be realistic demand the impossible

A somewhat rather particular but remarkably positively vibed event labelled „Breaking Barriers“ took place in a part of Estonia which is known for its greats Russian-speaking community. The beautiful and tidy-looking town of Sillamäe whose appellation would stand for something like the bridged hill, brought together the locals from ages A to Z in order to celebrate the beginning of autumn and to offer them, as the proverb goes, bread and circuses. The great variety of entertaining activities in addition to the highly dynamic ambience even astonished the few lost-looking Estonians at first. The reason for them to be here? What else then the basic people-uniting form of creation – street art. 

In the sweet strawberry-scented spray cloud and under the logo of Stencibility, a live painting session was held out by three Estonian street artists – Tartu based Mimiko and Kairo, together with the Tallinn based brush-loving artist Pintsel. They gave their contribution to the kind act of connecting people through visual delight that offers us this spray-canned form of art. In despite of the barrier that might still exist until this day between Estonian and Russian speaking communities, no problems were to occur during the painting session. The act of creation simply doesn't need words: the visual aspect offers the possibility of mutual understanding between each other. Even if words were shared, like the „очень красивый“ that a fellow just told me, pointing towards the wall-in-progress, the optimistic tonality in the message does not make one ask for explanation. 

Superb mural from 2013 in San Francisco. Image from http://arrestedmotion.com/2014/02/streets-os-gemeos-san-francisco/

Full-time dreamers, regardless whether it's night or day, OS GEMEOS are a remarkable pair of self-taught street artists from São Paulo, whose collaboral paintings stand out with a unique and innovative style. The yellow coloured characters reflect creatures seen in dreams and real people from the local surroundings, who in the paintings are often decorated with highly colourful traditional Brazilian clothing. The reason for the yellow skin colour is a similar way of dreaming for both of the twin brothers – having found out one day that they both see humans with yellow skin in their dreams, the artists decided to integrate this exceptional aspect to their creation.

This time one is no longer lingering in strange new lands but has instead returned back to the roots and is exploring the rich and highly promising alternative culture of Tartu, a South-Estonian town known since the 17th century as the academics gathering point but today standing out more and more for it's flourishing street art scene. Hiding a (possible) surprise behind each corner, Tartu offers a lot more during an evening stroll than the average urban landscape would.

Dissections by Nychos the Wild and REM: Wild Boar 2014, Berlin, for the Pictoplasma Festival  //  Little Mermaid 2014, Litz Austria, for the Comic Festival  //  Crocodile 2013, Art Basel Miami  // the magnificent Weird crew in Berlin, decoration for the new YAAM in 2014  

Having been appealingly called the mad surgeon scientist or the spray can scalpel artist but officially going by the name of NYCHOS, the Austrian street decorator has legitimately earned these praising appellations. If science-based themes had been already integrated into the street art scene, the medical aspect had still been left aside until the rabbit-obsessed artist introduced the beautiful complexity of anatomy through large scale and remarkably detailed paintings to the wide public of street strollers. Before transmitting the complex drawings from his sketchbook onto the streets, Nychos was doing, lets say, classical graffiti as well as spreading his simplified rabbit skull logos on the streets. At the time, around the early 2000s, it was much more common for graffiti writers to leave a mark of their existence rather than to perceive the urban environment as a legitimate gallery and use it as a giant canvas, as it is highly common nowadays.

It wasn't until recently, around four years ago, that the masterpieces we know today, started emerging from the spray cans of Nychos and his crew, baptised The Rabbit Eye Movement which aims the expansion of artistic creation and has its headquarters in Vienna.

The cartoon-based creatures that are dissected on dull concrete walls with a very colourful and fun way, are the twisted reflection of hunted animals seen throughout the childhood. Coming from a family with hunting traditions, assisting procedures like dissection or skinning were not unfamiliar for the future artist. Learning something as fascinating as the functioning of a living organism, must have a considerable impact on a child, resulting in Nychos' case in a truly original interpretation. Perceiving life with optimism and humour, he eliminates the dramatic aspect of death by giving the dissected character an absolutely crazy cartoon-like appearance, therefore amusing the spectator rather than shocking him/her.

Order of images: beauty of letters - Wild Child 2013; as éphémère as one can get - light painting 2013; a piece from a collaboration with Nhobi and Biofa

The street art scene on Marseille may not be too widely known outside the French arena but it surely is full of great talent. From all the local street artists, JOKEs work is definitely worth while mentioning considering his highly developed skill in binding calligraphy and graffiti which creates visually effective and beautiful results. Long before becoming Joke, at the age of 16 he tagged his first experimentations on the less neat than nowadays but still highly bourgeois town of Aix-en-Provence. Considering the childhood having spent in a creative environment, it didn't take long until the tags would be developed into complex and fine forms of calligraphy. Devotion to this art form is what has led him to become an acknowledged graphic designer at a young age (obviously without abandoning the adrenaline-high activity on the streets).

Although the Marseille graffiti scene is a lot about claiming territory and therefore violence occurs occasionally, Joke stays chill and focuses on more sophisticated ways in leaving a mark. In fact, through various projects and workshops, the highly respected Parisian artist seeks to pass on his skill to children amongst whom may be hidden some future kick-ass street artists.

However, the term 'artist' had a rather troubling aspect for Joke and it took a while before he would define himself as one. But considering the numerous experimentations with various techniques (light painting and graffiti light mapping) as well as the number of works sold and exhibited, the word “tagger” would simply be inappropriate. Still, one must admit that a street artist will always have a certain wild side, 'cause the street's a jungle where new vines never stop appearing and tangling up between themselves, as Joke says metaphorically. Just from time to time, small confrontations may come up with the authorities who have lost themselves in the wilderness. Luckily in Marseille, rather then having long and dead-end conversations with clever street artists, cops prefer chasing scooter drivers without helmets, thus leaving the creativity to fully bloom. 

Graffiti light mapping project:

Images : portrait in Berlin; "Women are heroes" Providência, Rio de Janiero 2010

If one should point out the artist who has worked the most in bringing out the value and importance of underprivileged people, it surely is JR. The half anonymous French artist started out, as a great deal of graffiti artists, as a teenager, going around on the white rooftops of Paris and tagging his name where ever he could and dare to climb together with his friends. After having found a 28'' photo camera in the subway station, the tagging expeditions were taken to a higher, more artistic level and were begun to being documented. Soon after the first clichés, the street would be transferred into a gallery to expose the fascinating photos of JR and his crew right in the middle of the vandalising acts. A photo must surely cannot be exhibited without a frame, so this problem was quickly to be solved with the help of the good old spray can.

By the time of millennium, JR had taken his camera to the suburbs of Paris in order to portray people who are often misjudged or left unnoticed by society’s upper classes. Naming his first humanistic project Expo2Rue (Street Exhibition), JR pasted the monumental-size close-up portraits around the wealthy neighbourhoods of Paris so that the “litte people” would be literally seen and their existence noticed. Continuing on the same honourable human-respecting path, JR not only continues to take photos of undervalued individuals for his inspiring projects, but seeks also to improve their lives.

Catching the attention of the media with the gigantic black-and-white portraits draws to promising and positive changes. For his accomplishments and attempts to change the world, the good-hearted twenty-something Parisian artist was rewarded in 2011 with the utmost prestigious Ted Prize.

Learn about JR's prize-winning project "Women are heroes" from 2010: