves as artists. And there it is, the revolution. Young people with wandering fingers, simply wish to recall their existence via urban landscapes, prison-like places made of bricks and rocks, often deteriorated, which work as the scenery to their lives. For more than half a century the aesthetics of the cities have been modifying.

We have often condemned the immature spontaneity of underground painters, who only follow their instinctive need of expression that aims to deconstruct a certain conventionalism of forms. At first only a field of experimentation to young "amateurs", the streets have now become a place for exhibitions of the best-trained artists in search of their target audience, not usually found in museums.

In contrary to the traditional individualism of creators, street artists were able to develop a sense of generosity and solidarity that allowed them to effectuate collective projects. They also replaced traditional painting tools by exploring several techniques and all types of stands. Some broke from the norm by revisiting the figurative aspect with the irony of metaphorical language. Others made use of multimedia to increase our awareness of the dangers present in the virtual world.

Urban art is nowadays a way of life for many of its followers, artists who stay true to the varied inspirations and wish to create on authorised locations without breaking any laws.

 
However, a paradox is brought to light: how can these wandering innovators, having elected the street as their field of experimentation, and who are used to exhibiting works destined to disappear, how can these creators of an ephemeral art let themselves be locked up in a museum or gallery?

One thing is for certain: by moving indoors, and abandoning their secrecy, they do not lose any of their authenticity. These artists are simply proclaiming a different kind of inspiration, but one that stays faithful to their creative approach. They have also given their word that they will go back to expressing themselves in the streets. This tendency is not new. The shift from walls and wagons to light, mobile and collectible paintings had already happened in New York, beginning at the end of the seventies with Crash, Lady Pink...!

 
But what did the common man think when these globalising “works of art” were thrown right in his face? He remained sceptical, sometimes shocked, often puzzled. Institutions and critics saw this as an opportunity to ostracise these creators of undecipherable signs, reduced to the rank of supporters of an underground ghetto culture with subversive slogans.

For its part, the press demonstrated a surprising lack of interest towards this movement: that is when they were not chastising it, going as far as calling it a “degraded art”. Museums completely ignored them. Collectors, ill-informed, could on their part, only have cold feet.

Such context casts urban art in a peculiar place in history and does not make its recognition as a full-fledged artistic movement any easier. Even if the situation improves slowly, to this date in France very few exhibitions have been devoted to urban art. But even those have not taken into account the variety of techniques practiced, nor the richness of its inspiration, ignoring some of its great authors. It was about time to recognise the importance of one of the most revolutionary creative outbursts of the 20th Century because of its ability to reinvent pictorial art forms from an era condemned to a human jumble.

In order to appreciate its magnitude, Addict Galerie will be holding two exhibitions, with the first one taking place on October 16, 2010. This panorama will aim to expose an abundance of talent that will be glowing off the walls. The works of more than forty international artists will be gathered, notably those of pioneers Gérard Zlotykamien, John Crash Matos, Doze Green, Lady Pink, John Fekner et Don Leicht, Jean Faucheur, Toxic, and also younger talents such as Imminent Disaster, 108, Jazi, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, 36RECYCLAB, Mambo. Others also sharing their walls with us will include Jaybo Monk, Marco Pho Grassi, Victor Ash, Herakut, Dan Baldwin, Andrew Mc Attee, Nick Walker, Kofie, Boris Hoppek, Thomas Fiebig, L’ATLAS, Mist, TRYONE, Smash 137, Eelus, Dtagno...

Addict Galerie is conscious of the fact that a degree of subjectivity intervenes in this unique project and the choice of works, and is the first to acknowledge so. Their aim is to reveal, in a way that has never been done before, the coherence of a mode of expression that, through its multiplicity, asserts itself as imaginative, inspiring and innovative.

The proposed scenography observes the course of this panorama in two parts but without breaking its unity, even if the first stage entails a stronger abstract feel and the second a more figurative one. This approach reinforces a global vision that attempts to highlight the successful transition of street art to galleries.

It is through this initiative out of the norm that Addict Galerie wishes to give justice to urban art and help it establish its artistic legitimacy.

Laetitia Hecht and René Bonnell
Translation: Marina Felippe

website: www.addictgalerie.com

French Artist Says 'NON'

We have French artist Alsa lined up for LSD Issue 6…See the site for more work…

Pour aujourd'hui est demain  faut aussi savoir dire NON!
La rue est a nous!

J'vous invite , NON pas a UNE...Mesdames et Messieurs, mais a DEUX expozitions! Pour cela il vous suffira seulement de vous rendre , pour ceux qui ont le privilège d'habiter la capitale de la France;  Mulhouse , le 10 septembre a 18h (vernissage) 16 rue Sainte Claire  a la Galerie le TRUC ou je serais présent a l'occazion d'une expo "La rue est a nous!" d'un certain Alsacherie... http://www.letruc.fr/

Pour celles et ceux , Mesdames et Messieurs qui habite la Capitale du Monde entier ;PARIS, il vous suffira de vous rendre à la galerie de l'association  APACC, 19 rue Carnot, Montreuil (Métro Croix de Chavaux) a partir du 10 septembre 18h (vernissage) pour y voir " One Nation...Overrun",  une exposition d'affiches décollées des murs de France et de Navarre, ( y'a des bruits qui courent super fort fort que  mes affiches s'y affiche!!!)   :)
  http://apacc.canalblog.com/  http://www.callay.com/

si vous voulez matter  la serie entiére des NON c par la>>>>  http://alsacherie.free.fr/affichage%20libre/nonn.php ps special thk's to André de mulhouse qui pose pour la photo!

LSD Magazine Interviews - C215 (Issue 5)

Laced with a both a haunting realism and an otherworldly transcendence of the flesh into the immortal mysteries of identity, the supremely prolific and painfully genuine C215’s work drips with the whirlwind emotions of the human condition. He speaks through the universal language of communication, the human face to the universal elements of our existence and our shared hopes and shattered dreams through savagely emotive, yet silently reflective portraits that define the commonalities of humanity through the fragmentation we all feel so witheringly and all collude in so blindly...This is intangible complexity in all its conflicted clarity and the man himself took a moment for an exchange of ideas with LSD

Can you tell us a little about your background and your early journey...

My life was reasonably stable until the age of 14 when I became a raging drug addict : hash, heroin, coke and moreover LSD. My LSD period was unarguably great for opening up channels of creativity, but led also to a certain self destruction. I traveled with the Nomads alongside Spiral Tribe in the early 90’s until I found myself in jail and was forced to re assess my condition, realising that it was time to get myself clean of drugs and start out on the next phase of my life. I began to study tentatively, before the momentum began to snowball and I eventually found myself with a masters degree in Art History, another in History and 2 bachelors degrees, one in German, and the other in English. I feel at the same time both modern and classic. 

What impact did the illegal rave scene have on your creativity and your perception of the world?

It gave me the opportunity to discover that you can be at the heart of a movement that is bigger than you and step outside pure individualism into communal goals, communal living, and a wider purpose. It woke me up to the fact that you don’t need to go to night clubs or museums to experience art, but that you can feel art, create art and be art by yourself, doing it with your mates in unexpected places each with their own intangible character like abandoned warehouses or caves. Ultimately, art is visual poetry, and poetry is always unexpected. 

 Is there a beauty in the abandoned?

Whatever is abandoned can equally be saved, and that is the essence of romanticism. Abandoned warehouses, asylums and derelict wastelands reflect our own lives, with a strong sense of the ephemeral. We feel small and modest when we weigh our prized individualism against time and the wider universe, and consider how long any of us or anything we do will last within collective memory. Time being stopped in a specific place helps us to understand how short and transient life really is.

What does our attitude to public space say about us as a society?

In today’s Western cities we find ourselves living in an increasingly puritan atmosphere. Under the questionable cover of struggling against crime and terrorism, cities have been cleaned up to the point of obliterating any form of self expression with the glaring exception of branding and corporate advertising. The bottom line is that within in a modern liberal economy, public space exists solely to generate profits for commercial interests through the penetration and shaping of our daily reality - that’s it. It’s up to us to change this scandalous dynamic and speak about the place of human beings in the urban landscape. Raising that voice and letting it ring out and be heard would truly be a new humanism

READ ENTIRE C215 INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE 5 - ONLINE HERE

LSD Magazine Interviews - Rero (Issue 5)

Consciously sidestepping an image based aesthetic to combat the visual saturation of our generation, French artist Rero uses his minimalist Verdana texts to challenge accepted notions of private property and the lines of ownership we draw around places, people, items and ideas alike. Barring his own words in a reflection both on censorship, self censorship, and questioning his own premise, his paste ups have an abandoned industrial feel to them that mirrors many of the derelict homes his posters find. We hit him up to find out a little more.

RERO, PARIS , FRANCE

We've seen your posters around Hackney Wick, one of them refers to copyright, is copyright an issue for you as an artist?

The notion of Private property and copyright is one the basis of my work., In our society, and more specially in public space, this notion organize our  perception of the city and our comportments between us. I have the feeling that to interact with our environment, it was necessary for me to think about this notion.

You clearly have an eye for textures, how important is texture to what you do?

I really like the contrast and in the same time the integration between the texture of the wall and my simple typo-artwork. I always try to paste-up or stencil my texts in order to integrate them in architecture of the place and by this way to make sense. Without the texture and context of the wall, my artwork has no point to exist.



 

 We noticed on your website its states that you have a graffiti background, it also notes that you don't express the same values, would you mind elaborating on that?

Yes , I discovered painting in the late 90s with the 100 RANKUNE TEAM (SRE). Several pieces, let’s say “typical graffiti”, under the name of AURER, and few stories with the police who make me change techniques and adapt myself. Restrictions usually motivate me to change the shape of my expression and techniques. I really like playing with letters  as the graffiti artists and by the time, I tried to develop my work, more in a  general approach using universal code as verdant typography in order to affect more people and not only our acolytes who visit abandoned places. The common point between my artwork and graffiti that both of them are created with letters and are instal outside: but, the message is not the same. Graffiti environment is a Small world with too many codes and restrictions that I used to create also by myself in the past. Now, by using simple typography I feel more free to express new messages , more in communion with my spirit.

READ ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN LSD MAGAZINE ISSUE 5

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