Art of Bustart: Paris – Amsterdam

During the year of 2012 I travelled several times between Paris and Amsterdam.  Because of my huge passion for street art and biking, those two cities attract me as a perfect alchemy.

On my first trip to the Dutch capital,  a city well  known for its liberal way of thinking, I discovered a painting on a empty lot that caught my attention. A huge stencil of a monkey, quite screaming, in black and white.

Street art in Amsterdam

When I shared my pictures on facebook, Thom Thom, a French street-artist and co-founder of Le M.U.R. (an important organization that promotes street-art in Paris) gave me the name of the artist: Bustart.

After a while I met Thom Thom in Paris during a performance at Le M.U.R. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the monkey from Bustart.  In that moment I realized how I really like this character.  It’s not just about a beautiful monkey drawing, more than this. Unconsciously I knew that I should discover more about this artist.

Monkey by Bustart in Amsterdam –  Owl on the left by Zara

Bustart is a street artist from Basel, Switzerland, based in Amsterdam. He left his city a while ago after being arrested several times for graffiting in the walls of one of the most important city in the art-world. Nowadays he is a versatile street-artist that works with different techniques and wants to provoke through his message. Non-stop is the best way to define Bustart, his art is everywhere in Amsterdam.

After discovering  the outstanding monkey from Bustart, during my others trip to Amsterdam, his art was revealed to me by some paintings on the streets containing  imperative words, such as: Belief, Consume, Revolution, Solution…. From this new discoveries I could understand the reason why I get so connected with the monkey of Bustart.

Consume by Bustart in Amsterdam

Belief by Bustart in Amsterdam

Consume by Bustart in Amsterdam

Revolution by Bustart. Work on the left by Zaira in Amsterdam.

Consume Devil by Bustart. Work on the left by Zaira in Amsterdam.

I’m fascinated with the fact that street-art can be a powerful way to fight against big corporations that handles upon 99% of the world for the profit of 1%.  Naturally this is not the only message that can be intrinsic in street-art. In fact there is no limit, street-art and graffiti  are suppose to be a transgressed way of self-expression for everyone that wants to manifest one’s ideas, thoughts or share their creations  freely on the public spaces.

I strongly believe that street-art can bring  positive things into people’s life: Hope, love,  inspiration, joy, freedom, dreams, accessibility, interaction, and many others. But I confess that I have a special taste for artists that have skills to provoke a critical way of thinking.  Bustart has been doing it.  His art-work contains a critic sense of propaganda and consumption, that makes me remember the work of Ron English, Shepard Fairey and the culture jamming.

During  my time in Amsterdam this year I counted more than 30 works of Bustart on the streets. Also a big show that he was involved named Urban Art House last August, moment that I could appreciate his work on canvas and installations.

Auto-portrait by Bustart in Amsterdam

Street-art made me poor by Bustart

Wall by Bustart and Zaira in Amsterdam

Canvas and installation by Bustart at Urban House Show in Amsterdam

Finally,  last November at the show Le M.U.R. de L’Art in Paris, through Thom Thom  again, I met Bustart personally. During the show I had the pleasure to interview him for the  street-art documentary that I’m working with Alternative Paris. Moment that he was accompanied by his girlfriend and artist Zaira. This footage is reserved for the edition of the documentary, but you can see below a video teaser with Bustart and other street-artist that Alternative Paris crew also produced at this time.

As a non-stop street-artist, during his time in Paris, Bustart naturally did some illegal works on the streets. I was surprised that a poster of his campaign Consume devil, was kept for almost a week on the streets of Le Marais, a temple for consumption in Paris.

Bustart for Le M.U.R in Paris

Bustart mural for Le M.U.R de L’Art in Paris
Photo: Richard Beban & Paris Play copyright 2012

Bustart and Zaira during my interview for Alternative Paris – documentary.
Photo by Charles Devoyer

Consume Devil poster in Paris by Bustart

Zaira and Bustart work in progress in Amsterdam

Stencil by Bustart in Amsterdam

On my last trip to Amsterdam, a week later after interviewing Bustart and Zaira in Paris, I hang out with the couple of artists. We biked around Amsterdam to discover new works on the walls and I also watched them performing on the streets.  Street art + bike = perfect alchemy.

My year of 2012 have all been running by incredible connexions and discovered as I had with Bustart travelling between Paris – Amsterdam.  Right now, by the end of 2012 it is time to dream with new goals for 2013. I really expect to continue seeing the work of Bustart and Zaira but this time more often in the streets of Paris. Let’s cross fingers.

Suriani: a Brazilian street-artist shines in Paris.

It’s Monday night and I’m going to meet the charismatic Brazilian artist and urban architect Rafael Suriani in front of Cirque D’hiver,  at Rue Amelot in Paris. A place that he suggested to meet me when I asked to interview him close to some of his recent works.

In a traditional Parisian cafe on the beginning of Rue Oberkampf we had an enjoyful  conversation for almost 2 hours and after that, we walked around and I had the pleasure to see personally, Suriani’s 4 latest works on street accompanied by him.

Based in Paris since 2007, I first met Suriani on the vernissage of a collective exhibition at Le Cabinet d’Amateur in the end of May. On that moment he was exhibiting his canvas beside the artists Fred Le Chevalier, Diamant, Rubbish Cube and others. Naturally I felt interested  to decode  the work of a fellow countryman from Sao Paulo. Our connection, which is not just about coming from the same country, speaking the same language and working with street art, is also about sensibility for the same subject, a coincident  story that I will tell you later on in this article about the fashion industry, the Bolivian workers and the Braz neighborhood in Sao Paulo, that in 2006 both of us, Suriani and I were involved in different ways.

Rafael Suriani

Suriani knew that he wanted to be an artist since he was a child. He studied architecture because was a way to have a career and also the possibility to draw a lot. His first work on the streets was in 2002, time when the first generation of past-up emerged in the city of Sao Paulo.“In the middle of the architecture course I started a search of urban art, public art, monuments and sculptures in the city of Sao Paulo. In that time it was also the boom of muralist graffiti, the explosion of artists like Os Gemeos, Nunca and Zezao, because I already liked the graffiti movement I was inspired and I started to past-up in 2002 and never stopped since then”, he says.

Suriani’s most recent work in Paris

Suriani’s most recent work in Paris

Suriani’s most recent work in Paris

Suriani’s most recent work in Paris

His thesis for the architectural university was a series of past up about Bolivian population working on the fashion industry in the Braz neighborhood, Sao Paulo. Is in this exact point of his work that Suriani and I got connected with our past. I used to work with fashion for a long time and I use to buy clothes to supply my store on this same place. One day I heard about the reality of the conditions of Bolivians that use to work for those companies, almost as slaves, working in inhumane conditions to generate more profit for the owners of the business and also to achieve competitive prices for people like me, that were buying from  them and collaborating for this unjust system. When I realize this sad situation, it was the same year that Suriani was “protesting” with his art work. “I contacted the Bolivian people that use to work in this conditions and inspired me in their culture to create this series. I took the millenary weaving of fabrics that they have and contrasted with the not poetic conditions that they came to work in the fashion industry in Sao Paulo, I inserted the image of a Lhama in the context that this people are living and had been suffering. Once one Bolivian man that saw this image on the wall in Sao Paulo came to me crying and moved with the memories he had of this animal in his childhood. I created a social visualization  for a specific group using the image of an animal, a metaphor.”, he explained me.

Suriani’s work in Sao Paulo

Suriani’s work in Sao Paulo

Suriani takes his inspiration from the urban life, urban culture, skateboarding, night life, street fashion, mythology from different continents, tales and everything that is related with young culture. “ It may seem incredible, but even using animals, my inspiration doesn’t come from nature but from the urban life. My characters are hybrids, which are very connected to the mythologies, the man/animal thing, this universe fascinates me”, Suriani says.

Animals were always present in his life: “ When I was a child I didn’t play with cars but with animal toys and I also use to have a dog, a fish, a turtle and a chicken that was devoured (laughs). Normally in my work I make series, I choose one animal and a state of spirit for him that can be funny, sensual, mysterious… That is also related with my spirit, with what I’m feeling in the moment. ”Even with the presence of animals in his life, he says: “ Work with animals in my art is not a personal thing, but I am fascinated that animals are living beings like us,  but we don’t understand them, we use to project ourselves in our pets, through our eyes we humanize animals.”

Suriani’s work in London

Suriani’s work in Paris

I asked Suriani what brought him to past up on the streets and he said:“ The necessity to participate without asking if I can, the desire to go out and intervene, change something on the environment. I like the idea that street art brings life for places without trying to sell anything.  Someone that brings its own energy and live this energy for the city. In the point of view of the artist, we have the opportunity to be spontaneous, something that we lost in our society. An opportunity to show our work without following the rules of traditional portfolios. I also like the sociability with other people that is possible when you join in the urban life.”

In 2007 Suriani moved to Paris, while working on restaurant he discovered a scholarship for a master degree at Université Paris VII Vincennes-St Denis with the theme: Urban art and collage, practice and theoretical, with the goal to investigate in what artists do on the streets with spontaneity. He searched about the theme “post-graffiti”: “There are not a lot theory studies about this subject. Graffiti was born more than 30 years ago and around 10 or 15 years the range of street art got expanded. Graffiti is an element of hip hop movement and post-graffiti are artistic interventions on the street that are not connected necessarily with hip hop. For example Os Gemeos use to make mural paintings with bomb spray and they are not always directly connected with the hip hop movement. Graffiti is the origin of street art and nowadays post-graffiti  is more amplified for people that are connected with other movements or not.”, he said.

Suriani’s work in Paris

Living in Paris he already did a lot of projects. One of them is the French bulldogs series, he explain: “The French bulldog is a dog race originally from Paris which has a sulky face. They are intimately related to the Parisians. It’s not a social critic, I love Paris! But is a critic about the famous image of the Parisians who always complain and are never satisfied ”.

French bulldog series in Paris

French bulldog  series in Paris

Cats also appear in Suriani’s work, “Cats are urban animals, specially here you can connect them with the famous roofs of Paris, they are free and not so submissive like the dogs. It’s not a ecological discourse but a way to talk about the urban man. Everyone can interpret the message of my work in different ways, I don’t want to say something specific, I believe that the work is strong when you have different interpretations, this is important for me”.

Street cats in Paris

Street cats in Paris

One issue that I was interested to know Suriani’s opinion, was about when street artists work above other street artist work, he sad: ”In Sao Paulo we call it “run over”, there is a lot of respect for the work of the colleagues. Here it is more usual to see an artist place their work on top of other works. In my opinion is unnecessary. There are so many walls, unless that the paste-up is really old or is ripped off.”

I asked him to compare the street art scene in Paris and in Sao Paulo: “Sao Paulo is a city always in construction because of the real-estate market  which is considered ugly. Personally I like this aspect of demolition and construction. The graffiti scene and mural painting are really strong . We have a lot of worldwide successful artists like Os Gemeos, Zezao, Kobra, etc… The city offers lot of walls and because it is considered ugly the reception for street art is very positive. On the other hand you don’t get so much visibility, because Sao Paulo has a lot of visual and sound pollution, a heavy atmosphere.  In Paris the past-up technic is really strong as well as installations and mosaics like Space  Invaders, Diamant and the collective French Tricot. Paris is calmer than Sao Paulo, monochromatic, less visually polluted. People use to walk more, even tough the pieces stay on the walls less time they have more visibility.” Suriani says

Suriani’s canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Observing Suriani series of work along those 10 years since he started, its clear the cohesion of an artist that mixes in perfect harmony theory studies and sharp concepts to create spontaneous and sophisticated work that he does on the streets and for galleries,

Suriani’s next show will be at Cabinet D’amateur on September 06 in Paris. He also will have a show in London at Islington Arts Center and he was invited to exhibit in Florianopolis, Brazil, let’s cross the fingers to see the work of this talented street-artist running the world! Congratulations Suriani!!

Bonom at Le M.U.R XIII

For the inauguration of the second Le M.U.R wall in Paris at the thirteen arrondissement, the association invited the Belgian artist BONOM to do a live performance last Wednesday in front of the Senna River.

As I’ve written here before, the famous Le M.U.R  at Rue Oberkampf  has been presenting live artistic performances every 15 days, promoting urban art since 2007. Le M.U.R  (which stands for modulable, urbain, reactif) is an association that invites street artists providing gallery exhibition conditions on the streets.

The Mayor of the 13e, Jerome Coumet, is really engaged in promoting culture in this area. With a lot of expressive national and international works from artists as Shepard Fairey, C215, Vilhs, Jana & Js and Inti, the arrondissement has been transforming into an open sky museum for street art, specially now, after the opening of the second wall of the dynamic Le Mur.

I was there, expecting to watch Bonom draw an animal, a subject that he draws very often and is really impressive to see around the city.

But for this performance he drew a woman, a beautiful naked woman, which, I’m guessing, could be a nice tribute for his girlfriend who was there.

I quickly asked him only one question: Why did you decide to paint a woman instead of an animal? He replied: “ Why shouldn’t I paint a woman? It’s so motivating!”

With a raw technique, he used spraypaint only in the beginning to add some colors and the first traces of the drawing. After that he painted with a roll in a rustic and rushed way.

See pictures of Bonom Performance at Le M.U.R XIII

Shepard Fairey interview in Paris

As contributors to Street Art Paris, last Thursday Demian Smith and I, we had the opportunity to interview one of the most famous street artists in the world, currently: Shepard Fairey.

It’s a tremendous responsibility to interview an artist like him, who is also involved with business and politics. But yes, working as a journalist of street art I believe that when we have pure intentions and our goal is to absorb what the artist has to show in a positive way, we always get the right dots to connect.

Shepard Fairey is the brains behind the Obey Giant campaign and also the Barack Obama Hope poster during his campaign for the presidential elections. He came to Paris to launch a collection for Levi’s at its flagship store on the Champs-Elysees, and also to create a huge wall in the thirteen arrondissement.

During the interview we talked about his relationship with the fashion world, the project with Levi’s, all the charity programs that he is involved with and the help he gives to several institutions and also about how he feels nowadays after being responsible and influencing so many people to vote for Barack Obama with the poster “Hope”.

It’s hard to deny that he is a mix of artist, and politician and businessman. Talking with him and hearing his strong voice with well articulated answers I realised that he has a strong power to make a difference and to be a great example. It was really beautiful to hear how he is concerned about using his own profit to help others and the environment by  collaborating  with non–profit organizations such as Occupy Wall Street, Surfrider Fundation and many others.

When the interview finished, in an informal way I asked him if he was planning to paint something in Paris, and so we had the information first-hand of the address of the wall that he was going to paint (which was kept in secret for the first two days of work). The wall was painted over three long days, and we were there following step by step his work in progress.

On the third day (Sunday 18th June)  the gallery responsible for the  project , invited the media, fans and  people involved with street art to make a conference on the residential building  that he was painting. As a super-star Shepard was there posing for pictures and giving autographs with patience even with a lot of work to do before finally finishing the black and red, and involving and beautiful painting.

Between Thursday and Sunday, My life on My Bike and Street Art Paris recorded different moments and perspectives of his stay in Paris to produce a video that you can watch now on the link below and discover more about Shepard Fairey’s positive ideas and his performance in Paris.

Pictures below by – Demian Philip Smith – Street Art Paris and Maria Fernanda Schweichler

Hand-picked artifacts from the Studio of Shepard Fairey exposed at Levi’s Champs elysees.

Hand-picked artifacts from the Studio of Shepard Fairey exposed at Levi’s Champs Elysees.

Hand-picked artifacts from the Studio of Shepard Fairey exposed at Levi’s Champs Elysees.

Shepard Fairey on the pick-up, VIP Party @ Levi’s

Shepard Fairey – work in progress day one, Paris

Shepard Fairey – work in progress day one – Paris

Shepard Fairey – work in progress day two – Paris

Shepard Fairey – work in progress day two – Paris

Shepard Fairey – work in progress day three – Paris

Shepard Fairey- work in progress day three – Paris

Shepard Fairey- Paris

Shepard Fairey – Paris