It has been a while since I have taken to this blog, but I have a special project to announce: the ABC project. Initiated by French street artist Oré last year, the ABC project aims to foster a transeuropean exchange about crisis and austerity through street art and graffiti. I am happy to have been responsible for facilitating the Berlin portion of this amazing collaboration. If you want to follow our activities or get in touch, find us here.
Fall in rEVOLution, Athens 2013 | ©Wild Drawing.
Here’s the announcement:
In the context of the recent crisis, street art and graffiti have become important mediums of expression and protest in Athens. Especially for the Athenian youth the walls of the city have become a canvas for expressing their confusion, anger, and anxiety, but also hopes and alternative visions for the future.
The ABC project brings the street art of Athens to a broader european audience. Between March and April 2015 Wild Drawing and SCAR ONE (Athens) as well as Oré (Caen) will exhibit their artworks and realize murals in Berlin and Caen. Various public events and discussions will frame these encounters.
Berlin: March, 21 – 28
An exhibition will take place at Raum für drastische Maßnahmen. during the week of the exhibition there will be a panel discussion about street art as a political medium as well as an event organized by the Greek community in Berlin. Live mural painting will take place in multiple spots all over town.
Caen: April, 8 – 20
In Caen an exhibition will take place at the workshop and gallery of Oré La Centrifugeuz. It will take place at the same time as the local Balkan Spring festival and foster an exchange between festival goers and the artists. There will be a discussion evening concerned with the economic and political current situation of Greece. Collaborators in Caen include Solidarity Normandy Greece, La Sauce aux Arts, Paris Tonkar magazine, and ADADA (association of defense of the artists and development of the arts).
“No future” by SCAR ONE in Exarcheia, 2013.
The artists
Wild Drawing, or WD, was born in Bali, Indonesia but has been living and working in Athens for the past eight years. He has degrees in fine arts and applied arts and continues to work in the studio, but has continuously been involved in street art since 2000. He has carried out solo exhibitions, and participated in group shows and festivals in Indonesia, Greece, France, Germany, England, Italy, Malta, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden. To find out more about WD and check out his amazing work, head over to his website or Facebook page, or check the interview he gave me for Aesthetics of Crisis in 2013.
SCAR ONE first started to spray in 1998 as a reaction to the confinement of art class. Since then he has studied graphic design and illustration in England and participated in several group shows in Greece, France, England and Italy. Lately has been returning to his roots and applying his energy away from the establishments and towards the streets. He runs a free community art school for children in Athens where he lives and works. For more go to his website.
Oré is a French street artist based in the city of Caen in the province of Normandie. He shares a strong and personal connection with the city of Athens and has visited it countless times over the past 30 years. An astute observer of the changes that the city has been going through in the past years of crisis, he has become passionate about starting a transeuropean dialogue about the crisis, ultimately leading to the initiation of the ABC project. More about Oré can be found at his website or his Facebook page. He shared some of his insights and ideas in an interview with me in 2013.
“From ancient to modern times – who controls money?” by Oré in Athens, 2015.
