What is the story that your city's public space tells? Who are the people honored in monuments scattered throughout it? Issues like these have led to a series of insurgencies in recent years in several cities. The notions of memory and representation have expanded the reflection on which narrative we build in our spaces, a fact that has triggered an urban question for the future: after all, what do we want to remember (or forget) through the symbols that we rise (or destroy) in cities?
Ready for a mind trip? Take a look at the work of German street artist 1010. For more than a decade, 1010 has been painting colorful cave-like illusions that make flat surfaces appear as if they have been breached by holes go on forever. To create his works, the artist first makes papercut models by layering stacks of paper in specific color palettes, then translates the depth into paint. He has used this technique in surprising places across the globe including both interior and exterior walls and even on an abandoned highway in Paris.
Check out some of 1010’s latest work below.
Okuda, the Spanish artist who has been converted into one of the biggest figures in pop surrealism, is continuing his artistic journey in France. After paying homage to the Mona Lisa in the façade of a 19 story building and designing a trampoline above the Seine River, the artist has now taken on the façade of the Valette Castle (1864) in Loiret, which has been abandoned since the 80’s.
The work is titled “Skull in Mirror” and reactivates the Valette Castle whose history links France and Spain. In 1936, during the time of the Spanish Civil War, Republicans purchased the castle, where initially it housed children evacuated from conflict and then later, political exiles. In the 50’s, Spain, under Franco’s rule reclaimed it and used it for holiday camps. Two decades later, the castle was converted into a Spanish school and by 1986 was left abandoned. In 2002, it was acquired by the Pressigny-les-Pins council and a private company.
Urban artist DAKU has created a dynamic solar mural, “Time Changes Everything,” on a building in the Lodhi Colony area of Delhi as part of India’s first ever public arts district. Words associated with human emotion and the passage of time have been mounted perpendicularly on the building facade, casting shadows that shift as the sun moves across the sky, eventually extinguishing as the sun completes its journey.
JR is an anonymous artist who owns the biggest art gallery in the world. His exhibits are available on the streets, free of charge catching the attention of people who are not typical museum visitors. His work is thought provoking and mixes art and act.
JR is known worldwide for projects such as Portrait of a Generation (2006), Women Are Heroes (2008), and Face 2 Face (2007). The latter is a piece which through portraits of people made with a wide angle lens, printed in large scale and pasted on city walls was able to generate a reaction from the public.
São Paulo 's famed elevated highway, the Minhocão is lauded for its dual use; during the day its serves as a highway, and at night, Sundays and holidays parts of the 2.2-mile roadway transform into a bustling public space. The Curbed reports , the densely populated space is lined with window-less towers and massive "Blind Walls," that Were once used the space for advertisement. However, since ads Were banned in 2006, artists have Begun to slowly transform these walls into beautiful art. Nitsche Architects is the latest to Intervene, exposing the inner life of one of the building's with a human-scale, monochrome wall. Read on for more images.
Spanish designer and photographer A.L. Crego has brought street art to life in his latest project, adding movement to murals from the around the world. In order to maintain the original artwork, Crego first photographed the sites and then digitally intervened to convert them into animations.
All the murals selected by the designer convey messages about dependence on technology and its effects on personal interactions.
View his urban GIFs after the break.
The Flamengo landfill in Rio de Janeiro was recently host the world's largest urban art GIF. Created by anonymous artist INSA, the work consisted of a huge floor painting that underwent minor changes recorded by the satellite 430 miles above the earth.
Sponsored by Scotch whiskey brand Ballantine, the painting - 619,000-square-feet of yellow and pink hearts - was produced by a 20-person team over the course of four days. With each new picture, the team altered the illustration so that, by the end of the process, the recorded images created an animated GIF (as seen above).
