Last week I was in Ukraine attending the No-Border camp. It was held in Transcarpathia the main region of transit and labor migration to the European Union. (You could read more about the camp and its motivations here)
The camp was really interesting and also a lot of fun. I have many stories and observations but until i get around to writing them you could see pictures of my travels in my flicker. There are almost no pictures of the camp itself because people asked not to be filmed but you can get a feeling of west Ukraine. In a few days I will ad more detailed pictures of the actions.
You can also read reports from some British activists who were at the camp here and here, And if you read German here.
After almost a year in Weimar I really should not be surprised about anything, but after finding myself sitting at marktplatz, one of Hitler’s favorite places, drinking beer, singing along with the crowd songs in Yiddish while a group of Germans attempt to dance the Hora behind me I felt that I better figure out what’s going on.
Hora dancing at Marktplatz, 2007 / Hitler speaking at Marktplatz, 1926
When a big guy with a big moustache started signings a Nachman Me’uman song, I knew that that he was the man i should approach to ask some questions. So, it turned out that I sat this guy is Lorin Sklamberg lead vocalist of Klezmatics, one of my much loved bands, and what was going on, was a jam session ofthe participants of the Yiddish Song Workshop, part of Yiddish Summer Weimar The largest Yiddish festival in Germany. The festival that started in 2000, invites musicians to teach Klezmer and holds workshops to hundreds of interested fans or amateur-musicians.
Following my visit to two street art exhibitions in Berlin, Planet Prozess and Backjumps, I came to a clear conclusion. Street art does not work in a gallery. Sure there was some good work; cubabrasil’s installation and blu’s stop motion room at backjumps and m-city at Planet Prozess for example related to space they were working in and made some decent art works, but most of the work was just weak, some of the work just looked like bad murals at a kindergarten. I really appreciate these artist but I feel that they did not take in consideration that paintings (am I allowed to use this word?) that work well on the street – in a public environment, are experienced in a completely different way in a gallery, the rules are not the same, it’s a different game.
A lot of Street Art works because it’s on the street, many factors on the street make the work powerful. The sense of surprise when you bump into it, the placement and how it fits or does not fit in the environment, the use of the architecture, the use of simple materials to communicate simple ideas in a totally fresh way. Sometimes all the power is in size. In blu’s work that he created for the exhibit on walls of buildings outside the gallery you can really see how size works, of course you need to know how to draw, and blu without doubt does, but what’s really impressed me was the size. His works are exiting and moving, they make you smile but they are also a bit disturbing, but they work on the streets where he painted them, the same drawing in a gallery would have left me indifferent. But size is not only to impress, making a big piece of art in the middle of the city that is being occupied by cooperate forces is also a political act. Good Street Art raises questions about who owns the public sphere, about criminalization and who does the Law serve. It’s about freedom of speech and who has not only the right to it but also the ability to expresses themselves. Blu understood this used the walls outside to fight power with powerful street art and used the gallery room to make something appropriate for a gallery room, to bad so many of the other artist in the galleries did not.
above: street Art map of Kreuzburg, Cuba-Brasil.
under: Blu, walls in Kreuzberg (You can see more photos here)
Blu, Backjumps.The video was showing on a loop in the middle of the room and the walls still showed the painted over stains from the animation
