{"id":7431,"date":"2016-09-13T12:51:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T12:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urban-nation.com\/2016\/09\/moscow-manege-hosts-street-artists-for-the-artmossphere-biennale\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T15:47:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T14:47:44","slug":"moscow-manege-hosts-street-artists-for-the-artmossphere-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urban-nation.com\/de\/2016\/09\/moscow-manege-hosts-street-artists-for-the-artmossphere-biennale\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow Manege Hosts Street Artists for the Artmossphere Biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Moscow presents a Street Artist\u2019s exhibition, but the streets have almost none. When Street Art and it\u2019s associated cousins move inside the possible outcomes are many. With exhibitions like this you are seeing urban becoming very contemporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Belgian artist SozyOne <\/span>at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Artmossphere Biennale jump-starts the debate for many about how to best present the work of Street Artists and organizers here in Moscow chose a broad selection of curators from across a spectrum of private, commercial, academic and civically-inspired perspectives to present a solid range of artists from the graffiti and Street Art world inside a formal hall.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, unless it is illegal and on the street, it is not graffiti nor Street Art. That is the prevailing opinion about these terms among experts and scholars of various stripes and it is one we\u2019re comfortable with. But then there are the commercial and cultural influences of the art world and the design industries, with their power to reshape and loosen terms from their moorings. Probably because these associated art movements are happening and taking shape before our eyes  and not ensconced in centuries of scholarship we can expect that we will continue to witness the  morphing our language and terminologies, sometimes changing things in translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A working carousel provides wildly waving optics for riders in this room by The London Police <\/span>at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitions aside, when you think of more organic Street Art scenes which are always re-generating themselves in the run-down abandoned sectors of cities like Sao Paulo, New York, Melbourne, Paris, Mexico City, London, and Berlin, it is interesting to consider that this event takes place nearly on the grounds of the Kremlin under museum like security.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An international capital that ensures cleanly buffed walls within hours of the appearance of any unapproved Street Art or graffiti, Moscow also boasts a growing contingent of art collectors who are young enough to appreciate the cultural currency of this continuously mutating hybrid of graffiti, hip hop, DIY, muralism, and art-school headiness. The night clubs and fashionable kids here are fans of events like hip-hop and graffiti jams, sometimes presented as theater and other times as \u201clearning workshops\u201d and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Madrid-based Paris born artist Remed <\/span>at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plugging into this idea of street and youth culture is not a singular fascination \u2013 there is perhaps an association with the rebellious anti-authoritarian nature of unregulated art in the streets that fuels the interest of many. With graffiti and hip-hop culture adoption as a template, newer expressions of Street Art culture are attractive as well with high profile artists with rebel  reputations are as familiar in name here as in many cities. New festivals and events sometimes leverage this renegade free-spirit currency for selling tourism and brands and real estate, but here there also appears to be an acute appreciation for its fine art expression \u2013 urban contemporary art.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MOSCOW\u2019S MANEGE AND \u201cDEGENERATE ART\u201d<\/strong>So ardent is the support for Artmossphere here that a combination of public and private endorsements and financial backing have brought it to be showcased in a place associated with high-culture and counter-culture known as the Moscow Manege (\u041c\u0430\u043d\u0435\u0301\u0436). The location somehow fits the rebellious spirit that launched these artists even if its appearance wouldn\u2019t lead you to think that.The 19<\/span>th<\/sup> century neo-classical exhibition hall stands grandly adjacent to Red Square and was built as an indoor riding school large enough to house a battalion of 2,000 soldiers during the 1800s. It later became host to many art exhibitions in the 20<\/span>th<\/sup> century including a famous avant-garde show in 1962 that <\/span>Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev<\/em> famously derided as displaying \u2018degenerate\u2019 art.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Polish painter Sepe says his wall speaks to those who would pull the strings behind the scenes. He finished it within three days at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the artists whose work was criticized, painter and sculptor Ernst Neizvestny, challenged the label defiantly and won accolades afterward during his five decade career that followed, including receiving many awards and his work being collected worldwide by museums. Russian President <\/span>Vladimir Putin<\/a> is quoted as calling him \u201ca recognised master and one of the best contemporary sculptors\u201d. In January of this year at the age of 90, <\/span>Neizvestny\u2019s return<\/a> to Menage featured an extensive exhibition. He passed away August 9th (<\/span>The Moscow Times<\/a>), only weeks before Artmossphere opened.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some kindred spirit many of these artists at Artmossphere have done actual illegal work on the streets around the world during their respective creative evolutions, and graffiti and Street Art as a practice have both at various times been demonized, derided, dismissed and labeled by critics in terms synonymous with \u201cdegenerate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A CLEAN CITY<\/strong>\u201cMoscow is mostly very clean,\u201d says Artmossphere co-founder and Creative Director Sabine Chagina, who walks with guests during a sunny afternoon in a busy downtown area just after the opening. \u201cBut we do have some good graffiti crews,\u201d she says as we round the corner from the famous Bolshoi Theater and soon pass Givenchy and Chanel and high-end luxury fashion stores. Shortly we see a mural nearby by French artist Nelio, who painted a lateral abstracted geometric, possibly cubist, piece on the side of a building here in 2013 as part of the LGZ Festival. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barcelona<\/u><\/span> based Miss Van had one of her paintings translated into a woven wool rug with artisans in Siberia. Here is a detail at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miss Van at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was graffiti here in Moscow, it was not on full display very readily in this part of town. In driving tours, rides on the extensive metro train system, and in street hikes across the city a visitor may find that much of the illegal street art and graffiti common to other global capitals is illusive due to a general distaste for it and a dedicated adherence to buffing it out quickly.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a pedestrian tourist Moscow appears in many ways as fully contemporary and architecturally rich as any international world-class metropolis. One of the cleanest places you\u2019ll visit, the metro is almost museum-like in some instances; the historic districts spotless, public fountains, famed statues of important historical figures. All is efficiently ordered and \u2013 a welcome surprise \u2013 most public space is free of advertisements interrupting your view and your thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chile-Born, Berlin-based artist and sculptor Pablo Benzo curated by The Art Union <\/span>at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come to think of it, the sense of commercial-celebrity media saturation that is present in other cities doesn\u2019t appear to permeate the artists psyche here at the Biennale \u2013 so there\u2019s not much of the ironic Disney-Marilyn-supermodel-Kardashian-skewering of consumerism and shallowness in this exhibition that you may find in other Urban Art events.<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, unlike a Street Art-splattered show in London for example that may rudely mock Queen Elizabeth or art in New York streets that present Donald Trump styled as a pile of poo and Hillary Clinton as Heath<\/em> Ledger\u2019s Joker, we didn\u2019t see over-the-top Putin satires either. So personality politics don\u2019t seem directly addressed in this milieu. According to some residents there was an outcropping of huge festival murals by Street Artists here just a few years ago but more recently they have been painted over with patriotic or other inspiring murals, while others have been claimed for commercial interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brazilian Claudio Ethos at the Artmossphere Biennale 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A REAL LIVE MURAL FROM L\u2019ATLAS<\/strong>Starved for some gritty street scenes, it is all the more interesting to see the one live mural painting that we were able to catch \u2013 a 6-story red-lined op-art tag by the French graffiti writer L\u2019Atlas.  Far from Manege, placed opposite a cineplex in what appears to be a shopping mall situated far from the city\u2019s historical and modern centers, our guide tells us half-jokingly that he is not sure that we are still in Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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L\u2019Atlas on a Moscow wall for Artmossphere 2016, Moscow (photo \u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here L\u2019Atlas says that he has painted his bar-code-like and cryptic nom-de-plume with an assistant on a cherry picker for a few days and he says that no one has stopped to ask him about it, neither to comment or criticize. Actually one man early one morning returning home from a disco did engage him briefly, but it was difficult to tell what he was talking about as he may have had a few drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This lack of public commentary is mainly notable because in other cities the comments from passersby can be so ubiquitous that artists deliberately wear stereo headphones to prevent interruption and to be more productive. Sometimes the headphones are not actually playing music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The inside installation by L\u2019Atlas for Artmossphere features multiple abstract iterations of his tag in day glow (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WALKING THROUGH THE OPENING<\/strong>This Street Art Biennale nonetheless is gaining a higher profile among Urban Art collectors and its associated art dealers and the opening and later auction reaches directly to this audience. Included this year with the primary \u201cInvisible Walls\u201d exhibition are satellite events in association with local RuArts Gallery, Tsekh Belogo at Winzavod, and the Optika Pavilion (No. 64) at VDNKh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening night event itself is wide and welcoming, a mostly youthful and populist affair with celebratory speeches and loosely organized group photos and an open bar. Added together with a press conference, a live DJ, virtual reality headsets, interactive artworks, major private business sponsors, government grants, ministers of culture, gallerists, and quirkily fashionable art fans, this is a polished presentation of a global culture that is filtered through the wide lense of the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wes21 from Switzerland is a graffiti artist blending reality and fantasy in this lunar-like landscape for Artmossphere features multiple abstract iterations of his tag in a day glo (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps because the exhibition hall is a cavernous rectangle with exposed beams on the ceiling and many of the constructed white walls that mimic vendor booths, it has the air of an art fair. There are thankfully no salespeople pacing back and forth watching your level of interest. People tend to cluster before installations and talk, laugh, share a story, pose for a selfie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INVISIBLE WALL<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Similar in theme to the multidisciplinary exhibit about borders and boundaries curated by Raphael Schacter this spring in St. Petersburg <\/a>at the Street Art Museum, Artmossphere asked artists to think about and address the \u201cinvisible walls\u201d in contemporary life and societies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Domo Collective present \u201cFair Play III\u201d an enormous world map functioning ping pong table with a triple razor wire fence right down the middle. \u201cWe play an unhealthy game in which nobody believed to be responsible.\u201d at Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme seems very appropriately topical as geopolitical, trade-related, social, digital, and actual walls appear to be falling down rapidly today while the foundations of new ones are taking shape. Catalyzed perhaps by the concept and practices of so-called \u201cglobalization\u201d \u2013 with its easy flow of capital and restricted flow of humans, we are all examining the walls that are shaping our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 60+ international artists working simultaneously throughout this massive hall, newly built walls are the imperative for displaying art, supporting it, dividing it. These are the visible ones. With so many players and countries represented here, one can only imagine that there are a number of invisible walls present as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Domo Collective at Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme has opened countless interpretations in flat and sculptural ways, often expressed in the vernacular of fine art with arguable nods to mid-20<\/span>th<\/sup> century modernists, folk art, fantasy, representational art, abstract, conceptual, computer\/digital art, and good old traditional graffiti tagging. Effectively it appears that when Street Art and graffiti artists pass the precipice into a multi-disciplinary exhibition such as this, one can reframe Urban\/Street as important tributaries to contemporary art \u2013 but will they re-direct the flow or be subsumed within it?<\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work often can be so far removed from street practice that you don\u2019t recognize it as related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vitaly Sy created a visualization of \u201cFear\u201d as the main causes of internal barriers. The pieces are built around a central axis with elements at right angle to one another, and the man\u2019s head on a swivel. Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from putting work up in contested public space without permission and under cover, an average visitor may not see a common thread. These works run aesthetic to the conceptual, painterly to the sculptural, pure joy and pure politics. But then, that is we began to see in the streets as well when the century turned to the 21st<\/sup> and art students in large numbers in cities like New York and London and Berlin skipped the gatekeepers, taking their art directly to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps beneath the surface or just above it, there is a certain anarchistic defiance, a critique of social, economic, political issues, a healthy skepticism toward everyone and everything that reeks of hypocritical patriarchal power structures. Perhaps we\u2019re just projecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moscow Manege exterior opening night of Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow. (photo courtesy of and <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 Artmossphere<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking over the 60+ list of names, it may be striking to some that very few are people of color, especially in view of the origins of the graffiti scene. Similarly, the percentage of women represented is quite small. We are familiar with this observation about Urban Art in general today, and this show mirrors the European and American scene primarily, with notable exceptions such as Instagrafite\u2019s home-based Brazilian crew of 4 artists. As only one such sampling of a wide and dispersed scene, it is not perhaps fair to judge it by artists race, gender, or background, but while we speak of invisible walls it is worth keeping our eyes on as this \u201cscene\u201d is adopted into galleries, museums, and private collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following are some of the artists on view at Artmossphere:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASKE<\/strong>Certainly Moscow native ASKE is gently mocking our mutated modern practices of communicating with his outsized blocked abstraction of a close couple riveted to their respective electronic devices, even unaware of one another.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moscow Street Artist ASKE at Artmossphere 2016 in Moscow (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NeSpoon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cPrescariat\u201d by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with URBAN NATION (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warsaw based NeSpoon creates a sculpture of another couple. Heroically presenting her vision of what she calls the iconic \u201cGraffiti Writer\u201d and \u201cStreet Art Girl\u201d, they face the future with art instruments in hand ready to make their respective marks. She says her work is emblematic of a permanent financial insecurity for a generation she calls the \u201cPRECARIAT\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPrescariat\u201d by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with URBAN NATION (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019Precariot\u2019 is the name of the new emerging social class,\u201d says curator, organizer, and NeSpoon\u2019s partner Marcin Rutkiewicz when talking about the piece during the press conference. \u201cThese are young people living without a predictable future, without good jobs, without social security. It\u2019s a class in the making and probably these people don\u2019t have any consciousness or global unity of interest. But they are the engines of protest for people all over the world \u2013 like Occupy Wall Street, Gezi Park in Turkey, or the Arab Spring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cPrescariat\u201d by Polish Street Artist NeSpoon at Artmossphere 2016 with URBAN NATION (photo <\/span><\/span>\u00a9 <\/span>Jaime Rojo)<\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artist developed the sculpture specifically for this exhibition and planned it over the course of a year or so. Born of a social movement in Poland by the same name, the sculpture and its sticker campaign on the street represent \u201ca kind of protest against building walls between people who are under the same economical and social situation all over the world,\u201d says Rutkiewicz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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