Graffiti Art Magazine #59 | October - November 2021
From the letter to the spirit of Street Art
EDITORIAL #59 | October – November 2021
Urban Art has come back to life. Festivals, frescoes, solo shows once again enliven the Street Art scene. But has Urban Art retained its meaning?
Spirit of Street Art, are you there?
Behind simple letters, words deposited and sharp sentences on the walls of our cities, protest, political or poetic messages are slamming into the light of day with graphics that are sometimes very advanced, sometimes downright secondary with a leitmotif: "the message above all". . In this issue, we contribute our stone to the endless debate on the articulation between content and form, and in this case between meaning and aesthetics, notably through our Dossier "La ville en parle" and the inaugural NEON exhibition in Athens, featuring lettering that increasingly shapes our urban realities in times of all-out questioning...
Let's leave Athens for London, where the public space (walls, underground passages…) is a land of conquest and artistic and political expression with multiple cultural influences and where the ephemeral reigns. To last, the frescoes become institutionalized and transform the city.
This is reminiscent of Napoleon Bonaparte. We explore the convergences between Napoleon and Street Art, through, among others, the masterful reinterpretations by Banksy and Tristan Eaton of Bonaparte crossing the Grand-Saint-Bernard by Jacques-Louis David.
Many other sources of inspiration and creative regeneration irrigate Street Art: WiseTwo draws on local traditions, Francisco Bosoletti is inspired by romanticism and the Renaissance, Swoon brings back the ghosts of his childhood in his works and turns towards new media, Peeta has fun tricking the eye and reviewing the fundamentals of geometry, and DEIH and Brusk, for their part, build original universes with their own, self-regenerating rules.
Don't forget: the 2021 edition of the Urban Contemporary Art Guide will be available from October 15. In the spotlight, 50 talents and 12 frescoes elected Mural of the Month.