From the 14th of May until 26 june, an exhibition at the Montana Shop & Gallery (C/Comerç 6), takes the title Survivors “Supervivents” and shows the work of these two characters, both born of the graffiti of the city. Each artist brings his graphical work - photography, paintings, drawings, silk screens - converting the banal, dark, often repugnant into cult objects. Their objective to join, what some may consider opposing contexts of - art and street - in a gallery setting.

Debens

Behind the name of Debens hides Hugo García (Barcelona, 1980). He doesn’t like to talk about his work, his work speaks for itself. Has always lived on the edge between art books and canned beers, influenced by the vagabond worlds “vagamundos” of Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg. He has experimented with paint, photography, sculpture and performance. He is both member and creator of graffiti crews ONG, 1980 and Doble Cobra, all icons of Barcelona’s underground scene.

Mister

Mister, Ernest Fidel Añaños (Euskadi, 1980), began his career without being conscious of it, painting tags and marking territory in the city that saw him grow, Sabadell. After several years painting the walls in different locations together with groups such as ONG,1980 and Doble Cobra, he took the leap to canvas. The change was not just a decision but also an obligation. With the introduction of Anti-Social Legislation in Barcelona, the street has become a dangerous place for urban artists, they hide in the galleries to enable them to continue to express themselves. Mister has exhibited work in galleries such as Welldone (Gracia, BCN), he has carried out graphic works for Absolut Vodka, the music group Za! and for Boombox and the Cobra Club sessions at the Apolo Club Barcelona.

http://www.deliriumdebens.com
http://www.elmistersomostodos.com

La Fundació Badalona Oberta organizó el primer concurso de Graffiti de Badalona el pasado 29 de abril en la Rambla de Badalona. Se presentaron 50 artistas, que realizaron obras de gran calidad, durante toda la mañana . La organización pagó el material y creo que la comida . Antes de decidir los tres ganadores, el jurado admitió que no tenían ni idea de gaffiti. Nadie salió contento de del reparto de premios y muchos renegaron por haberse prestado a concursar para unos unos ignorantes. Las obras se subastaron a favor de la Fundación .

El sábado 9 de mayo se celebró en Pallejà, en La Nau, una nave a las afueras del pueblo, un taller y una exhibición de graffiti, otro taller de breakdance y concierto de hip hop con grupos venidos de Madrid, Portugal, Reus y Barcelona. La exhibición de Graffiti estuvo a la altura que se esperaba, varios artistas reconocidos decoraron la pared de una nave industrial de manera impecable. Los cantantes cobraron por su trabajo. Los ” otros “, los “escritores” se le pagó el material y las consumiciones. “La tierra para los que la trabajan” gritaban en Marinaleda . En el graffiti no debería de ser: “el que parte y reparte se lleva la mejor parte” … la amistades las dejamos para otras cosas…

Gloria Balcells

“Supervivents” resucita el espíritu del arte callejero. Click on this picture to have more information.

La exposición, que se celebra en Barcelona del 14 de mayo al 26 de junio, reúne las obras de dos artistas urbanos que cambian la calle por la galería para mostrar su visión más oscura del ser humano y el entorno que lo rodea.
Barcelona, 23 de abril de 2009. - Aman tanto como odian. Viven asfixiados por el asfalto, aunque la ciudad les inspira. Beben hasta embriagarse, pero su obra es lúcida. Son Míster y Debens, dos jóvenes atrapados entre el arte y la calle, que pese a su eterna contradicción siempre se consideran artistas y, sobre todo, amigos.

Del 14 de mayo al 26 de junio, Montana Shop & Gallery (C/Comerç 6, Barcelona) recoge con el título de “Supervivents” el trabajo de estos dos personajes, nacidos del graffiti de la Ciudad Condal. Cada una de sus piezas gráficas –fotografías, pinturas, dibujos, serigrafías…– convierte lo banal, oscuro y, a menudo repugnante, en objeto de culto. Y es que su objetivo es aunar lo que para algunos puede parecer opuesto; arte y calle, en un mismo escenario.

Debens

Bajo el nombre de Debens se esconde Hugo García (Barcelona, 1980). No le gusta hablar de su trabajo, pero su trabajo habla por sí solo. Siempre ha vivido a caballo entre libros de arte y cervezas de lata, influenciado tanto por vagamundos como por Marcel Duchamp o Robert Rauschenberg. Ha experimentado con la pintura, la fotografía, la escultura y el performance, a la vez que ha pertenecido y creado grupos de graffiti como ONG, 1980 y Doble Cobra, iconos de la escena underground de Barcelona.

Míster

Míster, Fidel Ernest Añaños (Euskadi, 1980), empezó su carrera sin tener conciencia de ello, haciendo tags, firmas para marcar territorio, en la ciudad que le vio crecer, Sabadell. Después de varios años pintando las paredes de distintas localidades junto a grupos como ONG ,1980 o Doble Cobra, dio el salto al lienzo. El cambio no fue solo una decisión, sino también una obligación. Con la entrada en vigor de la Ordenanza del Civismo en Barcelona, la calle se vuelve peligrosa para los artistas urbanos y se esconden en las galerías para poder seguir expresándose. Ha expuesto su obra en salas como Welldone y ha realizado trabajos gráficos para Absolut Vodka, el grupo musical Za! y las sesiones Boombox y Club Cobra de la sala Apolo.

http://www.deliriumdebens.com
http://www.elmistersomostodos.com

“It was fashionable a few years ago to dismiss Paris as a creative backwater. The real avant-garde was to be found in the happening cities of New York and London. The art pendulum has been swinging back for some time and it has been given another shove this weekend.

The venue is the Grand Palais, the monumental exhibition hall just off the Champs Elysées that is home to one of the top state galleries and where the Yves Saint Laurent art collection was auctioned last month. The new show is one of the world’s most ambitious exhibitions of graffiti.

This is another case of French paradox since the state that is staging the exhibition is the same one that spends tens of millions of tax euros a year prosecuting and cleaning up after vandals who deface public property with their art.

Of course the contemporary art world has long seen the creative side of daubing trains and public spaces. A few stars of the underground, such as the late New Yorkers Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, are revered as geniuses. Since the 1980s, the French Culture Ministry has also flirted with the graffiti, rap and dances of the hip-hop underground.

But eyebrows, including some artistic ones, have been raised by the consecration that the state has bestowed on the genre with its show of 300 specially commissioned oeuvres by international maîtres de l’art de la rue.

In Tag au Grand Palais, canvases by Snake131, a New York veteran, Nasty of Switzerland, Psyckoze of Paris and other eminent taggeurs, are hanging in a long-disused, tunnel-like gallery that runs along the side of the palace’s great steel dome. The show is impressive in its scale. Some of the canvases are obviously clever and of quality, but to my sceptical eye, much of it looks like the daubing that pollutes urban life.

I had an interesting chat there with Toxic, a Bronx-born master of the genre, but first the complaints. Some in the artistic establishment say that l’Etat Français has gone too far this time by endorsing the American-inspired vandalism which blights the Métro trains, railways and housing estates of France.

“The state is punishing these people on one side and welcoming them on the other,” Jean-Philippe Domecq, a writer and contemporary art specialist, told Le Point magazine. “This is subsidizing subversion.” The state is so afraid of “missing another Van Gogh” that it throws money at every fad, he added.

Barbed praise for the show came from Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr, a leading auctioneer and President of the Association of the Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art centre opposite the Eiffel Tower. “Ninety-nine percent of taggers are cretins who only want to foul walls,” he said. He lamented the graffiti that adorned his museum’s outdoor statues and hoped that the Grand Palais show would at least “distinguish between the artists and les cons (a___holes in American).”

The irony of the show is not lost on the distinguished spray-can bandits who were invited by Alain Dominique Galliz, an architect-collector [picture below], to come to his workshop in the Paris suburb of Boulogne from 2006-8. They were each paid to produce two panels, resembling the side of an underground train, one with their signature tags, or initials, and the other on the theme of love. In return, Galliz agreed not to sell their works and to show them together.

Bando, one of big French names, said that he was amused by the invitation to the Grand Palais. “Our work is usually on monuments, not inside them,” he told Libération. RCF1, a Paris artist, said that Cornette de Saint Cyr knew nothing about graffiti since he had never been on the Métro. The artist knew this because he had been sentenced to community service work as a guard at Cornette de Saint Cyr’s art centre after being convicted for committing graffiti.

Toxic, 43, whose work sells for large sums, told me that he admired Galliz for assembling artists who represent the four decades since modern graffiti first appeared in the US urban ghettos. He was amazed that his fellow practitioners had agreed to the French invitation. “It’s not easy dealing with these guys. There have been a lot of fights. Like when someone else paints on your tag. Grudges are held forever.”

It is not clear whether the police would be visiting the show to help them with their aggressive campaign against the graff-artists who cost so much in what might be considered a sort of “subsidy”. For the past eight years, prosecutors have been pursuing not just perpetrators, but also taking action against internet sites and art magazines for aiding and abetting criminals.

Toxic, who now lives in Italy, recalled that British police had visited a London gallery where he had shown his work. “They were there to see your face and arrest you.” He recognised an ethical dilemma but said that he continued to keep his hand in on subway trains and tunnels, leaving his fresh oeuvres with other initials. “I try not to do it too much because I visit schools. I tell the kids to be careful because they could be arrested.”

Gallizia has been defending his project. “This is not about ugly scribbling, but well and truly genuine works of illumination and calligraphy,” he said. “Even if this form of expression is sometimes violent and aggressive, there is a fraternity behind it.”

The show is worth a visit if you’re in Paris, if only for the novelty of its setting.”

De Times On-line. Para ver la fuente original clica aquí.

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