# Refaced facades by Alexandre Farto

Alexandre Farto is an artist who creates monumental faces by scratching facades' material until it composes beautiful bichromic compositions. He also works with wood, metal, paper and billboards but the wall series seems to be the most architectural one.
As every piece of art which is created by subtraction of material (sculptures coming obviously first in mind), it is beautiful and vertiginous to think that the work is already contained within the material and that the artist content himself to reveal it.

Thanks Martin.

# Exit Through the Gift Shop by Banksy

Exit Through the Gift Shop is a new movie created by Banksy. The film is pretty much divided into two parts that successively introduces a beautiful homage to street art (perhaps in opposition of what used to be created as graffiti) and then presents a kind of real experiment of the volatility and gregarious behavior of Art as an institution and a business.
I don't want to say too much because the agility of this movie is to bring you smoothly from the first part to the second one with interest and humor.

This film is also extremely interesting for seeing some Banksy's works that are less communicated than others because of their difficulty to be sold as images by medias. For example, this risky assignment of introducing a Guantanamo prisoner doll at Disneyland. The work is botched and not as "sexy" as the paintings everybody knows; however the observation of Disneyland's magic stopping to let room to a very severe security paranoia is delectable.

Unfortunately the film seems to be only released in the US so far...

# Living Walls The City Speaks Conference in Atlanta

Living Walls is the conference that will occur on August 13rd at Eyedrum in Atlanta and they are currently calling for (street) artists who would participate to the lecture series or to the posters exhibition. The current participating artists can be seen here.

Here is the text they sent us:
"We believe that Boiteaoutils is currently one of the most influential websites dedicated to theoretical spatial discussions. Thus, we are writing to you about our conference on street art and urbanism: Living Walls, The City Speaks. The goal of the conference is to present works from a very small subset of the population -people who make spatial interventions (street artists, graffiti writers, etc), under the same roof with those who generate and speculate about public space (researchers, writers, designers). Our intention is to broadcast a wide spectrum of ideas about public space and its use to our attendees. We hope that everyone leaves the event with a broader perception about the city, its walls, and its myriad potentials.

The conference will be split into a few components: a gallery show, a poster show, and a series of lectures. For the gallery and poster shows, we will showcase the works of a selection of international artists who use city streets as an outlet and canvas for their work. Currently, we are seeking artists that re-appropriate the public realm in order to take ownership and mediate space. For the gallery show, artists are be asked to submit artwork along with documentation and process (sketches, photos, video, text, etc.). This documentation should illustrate the scale and context of the artist's work within the urban landscape. Thus far, we will be featuring artists such as Miso, know-hope, and Gaia. We are also seeking a range of speakers who are interested in alternative, unconventional methods of spatial use. Presently, we have confirmed Jordan Seiler (public ad campaign), Jeff Ferrell, as well as local critics of public space. The last component of the conference is rigorous documentation as we intend to eventually publish ideas and projects created as a result of/for the conference.

Living Walls will take place the weekend of August 13 at Eyedrum in Atlanta. Ironically, our conference occurs in the same city shortly after CNU18 (Congress for New Urbanism -who advocates through use of existing and traditional political policies). Unlike CNU, whose audience is primarily composed of developers and academics who can afford the $200/day entry, Living Walls is addressed to the public, is completely free of charge, is open to participation, and challenges spatial theories via non-traditional use of spatial interventions.

Likewise, since we are a grassroots colloquium without the financial means and fee structure as the CNU, we also are looking to you and others for support. We are currently seeking sponsorship through any form that you can offer: posting information about our conference on your website, connecting us with artists and lecturers, and/or making a small financial donation. Attached are two documents (a press release and call for artists) that we are seeking to distribute. We would greatly appreciate your assistance in helping us disseminate this information with your readers and colleagues. If you would like to contribute financially, you can do so via our website, livingwallsconference.com. We welcome any and all that you can offer. "

# The Walled City by Roger Hom (Generic Life)

Here is a short animation film by Generic Life that I found interesting because it happens to take place in the Kowloon Walled City (see previous post). There are extremely few graffiti artists in Hong Kong and making them operate in the Walled City here symbolizes the free zone - and on the contrary of what the authorities were saying, apparently not so dangerous - that represented this incredible densest area in the world (50000 people were living in it).

# Street Packaging

Each product around us got its own use and it is destinated to this one purpose, but sometimes the simplest things create the more interesting results being corrupted by a new employment. The exemple of the cellpohane is pretty relevant, I would like to present the work of two talented graffity artist, and one street artist, two very interesting approach of the cellophane misuse : a graphic one and a three-dimensional one, both in an urban context .

Astro and Kanos, two members of the graffity crew ODV, are the creators of the Cellograff. This new style of street art/graffity, is a new way to paint in the street, painting with spray and being in an urban area, but getting out of the basic transgression cliché of illegal tagging.The Cellograff is more about to sharing an original piece of art and creating an ephemeral performance in an unexpected location than just writing a name. Following you can see few examples of their performances in the streets of Paris.

CELLOGRAFF l'introduction
envoyé par iKanoGrafik. - Films courts et animations.

Cedric Bernadotte defines itself as a street artist, using the cellophane as a medium for a new urban practice, he's creating, with his installations, a new relation between the body and the urban context. With this material Bernadotte is changing the shapes of the streets, from concrete blocks to tense organic forms. Following few examples of some installations in the streets.





More about Cellograff : here
More about C.Bernadotte : here

# JR at Ile de la Cité

The photograph and street artist JR have exposed some of his pictures in huge reproductions postered on the bank and on the sides of some bridges of the Seine river.
This installation have been done for the Nuit Blanche in Paris

Following few pictures of the actual state of this installation, with scratch and scars in the posters, those pictures have been taken by my friend Etienne Sallon.





More in boiteaoutils : here

More here and here

# "We shall destroy your morbid world !"

This picture was taken after Saturday's action in Poitiers (a town in west of France) by an anti-incarceration collective's minority which destroyed several urban furniture and storefronts in a very organized way. Newspapers are sufficiently speaking about the damages without looking for the message for me not to do the same way...I am actually more interested by the message left by graffiti which differs from usual ones: "Nous detruirons votre monde morbide ! "(We shall destroy your morbid world !). Introduced like an inexorable prophecy, this sentence gives an unusual attribute to the world, morbid. The message is an obvious invitation to be part of the "you" it is addressed on or the "we" it is addressed by. The two other graffiti are completing the messages with "game over" and "guerre sociale" (social war). That is quite a shame that French newspapers did not take this issue seriously and prefer to talk once more about repression and the arrival of one more President's men on the field (Brice Hortefeux, the internal affairs minister). I am not even talking about French politicians who decided a long time ago that some topics should not be tackled...

# The art of Chris Johanson

The Californian born artist Chris Johanson is a new incontestable figure of contemporary art.

Coming from the worlds of street art and skateboarding, he is evolving between graphic and sculpture. He was close to contemporary artists escaped from street art like Barry McGee or Dash Snow. He is doing really interesting colorful installation like the following ones.

More here & here.

# Banksy vs Bristol Museum

You still have until august 31st to visit Banksy's appropriation of the Bristol Museum. Here is a little trailer to motivates you...

# Wild Style City

Here is an article on Wired.com about a google street like program called Wild Style City where you can draw graffiti with impunity in the virtual streets of San Francisco. The issue is then that most of graffiti interest comes from the fact that it is a form of transgression towards the constituted system which obviously is not the case here...

# FIGHT WITH TOOLS /// Banksy

# Big big JR in Kibera

French photographer JR just achieved his biggest work in Kibera, Nairobi's biggest slum. 2000 square metres of pictures were set up on the houses' roof and a train.
Good way of decentralizing and globalizing (I happenned to see his work already in Paris, London and Berlin's streets).

Thanks Winston !

# SMALL /// Luz intima by Luzinterruptus

Luz intima is a guerrilla intervention in la calle del Pez in Madrid where the collective, Luzinterruptus installed twenty six domestic shades on urban lights. This operation lasted for one night. It is a quite discreet appropriation of public space which I hope would give some motivation for other people to act on commun space.

found on dezeen

# SMALL /// Graffiti Research Lab's tricycle

Graffiti Research Lab is an international collective interested into the link between graffiti, technology and interactivity. Their tricycle allows them to pick a place (a wall) in the city and to create some ephemerous digital graffitis thanks to a laser.

# Banksy instant...

# Lichtfaktor

Lichtfaktor is a group of street artists based in Köln (Germany) which uses photography and video to make stories up with light thanks to long exposure.
Here is the official site and Myspace where you'll be able to find plenty of pictures and videos.

LICHTFAKTOR : Star Wars Vs Star Trek
envoyé par BriKO

# Image fulgurator de Julius von Bismarck

"People’s great trust in their photographic reproductions of reality was what motivated me to develop the *Image Fulgurator*. A camera can be used as a personal memory tool, since people do not doubt the veracity of their own photographs. Hence, photos can reproduce the reality of an individual environment or public space. At sacred or popular locations, or those having a political connotation, an intervention with the Fulgurator can be particularly effective. Especially objects with a special aura or great symbolic power are good targets for this kind of manipulation. In other words, with the Fulgurator it is possible to have a lasting effect on those kinds of individual moments and events that become accessible to the masses only because they are preserved photographically."

L'image fulgurator est une invention du photographe allemand Julius von Bismarck qui permet à son auteur d'imposer un message sur l'ensemble des photographies au flash ayant le même sujet. Il agit donc comme un parasite des photos touristiques dans une démonstration de la subjectivité photographique.

site officiel

vidéo à Checkpoint Charlie à Berlin

# Fontaine de Trevi le 7 octobre 2007

Le 7 octobre 2007, un membre du groupe ATM Azionefuturista 2007, provoque l’émoi de la ville de Rome, en réussissant à colorer l’eau de la célèbre Fontaine de Trévi en un vermillon des plus sanglants (Moïse l'avait déjà fait quelques milliers d'années auparavant !). Il crée ainsi un événement au sein de sa ville par une action individuelle dont les effets sont, dès le lendemain, effacés du mieux possible par l’autorité municipale.

# Obama in L.A.

Voila ce que l'on peut voir dans les rues de Downtown Los Angeles depuis hier matin:
des affiches à l"effigie de Barak Obama (candidat aux élections présidentielles américaines ) réalisées par le celebre street-artiste Shepard Fairey a.k.a.OBEY.
(admirer la qualité du graphisme!)