Mentalgassi
Berlin-based creative group Mentalgassi is known throughout Germany for its unusual urban art projects. Even the most ordinary and ugly objects in the city become attractive when touched by the magic wand in the form of the creative power of Mentalgassi.
Well, let’s say, how can you decorate trash cans? A German creative team has come up with the idea of covering round city garbage containers with giant canvases and stickers depicting people’s faces! I think it’s creepy. Every time you walk down the street, it seems that the gaze of a giant is watching you, as if asking if you are keeping order, if you have littered? It is worth noting that it is unlikely that anyone will want to scatter garbage if all your movements are tracked like that. There is something educational in this creative idea. On the other hand, it is still more interesting to look at the interesting design of garbage cans than just at an ordinary container of an unmemorable color.
The Berlin-based art group puts “faces” on not only garbage containers, but also phone booths, mailboxes, water tanks and composters. It’s fun to receive your ticket from the mouth of a stranger or an attractive girl. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing similar art on our streets.
“City Dawn” in Kazakhstan
An exhibition of urban art, Urban Dawn, is taking place in Almaty.
The exhibition “City Dawn” presents works by contemporary artists – El Mac, James Reck, Morten Andersen, Alexey Kuznetsov, Misha Most and others. The names of many participants are well known all over the world among experts and connoisseurs of urban art.
On the territory of the VILLA Boutiques & Restaurants complex, next to the building in the Italian architectural style, there are Latin letters with the hashtag in front of them – #urbandawn. This is the name of the exhibition of urban art that opened here. Translated into Russian – “City Dawn”. As noted in the exhibition catalogue, this name symbolizes both the variety of colors of Almaty autumn and the flourishing of the nation and the city – in the political and social sense.
The exhibition “Urban Dawn” is organized by the international project curator19.90, which organizes exhibitions and promotes young artists and curators around the world. As noted in the exhibition catalogue, this is the largest exhibition of urban art in Central Asia. Almaty was chosen as the venue because it is a city of high culture, as Kazakhstanis are aware of new trends in modern reality and love everything interesting and relevant. Pictured is Rasmus Aius Fischer (left), chief curator of the exhibition, art consultant and chief curator of the Wolfsen exhibition in Denmark, as well as curator19.90 representative Victoria Latysheva.
The exhibition “City Dawn” presents works by 19 authors from all continents – from the USA, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Brazil, Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Lebanon. The post-Soviet space is represented by artists from Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan. Among the exhibitors there are both young and not yet very well-known artists, as well as internationally famous artists (in particular, El Mac from Los Angeles).
From left to right: Danish artists Morten Andersen and Rune Christensen. Among the foreign artists who came to the exhibition “City Dawn” in Almaty were Beys23 from Germany and Kamii Adra from France.
The work of Danish artist Morten Andersen – Interlinked Lacks. He created his own special writing style. The catalog for the Urban Dawn exhibition says: “Morten uses images of cut cubes in layered colors, superimposed on gentle air currents that crackle and have a chiaroscuro effect.”
Portrait by the German artist Hendrik Beikirch. He paints portraits mostly with black spray on white canvas.
Among the Kazakh authors represented on Urban Dawn is the creative group Repas, the country’s leading street art team. One of their most famous recent graffiti is the Batyr wall in Almaty (on the wall of a residential building in the courtyard next to the Arbat). There are five people in the team. Dmitry was present at the exhibition. His graffiti was projected onto the screen in the form of a video collage.
A visitor to the “City Dawn” exhibition takes a selfie in front of one of the works of Misha Most, a pioneer and legend of Russian street art. His works are kept in a number of famous galleries (including the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow). But at the same time he remains a practicing supporter of illegal graffiti and makes nightly forays with an aerosol helmet, as at the dawn of his work.
The exhibition “Urban Dawn” is located in the gallery, which is located in the basement. Urban art, or street art (in English street-art), covers everything that could be seen on the street – graffiti, stencil graffiti, video projections, sticker art, posters, flash mobs, installations and more. It is also called public art, and it is aimed at the masses.
Mural by Berlin artist Beis23 at the Urban dawn exhibition, painted using spray paint.
Darion Shabash (pseudonym), a young street art artist from Almaty. Urban Dawn has two of her paintings on display (although there is no mention of her in the exhibition catalogue). She told an RFE/RL reporter that these are self-portraits created for this exhibition, which express emotions at the time they were painted. She has been working in this direction of art for three years or more for herself.
Visitors to the Urban Dawn exhibition were accompanied by rhythmic music. Two girls wearing masks stood behind the DJ console. One is called Nastya Pilepchuk, the second is Dasha Utochka. This is one of the most popular Russian DJ duos, Maiden Obey. The girls came from Moscow.
A scene from the play “Hotel” based on the play by Max Beckmann was shown to visitors of the Urban Dawn exhibition by actors from the Republican German Drama Theater. Max Beckmann was a famous artist, and his play contains a satirical scene in which the characters discuss modern painting, but in the context of the 1920s. The actors acted out this scene.