the-really-dark-student-blog

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Интервью с русским стрит-арт художником tet9l

1.Кто вдохновлял из мира искусства? (прежде, чем получил художественное образование) Учась в художественном училище особых акцентов не ставил, впитывал всё что попадалось на глаза. Когда начал что-то понимать и осознавать, стал больше обращать внимание на архаику, народное искусство, ар брют и архитектуру. 2. Как относишься к творчеству Бэнкси? Признаюсь, устал я от вопросов о Бэнкси, это не мой фаворит… но респект и уважение ему за социальное. Возможно, начинал он действительно один, сейчас явно прослеживается хорошо подготовленная командная работа, где всё отлажено. Бэнкси крут, добился немалого успеха. 3. Каково это - быть художником в России? Не просто, от того и увлекательней - выживает “сильнейший”. 4.Какая у тебя социальная позиция? Честно, совсем не хочется об этом думать, я бы хотел, чтобы у меня ее не было, потому что в разных жизненных моментах эти позиции мешают. Попробую уйти от вопроса, ответив - позиция “художника”. 5.Расскажи немного о процессе создания своих произведений. Всё до безобразия просто, появляется идея - вынашиваешь ее, либо действуешь сразу, творческий процесс он непредсказуем. О реализациях идей - они могут не получаться по многу раз. Так же есть  задумки, которые, по разным причинам, так и остаются не воплощенными. 6. Что, по твоему мнению, отличает тебя от других художников?  Для меня, как зрителя, есть три типа художников. Это “технарь”, кто искусно владеет эффектами, техниками изображения. Второй это “идейник”, кто на первом месте ставит идею, концепцию. Ну а третий “мутант”, это синтез двух - сформированных и понятных большинству, этого типа художников весьма немного. Думаю, на сегодняшний момент я отношусь ко второму типу, для меня неважно, чем и как сделано, важна идея и само высказывание. 7. Какие проекты ждать от тебя в ближайшем будущем? ( можно просто какие-то общие детали) Планы “Наполионовские”, хочется больше, качественней и продуманней.  В этом вопросе лучше делать, чем рассказывать об этом. 8. Приглашают ли в участии в международных проектах? или коллективных? Да, но не настолько много как хотелось бы, думаю наверстается. 9. Почему принял решение сохранить анонимность? Тут немало факторов, один из важнейших - игра… жизнь это игра, как говорят философы, поэтому нужно искусно владеть этой игрой. 10. Есть ли какие-то "подводные камни" у этой анонимности? Неужели не хотелось бы публично выступить? или тебе это не нужно? “Подводные камни” они очевидны, если ты хочешь больше чем посты в интернете, тогда тебе будет очень непросто. Но это если ты один, если же у тебя команда, к примеру, как у упомянутого Бэнкси, тогда вс�� намного лучше. Выступать? Возможно, серьезно не задумывался об этом, для ораторской деятельности нужно много практики… но это уже совсем другая история. Я выступаю публично в другом формате – проектами, как на улице, так и в интернете… к слову сказать, сегодня себя больше ощущаю онлайн-художником.     11. Самый влиятельный художник современности? Я назову троих: Ай Вейвей, Паша Павленский и Блу 12. Чьё творчество российских художников тебе нравится? Паша Павленский и ранний Тима Радя. 13. Какие видишь пути развития искусства в России? Все очень не просто с искусством в России. Искусство неинтересно государству, только если это не имеет пропагандистский характер. Если искусство, каким-то образом, неудобно “верхушке”, тогда “верхушка” удаляет его различными способами. А так, большинство художников держится за коммерцию - красивые и эффектные “картинки” (декоративные, декоративно-прикладные, оформительские) на стенку либо в коллекцию. Поэтому нужно “нравиться” или иметь “авторитетное имя”, конечно одно другому не мешает. 14. Должно ли уличное искусство поддерживаться государством? Сегодняшним государством на вряд ли, должно многое поменяться в России, думаю, это будет уже совсем другое время.

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An interwiew with Russian street artist tet9l

1.Who inspired you in the art world? (Before you graduated from Art School?)

-While studying at the art school, I was not especially interested in anything; I absorbed everything that came my way. When I began to understand art, I started to pay more attention to archaic, folk art, art Brut and architecture.

2.  How do you feel about Banksy’s art works? (What do you think about Banksy’s art works? - To be honest, I'm really tired of the questions about Banksy, he is not my favorite artist... but I respect him for his social approach. Perhaps, initially he created the graffiti on his own, but now it’s clear there is well-trained team work with well-established mechanisms. Banksy is a cool artist, he  has achieved considerable success.

3. What is it like to be an artist in Russia?

-You know, it is not easy. And that is the reason why it is so exciting.  In the Russian art world the strongest survives.

4.  What's your social standpoint?

-Honestly, I don’t want to think about it, I wish I didn't have one, because in different moments of life this standpoint gets in the way. In an attempt to depart from the question, I’ll say my standpoint is one of an “artist.”

5. Tell us a little bit about the process of creating your works.

-The whole process is hideously simple: an idea appears in your head. After that you either nurture it or act immediately. I think creative process is unpredictable. And I want to say a little bit about the realizations of ideas: they can simply fail again and again. Also, every artist has ideas that for some reasons will remain unfulfilled.

6. In your opinion, what distinguishes you from other street-artists? -For me, as a viewer, there are three types of artists. First of all there is a “techie”, the person who is skilled in effects and image techniques. The second one is an “idea person”, who puts an idea and concept in the first place. And the third one, a “mutant”, is the hybrid of the two who is appreciated by the majority of people; there are a few artists of this type.  I think at the moment I belong to the second type, because for me it does not matter with what means and materials something is done. For me,  an idea and a statement are the most important.

7.  What projects can we expect from you in the nearest future? (just some general details)

-I have bold plans, because I want more, better and smarter. In my area of work, it is better to do something than to talk about it.

8. Are you invited to participate in international projects? or collaborations?

-Yes, but not as much as I would like, I think in the future there will be more of them

9. Why did you decide to remain anonymous?

-There are a lot of factors; one of the most important of them is a game. In my opinion, life is a game, as the philosophers say «you need to skillfully wield this game». 10. Tell us about the ‘Dark side’ of being an anonymous artist. Do you ever want to speak in public or you simply don’t need it?

- The ‘Dark side’ of being an anonymous is obvious: if you want more than posts in the Internet, you have to work hard. But if you are not alone, if you have a team, for example, as the above-mentioned Banksy, your work is easier.

Public speaking? Probably, I have never thought about that, because you need a lot of practice to speak publicly, but that's another story. I speak in public in another way- through my art projects in the streets and on the Internet. By the way, today I feel that I am an online- artist. 11. What do you think, who is the most powerful/influential artist of our time? -Well, I can say three names: Ai Weiwei, Pavel Pavlensky and Blu

12.  Which Russian artists do you like?

Pavel Pavlensky and early works of Tim Radya 13. What ways of development of art in Russia do you see? -There is a really difficult situation with art in Russia. The art simply is not interesting for our government, even if it is not propagandistic. If art for some reasons is uncomfortable for “elite” it will be destroyed/ deleted in various ways. Most of the Russian artists cling to commercial projects. Usually it means beautiful and impressive imagery (decorative, decoration, design) on walls. And for these reasons artists need to be ‘liked’ or need to have ‘authoritative name’. Obviously, you can have it both ways. 14. And the last question. Should street-art be supported by the government?

-Not by today’s government. I think a lot should change in Russia and that will be a whole different time.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

Street art raises problems for justifications of the museum that appeal to the purported uniqueness and power of the works it contains. Street art is largely ephemeral art that is usually cheap to make, free to experience, and owned and overseen by no one (or, rather, everyone). Museums often  contain art that is extremely expensive (to make and own), costly to experience, and overseen by an elite few.  One reason for visiting a museum, and a reason to maintain the expansive, expensive, and exhausting network of artworld roles that sustain them, is that what is in the museum is supposedly sufficiently different from what is outside it- it is more powerful, full of complex meaning, more beautiful, challenging, and rewarding than the everyday. 

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

Even some of the thought-driven realms of the artworld-criticism and the philosophy and history of art- look different when directed at street art. I think many art critics evaluate street art by relating it to the history and critical back ground of institutional art. Critics tend to assess street art in terms of how such work would fare in a gallery or museum setting. Unsurprisingly, such assessments are invariably negative, but they do little more than point out the obvious fact that street art makes bad institutional art.This is not to say that criticism of street art is impossible, or that it must ignore its relation to institutional art.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

Street art is deeply antithetical to the artworld. That is, for each part of the artworld, street art resists to some appreciable extent playing a role in it. Consider a museum. There could be an exhibition of street art only at great cost to the significance of the works exhibited. By pulling them from the streets the curator eliminates their material use of the street, thereby destroying their meaning and status as street art. What is exhibited in the museum is at most a vestige of street art. Imagine, if you can, a gallery that deals solely in street art. Street art is done on owned property. What is there to sell? Legally speaking, it is already owned. Of course, it would be possible to create a temporary gallery in the streets full of ephemeral art that cannot be sold.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

This way of thinking about street art also helps make sense of the experience of seeing street art in designated artspaces- it invariably feels dead and inauthentic. When a work is moved into an artspace, the one thing that changes is the very thing that made it street art; at best it looks like street art. One could experience it as street art only by imagining what its use of the street might have been. At best, then, one could imagine how the work seen in the gallery might have been street art. For example, we can see this “street-art” work in the gallery space, made by Valery Chtak.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

Furthermore, street art does not exist in a designated "artspace"- a place like a museum or gallery specially reserved for art. As a result, it is much more likely that the public will notice these works if they are visually striking- street artists are pressured to make their works pop out of the street and call on passersby and other artists to pay attention. They employ various strategies to achieve this. They make their works visually stunning , examples of extraordinary skill, highly original and imaginative, or all at once . As a result, most pieces need not be placed in a gallery, reviewed by a critic,or blessed by the artworld to be appreciated as art

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The street is composed largely of surfaces and  objects owned by the city and other people; the  artistic use of these surfaces is normally an act  of vandalism. This fact forces many street artists  to be anonymous or to use pseudonyms. Many street artists are notoriously unidentifiable and  difficult to contact. Also due to the illegality, and partially as a result of exposure to the forces of nature, street art is highly ephemeral- some of  it exists for only a couple of hours before it is buffed out, scrawled over, or naturally erased.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

As we can see, in many cases, the street is employed in the production of the art. It does not help to add that the art must be in the street for at least a certain length of time. Aside from being ad hoc, it is false. Street art spans works that are utterly ephemeral and relatively enduring.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

The question ‘What is street art?’ might seem easy to answer. We have all seen it: graffiti, scribbled names, and murals. It is just art placed on the street, where 'the street' is taken in a very broad sense to denote, roughly, any urban public space. However, this commonsensical answer cannot be right. In art fairs around the world, paintings are placed in the street, but they are not thereby street art. The notion that street art is art placed in the street is also misleading insofar as it suggests that street art is made and subsequently placed in the street.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

An Interwiew with Arthur Konstantinov about my blog

A.-Arthur, V.- Valeria (me) 1. A.- At your first post picture, there is an inscription  “follow your dreams” which crossed out with “cancelled”. Did you want to tell graffiti art is something illegal and unwelcome in a city? V.- No, I didn't mean to say that graffiti art is something illegal and unwelcome in the city. What you saw in my blog before - it is an attempt to tell the world about the art that is able to change the mentality with unusual for a Russian people method. If you carefully read my posts in this blog, you can see a whole post devoted to arguments about whether graffiti is art or vandalism. There I cover in detail aspects which are and vandalism, to real art. And in answer to your question "graffiti art is something illegal and unwelcome?"- I say no, because now graffiti up to a new level, people have ceased to perceive this art as something terrible and illegal ( especially if the issue is being discussed outside of Russia, because in our country the process of "adoption" graffiti is more painful).

2. A.- You say that graffiti has the power to change the world and to solve social problems. I would like you to clarify what kind of problems do you mean. In my opinion, graffiti art has its audience and it’s basically the youth. Most elderly people consider this to be vandalism. So the problems graffiti artists deal with must be actual for its audience. V.- For each country, will be relevant to their social problems. For Russia, this is most pronounced in problems associated with drugs, power and politics. As I wrote earlier, a street artist "tet9l" skilfully beat drug ads on walls, causing a reaction that resulted in various social activities organized by the government. As far as I know, he was supported by the government, hence I have a question for you: if the government supported this artist and saw it as a converter of our surrounding reality, we can say that his actions are referred to as vandalism? In my opinion “no”.

3. A.- What is your personal interest in text as art? Do you think it’s the most powerful tool for transforming social reality? Why? V.-You know, the art world is changing as fast as any other changes in society. Once it was believed that all art is religious, politic and so on. In my opinion the art has moved/is moving to a new stage of development, where a loud slogan written on a velvet cloth, it reminds us of the times we associate with these slogans, and is also the subject of modern art ( festival PRO-ARTE, the Museum of political history).I mean, the text becomes a new art form and there is nothing wrong. To answer your second question I would like to mention that in my opinion, the text is ONE of the most powerful tools of transformation of social reality. Two years ago at the Museum of modern art "Erarta" was made an exhibition dedicated to the interaction of text and art, was called the exhibition "Intertext". The main idea of the exhibition was that any work of art consists of a system of signs that is consistent with the language and text. For example, Roland Barthes called the linguistic message containing any statement is an image such as a photograph, motion picture or advertising poster.

4. A.- Usually, we can see graffiti in some border zones,  abandoned and industrial areas.  Do you think there is kind of “proper places” for graffiti art or it is free to be anywhere? V.- You know, it is worth to raise the question of where lies the line between "graffiti as art and graffiti as vandalism". If we're not talking about the simple inscriptions on the walls, and about art, which is some function ( in this case "social"), such graffiti-drawings/ text should be in prominent places. Even if it is super advanced and contemporary art, which is located at a remote site or in industrial areas, who will need it and who sees it? Perhaps I am idealizing their own ideas about how it should look, but I am convinced that if the government will actively work with graffiti artists, then this will be of much use, be more legitimate venues for graffiti and this, at least, will change the view of the city.

5. A.- Do you think will it ever be possible to see astonishing graffiti on the walls at Nevsky Prospect in SPb or Tverskaya Street in Moscow? Would you like it to appear in such places? V.- I would really like to see such graffiti on the walls of the Nevsky prospect or Tverskaya street, but honestly, I don't can to present a combination of the historical centre and graffiti. However, I still believe that Russia will develop on the way of freedom of speech and expression. As I wrote earlier, in Spain, dedicated space for graffiti and if thereby actualize the problems of society, then at least improve the appearance of the city. I think Russia should develop in the same way

6. A.- What do you think about works of one of the popular SPb graffiti team “Hood Graff Team”? Do they actualize the problems of society? Why do you think this team is popular and their art (such as a portrait of S. Bodrov) is legal? V.- Of those works that I have seen, I would not say that they actualize the problems of society. Unless they popularitybut Russian culture and iconic personalities associated with this culture. As far as I know, they work hard to suppress and painted several times. Most likely there were many complaints that such works painted over and eventually the government allowed the data to write graffiti. In my opinion this team is popular because it draws a landmark for the older generation figures to the younger generation (affecting all layers of society). Recently on Facebook I saw that the portraits of Pavel Durov on the face write “wasted”, in my opinion this is a clear indication that society reacts to the actions of the public, and responds quite actively. Based on the fact that these graffiti still periodically paint over, I don't think it is legal in full.

7. A.- An official city’s structures such as building developers try to use the language of graffiti in their projects (residential complex Graffiti http://www.oikumena-holding.ru/zhilaya_nedvizhimost/sanktpeterburg/zhk_v_primorskom_rajone/ ). They state “the authors proceeded from the fact that graffiti, which used to be a synonym for behavioural disorders, can and should be translated into the category of art objects that adorn the urban environment”. Do you think it could influence graffiti as art? V.- Definetly, yes! In my opinion this only leads to the development of graffiti as art.

8. A.- What do you think about commercialized graffiti? V.- I think that's fine! A person living on the territory of post-Soviet space, it is time to get used to the idea that favorite hobby has to make money. It seems to me that they are running out of time when everything is done on pure enthusiasm. Are artists not humans? 

9. A.- Speaking about graffiti as art what can you say about its features? Do these artists have unique stylewriting or smth?

V.-Сertainly, this art form has its own characteristics. The first is that budding graffiti artists have nowhere to Express themselves and there is no place to "fill the hand", which is why there are all sorts of ridiculous paintings on the walls. The main and fundamental difference between the graffiti subculture from the rest , is that its members are not simply extracted from the total cultural layer, but also transform the urban space, graffiti exists not only in social but also in the physical space. In Russia, the imposition of graffiti on the national cultural characteristics and acute economic and political situation in the country originally purchased a sharp protest forms, and then began to develop in the direction of commercialization. Despite this, it is impossible to ignore a single manifestation of the authors of the graffiti with a deep social message.

10. A.- You say your blog will be about a relationship between text and visual art (not only graffiti). Could you tell about it a bit more? What artists do you mean?

V.- In contemporary art the text is increasingly becoming a way of plastic expression, one of the media. At the same time almost each of the current practices is inseparable from the process of writing the author's text. Back in the sixties conceptualism has proclaimed the primacy of the idea over the object. To replace the object, the very idea that artists turned to the text as its material carcass. I would like to make posts in this direction and further elaborate on this kind of art.

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

When I created my blog, I wanted to write about graffiti. The first name that comes to mind is Banksy. World famous artist or group of artists (still not installed), create a provocative street drawings, which have personal, social or political message. The artist aims to actualize the problems of society. Particularly relevant works are forced to think about “technology is ruining or on the contrary save us?", "These are people cruel or is the world made us this way?".He’s the artist that’s one of the most sought after in the art world

In a world filled with corporate greed and advertising being forced down our throats consistently through ads on Facebook, to rollover ads on YouTube, it’s a never ending living advertisement our world has become. The message Banksy art conveys is that the rich and powerful have force fed the world into consumerism, all to the point that never is never enough. Most of his works are stencil spray painted within minute.

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                                                Vandalism or art?

The important question of the interaction between street art and the surrounding urban environment still remains. It’s impossible to find a universal answer, because in this respect there is a lot of mixed opinions. It is believed that there is no edge between art and vandalism as “vandalism”, whatever it was is a form of utterance and context of the utterance. There are many graffiti artists who “mark” the territory, most often it is some word. Over time graffiti artists, who don’t own glorification, but understand that graffiti can be used for social change, as art is a powerful means of influencing people. Street art transforms the urban space, giving a “second life” to dilapidated buildings. A good example is the Spanish city of Barcelona, where the authorities officially work with artists for the purpose of improvement of the city and give them a space for creative activities. Thus street art carries the transformation of the urban environment and plays the role of the social tool. For some this is a way of expression, for others - the answers to the questions.

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The project “Salt” has obvious social effect : inscriptions with phones of drugdealers are painted over and at the same time it attractes the attention of the people, as the original inscription “salt” remains written in the color, in which it was drawn previously. New inscriptions are made in a different color. That was an important author’s wordplay. In an interview, the artist said that there are two important aspects in this project: to work with a problem and with everyday life. It is obvious that the main problem is drugs, because of which thousands of people die. And the topic of everyday life is primarily concerned with inscriptions, which appear everywhere.

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As mentioned earlier, we will review the art associated with the acute social and political problems. In all of the cities there is a problem like "advertising" of drugs on the walls, written with a simple spray paint. Authorities actively deal with this problem, which is permanently painted on the wall. Many people got used to these labels ,so they do not even pay attention to it and do not think it's a problem. However, the Russian artist with "tet91" nickname reinterpreted these inscriptions on the walls and created his own ironic art objects in the project "Salt". The artist has hidden these phone numbers under the sarcastic slogans. In other projects the artist processed cracks in old houses with green paint and glued plantain to them. It is necessary to understand what is "social street art" and what is it for the world and Russia in particular?

[the-really-dark-student-blog]

The reason why I wanted to be a curator is creating projects about actual problems. I want to believe that the work I do helps other people to see other side of the life. And this blog will be dedicated to acute social issues which surround us and cause a reaction in art. At first, I wanted to create a blog only about graffiti, but then I thought I wouldn’t limit myself only with this type of art. This blog considers the relationship between text and visual art. Nowadays, text and speech are forms of communication of any society and works of art are comparable to the language and text. Worlds in context of contemporary art are the way of expression and one of the media. For those who work with art and appreciate it, the language and art are endlessly intertwined. Several decades later, text as an art object found its stride as a hallmark of the Conceptual movement, which emphasized ideas over visual forms