BOOK A STREET ARTIST MAGAZINE ISSUE 5 / FEBRUARY 2015
BOOK A STREET ARTIST MAGAZINE ISSUE 5 / FEBRUARY 2015 EDITORS IN CHIEF Guille Lasarte & Charlotte Specht guille@pantamagazine.com charlotte@bookastreetartist.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Guille Lasarte MARKETING DIRECTOR Mario Rueda mario@bookastreetartist.com CONTRIBUTORS Jasmin Siddiqui & Falk Lehman (Herakut), Janielle Williams, St Francis Elevator Ride, Dion Lucas, Dan Davies, Mechi Bassano, Enriqueta Arias, Alessandro Abate, Andrew Khosravani, Nobumichi Asai, Fab Ciraolo, Cici Rivarola, JOS*, Jason deCaires Taylor, Tomasz Pierog, Caro Curbelo, Andrés Boero Madrid, Ana Sofia Brito, Simon de Los Rios SPECIAL THANKS TO Al Jazeera English, Kaori Ikeda, José Carvalho www.pantamagazine.com panta@bookastreetartist.com FOUNDERS OF BOOK A STREET ARTIST Charlotte Specht Mario Rueda www.bookastreetartist.com
Cover illustration by Fab Ciraolo Illustration on inside front cover by Andrew Khosravani
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS The fifth issue of PANTA has led us to discover the work of yet another handful of talented creative people around the world. From the United States to Germany, Portugal, Japan, Uruguay and Argentina (just to name a few), what we continue to learn is how art is a universal language that transcends the barriers of nationality, race, religion, gender and culture. Whether it be painting, illustration, street art, sculpture, performing arts or architecture – art has the ability to unite communities and to address social, cultural and environmental issues. Furthermore, art is increasingly becoming connected to its context, as the white walls of museums and galleries have ceased to be the only relevant spaces for art appreciation. Instead, imaginative individuals and associations all over the world are aiming to create an active and direct relation between art and its audience, such as encouraging individuals to participate in collective mural painting, constructing buildings that cater to the community or creating pieces that help solve environmental issues. All in all, PANTA celebrates art initiatives that are created by people for other people, while rejecting the notion that art is something reserved for the elite. That’s why this magazine is created by you, the readers, by submitting your work and stories to share with the rest of us. Thanks and enjoy!
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ISSUE 5 / CONTENTS
INTERVIEW
Herakut:
the artists in rat costumes Interview by Janielle Williams Photos courtesy of Herakut
Hera and Akut form the artistic duo known as Herakut. We interviewed Hera to gain insight on the team’s artistic process, to unravel the rich symbolism that characterizes their pieces and to explore the social impact of their work.
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Fighting the atrocities of this world, street art is my weapon of choice. It can be loud without making a sound and it can poke people’s brains without shedding their blood.
I read in one of your interviews that you consider yourselves storytellers, aiming to create characters and worlds. How do you think imaginative worlds communicate truths about real world issues? Our way of documenting reality is through allegory. We break down the real-world’s complexity and our answers to it by using the ancient symbolism of animal characteristics. That way every viewer knows how to interpret the action he sees on the wall or canvas. We create fables. Modern fables based on modern realities. The photo blog of your travels through refugee camps in Jordan contains many poignant photos of people. How would you compare or contrast the very “real” nature of photography with the dreamlike quality of your paintings and sketches? All of our artwork is rooted in our own experience. The people we meet along the way inspire our paintings, too. These faces you see in Akut’s photography are lives we got to know. We shared meals together, listened to each other. We learn a lot from traveling, not from looking at nice landscapes but from hearing people’s stories. In that way, refugee camps are libraries. There is often a humorous tone to your commentary on predominant social issues. What does humor contribute to the discourse on these issues? That is,
does humor have an advantage over other possible tones of communication? Humor is a form of therapy. You take a scary or sad subject and play with it, twist it and turn it, until you find a perspective from which it appears completely absurd. Then you find it funny instead of frightening. That is our way of curing our own fears. Surprisingly enough, the most memorable encounters we’ve ever had in our lives were with individuals who have gone through the darkest times, endured all sorts of grief, pain, catastrophes, and still had the energy to crack a bad joke. That’s human greatness! You focus on a wide range of social issues. At the start of any new project, how do you decide on the subject matter of your craft? The subject matter finds us. We just follow the flow. Whatever we have encountered so far has not been planned. We went to Nepal because a friend of a friend had a contact in Kathmandu with a great project underway. Or we happened to stay in an apartment next to Samantha Robison, the founder of aptART, who had just returned from a project with kids in the Congo. Two years later she was in Syria, asking if we would like to paint with Syrian kids in the desert. “Sure, why not?” we said. There is no reason to make plans. Just roll with what comes along.
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ARCHITECTURE
Text by Dan Davies Photos courtesy of Al Jazeera English
Last year, Al Jazeera English featured a six-part documentary entitled “Rebel Architecture” that took viewers around the globe to Spain, Pakistan, the Occupied West Bank, Vietnam, Nigeria and finally Brazil. Each episode follows architects that use their profession as a means for activism and addressing social needs. All the Rebel Architects share a common ethos: that architecture should be used as a tool to improve human life and not just provide something for the elite and tourists to marvel at. The common goal is to change general attitudes towards architecture and to raise consciousness to the fact that architecture has the power and responsibility to help solve some of the world’s urban, environmental and social problems.
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ne of the new terms added to the Cambridge Dictionary for 2015 is “hostile architecture”, suggesting we live in dark architectural times. What’s more, the rise in “hostile architecture” couldn’t have come at a worse time. Since 2010, we’ve been a majority urban species, with more humans living in cities than the countryside for the first time in humanity’s history. Unfortunately, this has been less about hundreds of millions moving into town houses with front and back gardens and more about an urban explosion of informal settlements on the edge of hypercities like Manila, Delhi and Mexico City. Many of the new city dwellers are fleeing from the other threats humanity is faced with, like extreme weather events, drought, rising sea levels and displacement through conflict, while even “peaceful” countries with temperate climates suffer from the social issues created by soaring inequality. And yet when they arrive in the metropolis what do they find? Hostile architecture. But just as architecture can drive people away, it can directly contribute to solving many of these issues. Good design can produce very dense, yet liveable cities. It can both diminish the effects of environmental threats (rising sea levels, drought, etc.) while also produce buildings that require less energy overall. Perhaps most controversially, since it has suited contemporary governments and developers to demonise the modernist expansion of public housing, architecture can also contribute to reducing the social ills we know for a fact accompany large imbalances of wealth (The Spirit Level, Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009). This isn’t to claim that architecture per se can create a better person, but to state the obvious and point out that people with secure housing are less unequal than those without, and thus better able to focus on other aspects like education and employment. It seemed perverse to us that architecture has become all about the aesthetics of a few iconic buildings whose main function is the glorification of those with the money to build them. As one prize after another, and the media, celebrated the work of a select band of world famous “star-chitects”, it seemed like humanity’s most pressing problems were how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes and how implausibly high a building can go. Thankfully, not everyone agrees, and we were pleased at how many architects we found who considered their profession to be about more than aesthetics.
As one prize after another, and the media, celebrated the work of a select band of world famous “star-chitects”, it seemed like humanity’s most pressing problems were how to fold metal into the most obscure shapes and how implausibly high a building can go.
Santiago Cirugeda was one of the first that we found, and in many ways became our template. Working on the edge of the law, he occupies unused municipal land to construct radical self-built structures with local activist groups, for use by the wider community. After looking at many architects around the world, we found they all shared some of these traits. They are architects who can’t ignore the wider context in which they live – be it Spain hit by the financial crisis, or Pakistan ravaged by floods – and then refuse to accept the status quo. Their buildings become a physical manifestation of their broader analysis. For Cirugeda, that is creating independent cultural spaces for people to flourish in a country in which, as he says, “the state has withdrawn” due to the banking crisis of 2008, while Yasmeen Lari in Pakistan helps people build their own flood-proof homes and shelters. The main thing the Rebel Architects do that is different is shockingly simple, but speaks volumes: they construct buildings that fulfil a real social need. One of the aspects that gets lost behind the aesthetics debate is, “why is this building needed?” How many of the buildings on the Stirling Prize shortlist were needed? Did London “need” the Cheese Grater, or the Walkie Talkie? Not in the way that London needs hundreds of thousands of social housing units, and yet… The other thing the Rebel Architects do is refuse to limit themselves to what developers want. Only the Vietnamese architect Vo Trong Nghia works with a developer, and the scene where he’s trying to convince them about the benefits of his green “farming city” is extremely revealing as to what happens when building is left to private capital.
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All the Rebels refuse to see their buildings as something separate from society and reject placing aesthetics above people. They start the design process with an analysis of the wider context in which they live. They refuse to accept the status quo and aim to change something fundamental rather than just mitigate it. Their work is a physical solution to real problems and they design to fulfil a social need. They are willing to work outside the traditional structures and take risks with their own careers. They are not architects paid by international NGOs to parachute in solutions, but rather architects that work in their own countries with issues they understand at a deep level. They are architects who work independently, rarely getting developer backing but funding projects themselves. And they rarely get media coverage outside specialist architectural and academic circles.
That’s not to say they’re all the same: Santiago Cirugeda is a minor legend of alternative urbanists around the word and would self-identify as a Rebel, while Kunle Adeyami has a day job with Rem Koolhaas. But for all their differences, the issues they deal with are surprisingly similar – trying to help marginal communities help themselves and fighting municipalities that are at best obstructive and at worst hostile. Yasmeen Lari has come to her work from being a kind of Pakistani “star-chitect” and what makes her a Rebel isn’t so much the architecture, which is very traditional, but the cascade training she uses to teach locals. Vo Trong Nghia, who is innovating with green architecture and materials like bamboo has, after years of struggling, established a successful practice incorporating ideas, while also taking personal risks with social projects like his Low Cost House.
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Why does attempting to create environmentally and socially responsible buildings limit access to funding, pit architects against governments and place them outside the mainstream?
The two that stand out as the most unusual are Goldsmith’s professor Eyal Weizman and Ricardo, the Brazilian slum architect. Weizman uses architecture to analyse Israel’s occupation of the West bank through its structures and built environment, and it’s also the frame through which he tries to resist oppression. Ricardo is the only untrained architect in the series, but as a self-taught builder-architect or “pedreiro” in Rio’s Rocinha favela, he is also a quintessential Rebel. We looked at many projects led by professional architects and NGOs aimed at helping, improving and regenerating Latin America’s slums, but it only made us realize that the slums themselves where the most profound examples of Rebel Architecture. It was people like Ricardo and his forefathers who built what are now cities with no land, no training, few materials and basic tools. For all that, Ricardo still dreams of leaving and building a big concrete tower. Working outside the traditional architect-developer relationship makes life hard for them and consequently all the Rebels are incredible, determined and inspiring people who refuse to give up, even when all the odds are against them. This isn’t to romanticize their difficult professions but to show how their architecture has made them Rebels. Ultimately, the series asks how have we arrived at a place where architecture that actually fulfils a social need makes a Rebel? Why does attempting to create environmentally and socially responsible buildings limit access to funding, pit architects against governments and place them outside the mainstream? What does it take to make the hostile architects the outcasts? ◆
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PHOTOGRAPHY
CEREMONIAL & PROTOCOLO Photography by Mechi Bassano
Ceremonial y Protocolo transports us into a Latin-American culture of worship and celebration. Set in Argentina, the series presents an intimate look at situations that celebrate daily customs, festivities and religion, ultimately evoking a sense of nostalgia and beautiful decadence with the maximum splendor of color. The scenes are composed by a mix of kitsch objects that are elevated to a state of divinity in these personal and private altars.
Mechi Bassano is a graduate in Design of Image and Sound from the University of Buenos Aires and in Direction of Photography from S.I.C.A. She was coordinator and director of product photography for the magazine Catalogue Book. Mechi is currently developing her work as a photographer in the field of fashion and as an audiovisual artist, as she is currently co-directing her debut documentary entitled “Greater Mexico�.
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INITIATIVE
RAW Project
A New Perspective for Street Artivism Text by Enriqueta Arias & Guille Lasarte Photos by Alessandro Abate
As a quintessential movement of the past century, street art’s raison d’être in the urban environment is deeply grounded in fostering the relationship between art and the community. Wynwood Walls was conceived that way when all those abandoned warehouses in a forgotten corner of Miami began to transform into giant canvases for all residents to enjoy. The shape of art and its role in society is constantly changing. Existing in marginal spaces, street art functions to create an unmediated connection between the artist and the viewer, but the inevitable gentrification of Wynwood questions the fundamental ethos of ownership, the process of creation and the ever-changing relationship between street art and the city. This oasis of murals has become one of street art’s most iconic hubs. Nowadays, Wynwood is no longer considered the backyard of Art Basel, one of the most important art fairs in the world that takes place in Miami Beach each year, but is instead an integral part of the program. Considering these developments, there is a sad paradoxical reality in the neighborhood: Due to budget cuts, Wynwood’s middle school doesn’t have an art nor music program.
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The inevitable gentrification of Wynwood questions the fundamental ethos of ownership, the process of creation and the ever-changing relationship between street art and the city One can’t help but wonder how can one of the most upand-coming art neighborhoods in the entire world have public schools that don’t teach art? Furthermore, how is the popularity of street art in Wynwood being perceived by the locals who don’t get to be a part of it? Wynwood is surrounded by low-income neighborhoods such as Allapattah, Brownsville and Overtown, and most of its residents are poor minorities. The majority of Wynwood’s population is now made up of tourists and foreign hipsters. Considering its geography, the neighborhood itself has become a contradiction demonstrating the disconnection between the local community and its original manifesto. A few blocks away from the trendy streets of Wynwood is Re-Imagining the Arts in Wynwood or, the RAW Project, a massive public art project that started when Catalina Hidalgo, a science teacher at Jose de Diego Middle School, thought the walls of the school building were too empty and lifeless and set out to do something about it. Patrick Walsh, director of the Wynwood Art District Association, and Robert de los Rios, creator of WynwoodMap.com – a site and app that acts as a guide to Miami’s street art – were dismayed by the fact that Wynwood has schools without art departments, so they decided to get involved in organizing a project that would initiate the process to get the “ungentrified” side of Wynwood involved in what is going on in their own neighborhood. Dr. April Williams, principal of Jose de Diego Middle School, accepted to bring artists to paint the walls of the school during Miami Art Basel. “It’s just a shame to have galleries, boutiques and all these expensive restaurants just a couple of blocks away, where its tens of thousands of dollars for this and that, and then all of a sudden, you have a school where the people who actually live in Wynwood, who actually call this home, don’t feel any connection to it,” Robert de los Rios affirmed to National Public Radio.
ILLUSTRATION
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from
ANCIENT
civilizations to
SURREALISM Interview by Dion Lucas Illustrations by Andrew Khosravani Vibrant swirls of detail give way to surreal illustrations inspired by a wide range of sources, from ancient civilizations to science fiction. South London-based illustrator and animator Andrew Khosravani’s work is a result of a harmonious blend of styles – from psychedelic to surrealist while figurative and ornamental at times. We wanted to get to know the man behind these meticulous and mesmerizing illustrations. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from and where are you currently based? I’m from South West England and I am currently based in Peckham, London. Do you work for a company or do you freelance? At the moment just freelance, I also work in a skateboard shop part-time to make ends meet. How did you get into illustrating? Have you always done it or did it come about later in life? I pretty much always enjoyed drawing and did a lot of it in secondary school. When I finished college, I decided to do a foundation in Illustration as I almost had nothing else on. Whilst I really enjoyed it, I spent a lot of my time getting stoned so my production level wasn’t great. It was only when I was in my first year of Uni did I realize that if I put the bong down I could actually make a living drawing, so I focused more and since graduating in 2013 I have worked on a load of stuff and moved from drawing to animation as well.
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ART & TECHNOLOGY
DIGITAL IDENTITY Interview by Charlotte Specht Photos courtesy of Nobumichi Asai
We are on the horizon of a new age in virtual reality. Japanese media artist Nobumichi Asai and his team have visualized real-time face tracking and 3D projection installations they imagine as the future of ‘face-hacking’. Being able to transform faces entirely, Nobumichi paves the way for a completely new reinterpretation of the human form and our understanding of what the face traditionally used to be. Face-mapping technology already exists, often used in marketing initiatives. But Nobumichi wanted to focus on the expression of beauty instead of technological gimmicks. Traditional Japanese aesthetics play a particularly significant role in his work since Western influences have almost completely replaced “kesho”, the Japanese expression for make-up, Japan’s unique set of aesthetic ideals that have been passed on through generations. Nobumichi Asai explains what face-tracking is and how it works.
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SCULPTURE
MAN AND THE SEA Text by Tomasz Pierog Photos by Jason deCaires Taylor
Jason deCaires Taylor has taken his art beyond aesthetics and technique by fusing the fields of art and science to create underwater sculptures that not only act as magnificent installations under the sea, but also actively contribute to organic growth of marine life in an increasingly damaged ecosystem.
Most of us won’t have the privilege of witnessing Taylor’s sculptures firsthand, but since we live in an image-world anyway, his photographs of his stunning installations offer us ephemeral glimpses of an art form that is in constant evolution. His sculptures, occupying up to 420 square meters underwater, are made using sustainable pH-neutral materials and act as artificial reefs that soon become populated by plants, corals and other forms of marine life. The underwater sculptures also help divert divers and snorkelers away from the delicate reefs in order to give them space to recover naturally. As the most destructive species on Earth, humans continue to damage coral reefs and marine life through overfishing, oil spills, pollution and countless other practices that are ruining entire ecosystems. Art has the power to transmit messages of urgency in dire situations like these where changing mentalities (and thereby practices) is of essence. Taylor was born in 1974 and grew up in Europe and Asia. Already as a child, he explored the coral reefs of Malaysia and his fascination with underwater life led him to become a diving instructor after graduating with a degree in Sculpture from the London Institute of Arts. His love of art and marine life merged and gave way to the striking results we see in these photos today.
As the most destructive species on Earth, humans continue to damage coral reefs and marine life through overfishing, oil spills, pollution and countless other practices that are ruining entire ecosystems.
In 2006, Taylor founded the world’s first underwater sculpture park located off the coast of Grenada, West Indies, which was named one of the 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic. Three years later, he co-founded the Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA) off the coast of Mexico, an underwater art museum with 500 permanent life-size sculptures. Most recently, in 2014, Taylor created Ocean Atlas, a 60-ton, 18-foot-tall sculpture of a girl holding the weight of the ocean on her shoulders, in reference to the Greek mythology of Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the celestial spheres. The massive statue now lives under the sea on the western coastline of New Providence
in Nassau, Bahamas, and is reportedly the largest sculpture ever installed under the sea. The sculptures themselves are all figures of humans – men, women and children – in different scenarios. One man, possessed by inertia, passively sits on a couch watching television, oblivious to the environmental crisis unfolding around him. Others join hands and look up in hope. Others bury their heads in the sand. Soon the bodies and faces become covered by corals, plants and starfish. The works themselves develop biological growth and with time, they transform the underwater landscape by working with, instead of against, nature.
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Art has the power to transmit messages of urgency in dire situations like these where changing mentalities (and thereby practices) is of essence.
Taylor has become a significant player in the practice of ecological art, which are a series of art practices that go beyond engaging an audience’s aesthetic sensibilities to directly tackling environmental issues, such as moss graffiti or guerrilla gardening. These forms of art are often created in collaboration with scientists, city planners and other professionals in order to successfully intervene in restoring different aspects of the environment. It is nature itself that plays a role in the development of Taylor’s artwork, because once his sculptures are placed on the ground, they are transformed into another state by becoming assimilated by marine life. This, in turn, acts as a significant metaphor for the future of our own species. Let his work inspire us to take action and protect what is left of the planet’s underwater life. ◆
PERFORMANCE
ART VOYAGE Text by Ana Sofia Brito Photos by Simon de Los Rios
It is always a privilege for any artist to cross borders to show their art. Taking my show to India was a dream come true because I have always felt a great fascination for this country, for its culture and its people. I would be lying if I said that the shows I did over there weren’t the best of my career; that audience that marvels, that feels, that screams, that gives back, that is not ashamed to admire and to show their gratitude for what the artist offers them. At one moment, in the middle of the performance, while the audience tirelessly applauded, I felt tears running down my face, something that has never happened to me in ten years of performing. Not to mention the enormous affection that the people showed. At the end of each show, dozens of people waited for me to ask me to take their picture with them, to hug me, to talk to me or to tell me they had never seen anything like my show before. This illustrates the kind of people they are – affectionate, humble, polite and genuine – and it was precisely the attitude of the public that made these four shows the best of my career so far. It was a magical experience for me, given the cold and reserved European public I am used to. If we consider that art is what gives color to
life, then it is invaluable for artists to travel and share, exchange and fuse their art with the rest of the world. Travel is what most enriches our internal worlds; it is what gives us wisdom to know how to live respecting all the different cultures and customs around us. Through travel, we get to know life as it is, away from our bubble, with eyes wide open and an awakened consciousness, which in turn makes us more creative and in better conditions to develop our art. To practice and live from your art is an act of courage. It is a proof of love and respect for ourselves and for the world and it is this very courage that pushes us to travel, to give and to receive. Through this, we become more confident, humble and ultimately better artists when we realize that there is an entire world out there with people just like us from whom we can learn and share that same love. If we grow up with fear from a society that intimidates us from the moment we are born, we will never get the courage to embrace what we truly love and be able to enjoy a life made up of happy moments every day. To live doing what we really love is the best virtue one can have and is, for me, the only way to live a life full of joy and fulfillment.
www.bookastreetartist.com/fireart/ana-sofia
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INITIATIVE
NEW NEIGHBORS
Text by Caro Curbelo Photos by Andrés Boero Madrid Special thanks to Andrés Boero Madrid & Clarissa Guarilha for this amazing experience and for the good times we spent together www.residenciavatelon.com
In the quiet town of Villa Soriano, on the banks of the Río Negro, the inhabitants of the first Spanish settlement on Uruguayan soil have begun to befriend their new neighbors. Like in any small community, you can spot an outsider from a mile away. What gives them away immediately is their way of walking, the speed of the city and the habit of asking for the time. We’re not talking about tourists. For a couple of years now, there has been a house that brings new neighbors to the town every summer.
The decision to establish a creative powerhouse in a rural enclave was the answer Uruguayan photographer and filmmaker Andrés Boero Madrid and Brazilian producer Clarissa Guarilha found after living for several years in Río de Janeiro. They felt the need to change pace, to take on new challenges and, above all, to connect with an inner calling that was asking them to open up to something that would allow them to share, reflect and contribute to the development of a better community.
They never leave completely, as they always leave a mark that keeps them alive in the collective memory of the town and its people. They stay the time needed to adapt to the rhythm of the river: sometimes one week, other times, one month. Their stays vary in time and form and it’s common for them to change plans as they go. They never leave completely, as they always leave a mark that keeps them alive in the collective memory of the town and its people. VATELÓN. A house, a workspace, a place of reflection: an artist residency program that since 2013 actively promotes exchange between artists and this small community.
Among the goals they set themselves is the premise to reconnect with nature in order to cultivate the knowledge of man; to reclaim the artistic experience as the best school and to value uncertainty as the greatest engine for fostering creativity. Art. 27 of the Declaración de los Derechos Humanos (Declaration of Human Rights) states, “All people have the right to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to partake in scientific advancement and its benefits resulting therefrom”.
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The roots of Residencia Vatelón continue to strengthen and the new year arrives with a proposal that goes beyond the limits of the town. Taking the river as a narrative backbone, a group of muralists are invited to leave their mark in BROTE, the very first street art encounter in the region that happens alongside the Jazz a la Calle (Jazz on the street) festival. Sebastián Malegría (Colombia), Pol Corona (France), Mariela Ajras (Argentina) and Martín Lorenzo, a.k.a. MADE (Uruguay), painted during intense days accompanied by musicians
that played on the streets surrounded by curious neighbors that would come with their foldable beach chairs to create improvised stages on any corner. Once the gathering came to a close, we returned with the artists to spend a few more days at the residence. The atmosphere is one of family celebration, we share first impressions, ideas, projects, names of artists to recommend… and even though we haven’t left yet, we’re already thinking of excuses to return. ◆
Opposite & this page: The entire town navigates the river on Pol Corona’s boat. In the foreground, characters inspired by the neighbors he met during these days hold trees in their hands.
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