Blu (street artist)

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Blu (* early 1980s in Senigallia ) is the stage name of an Italian graffiti , street art and video artist who hides his identity. It is known that he lives in Bologna . The Goethe-Institut Madrid describes Blu as one of the internationally most important and critical street artists of muralism .

Blu has been practicing urban art since the mid-1990s. Blu's works can be found in several European countries, in the West Bank and in North, Central and South America. On a trip to America in 2006, the director Lorenzo Fonda shot the documentary MEGUNICA , a mixture of an artist portrait and a road movie about Blus' work. In Germany, Blu is best known for the extensive Cuvry graffiti in Berlin-Kreuzberg , which was blackened in 2014 with his consent. In 2006 he took part in the Outsides project in Wuppertal , a street art project sponsored by Red Bull . In Austria he was represented by painting a granary in the Albern harbor in Vienna . His works include numerous digital animations and videos which, among other things, document the creation of the murals as a making-of . The animation video Muto (“silent”), which Blu recorded during a stay in Buenos Aires in 2007/2008, was awarded several prizes. On his homepage , written as a sketch note book and part of his art, Blu regularly publishes parts of his sketchbooks in the manner of a diary and gives insights into the works and processes of his working method.

His socially critical pictures, often characterized as epically expansive, were presented at various exhibitions, including 2009 Urban Art - works from the Reinking Collection in Bremen's Weserburg Museum of Modern Art . A joint work by Blus with the Brazilian brothers Os Gêmeos as part of the Lisbon Crono project in 2010, the Guardian voted among the ten best street art works worldwide.

A businessman, crowned with the emblems of international oil companies, holds the earth in his hand and sucks it out with a straw. Blus share in the joint work with the Os Gêmeos brothers , Lisbon 2010. According to the Guardian, one of the ten best street art works worldwide.

Artistic career

Apart from his birthplace Senigallia and his residence Bologna, little is known about the life of Blu. According to the ArtBooom Festival in Krakow and as he himself stated in an interview, he was born in the early 1980s. In 2013 and 2014 he lived and worked in an occupied former military building in Rome, which he decorated with his largest mural to date over a two-year period. Otherwise, Blu is deliberately covered with regard to his biography / person and wants to express himself exclusively through his art. On the occasion of the Urban Art exhibition in 2009, the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art was only able to report in the volume accompanying Blus's biography: “Antibiographical note: Blu is the pseudonym of an Italian artist. If only he could, he would give up his name. His life is irrelevant. "

Graffiti and murals

Early work by Blus from 2001 on the bridge of Via Stalingrado in Bologna

Blu began his artistic career in the mid-1990s at the age of 15 in the university city of Bologna. In an interview he said that there was a great graffiti boom in Italy at the time, from which he was inspired. His first work consisted of graffiti, which he sprayed in the old town and the suburbs of Bologna with spray cans , the typical tool of the graffiti culture. From 2001 he turned to large-scale murals, applying the facade paints with rollers that were mounted on telescopic sticks. In these years, Blu has moved away from the graffiti style both technically and in terms of content. A clear contouring and the quick, spontaneous application of the paint are elements that are still reminiscent of Blus graffiti. The large format, the predominance of the image part and the socially critical statements, on the other hand, are typical characteristics of street art. Blu said in an interview as follows: “[...] taking what I had learned from graffiti writing, I have tried to move backwards , removing all the parts that I did not need. ”Sarcastic and dramatic, surreal figures that were reminiscent of comics and arcade games appeared on the walls of Bologna's houses, usually painted in white. The achromatic color White preferred Blu for his works to date (as of 2015), because bright murals are best visible in the dark. In 2004, the first art galleries became aware of Blus' visual language and style and invited him to exhibitions. As he continued to prefer to work in secret and express himself with pictures rather than words, he seldom accepted the invitations.

Around the same time, Blu began an intensive collaboration with artists such as Dem, Sweza, Run and above all Ericailcane , with whom he complemented himself artistically. While Blu was creating his characteristic human figures, Ericailcane painted his typical animals, for example at the Nuart Festival in Stavanger 2010 ( see below ). From 2005 onwards, Blu made extensive trips, especially to America and Europe. The works on his often long stays abroad were created partly in collaboration with internationally renowned street artists, including Banksy , Os Gêmeos and JR . At the latest when he dealt with the Sandinista Revolution on the occasion of his work Hombre Banano in Managua in 2005 , his pictures gained clearly socially critical content. The banana man addressed the protests of workers on Nicaragua's banana plantations . Blus painting technique and image statements since that time are compared with the muralism , especially with the Mexican and South American muralism.

MEGUNICA -Filmprojekt

The end of 2006 as part of the Blu traveled MEGUNICA -Filmprojekts South and Central America . MEGUNICA is a documentary film made by the Italian director Lorenzo Fonda in 2008. The film title MEGUNICA is an acronym from the first letters of the countries visited Mexico , Guatemala , Nicaragua , Costa Rica and Argentina . In a mixture of artist portrait and road movie , the film follows Blus Reise and shows him at work and during his encounters. The aim of the project was to research and document whether and to what extent the different environments and social conditions of the countries he visited influence Blus' creative processes and are reflected in his wall paintings , drawings and animations via a changed perception . Blu only agreed to the project on the condition that his face was not shown once. The 80-minute film was awarded several prizes.

Animations, videos and sketch note books

The logo blus

In addition to his actual medium, wall painting, Blus' art also includes numerous videos and the sketch note book on his website. Blu began digital animation in 2001 at the latest. Of the ten animated films that Blu produced up to 2013, some are collaborations with other visual artists and musicians. The animation COMBO was created, for example, at the Fame Festival 2009 in Grottaglie, Italy, in collaboration with David Ellis, who lives in New York. Five of these films are related to the wall-painted animations. In addition, fourteen making-of videos (up to 2013) document the processes in which his murals were created. The animation video Muto (“Silence”), which Blu recorded during his stay in Buenos Aires in 2007/2008, was awarded several prizes. Since 2000, Blu has been documenting his animations and wall paintings on his website, the Sketch Note Book, which he regularly supplements in the form of a diary. Here he also publishes parts of his sketchbooks in digitized form and thus gives insights into various processes of his way of working. Some of Blus' works have been screen-printed and on a comprehensive DVD. The Blu picture collection is available in book form . 2004–2007 , which contains no text other than acknowledgments.

Blus animation videos have developed in terms of content and technology over time. His first animation videos were made on paper, while outdoor walls form the backdrop for later videos such as Muto and Big Bang Big Boom . He often integrates objects that he finds on the street, like in Big Bang Big Boom . Blu makes the development clear by calling his videos "wall-painted animations". In the "wall-painted animations" he takes up the architecture of the city, its surroundings and landscapes and integrates them into his wall paintings. His later animation videos also often have a recognizable storyline, such as Big Bang Big Boom Blus' interpretation of evolution .

Blu puts its videos and animations under free licenses on YouTube or Vimeo . The works can thus be used and distributed free of charge as free content . In contrast to other urban art artists, who would meanwhile "mercilessly flood" the art market with prints and canvases, the art collector Rik Reinking stated in an interview with Alain Bieber about Blu in 2009 :

“Artists like Blu don't make commercial stories at all. If you're lucky, he'll sell you a drawing from his sketchbook, which is really very expensive. But that's the only thing you get with him. And that's a good thing, and that's consistent. He lives for the cause. "

Reception and social criticism in the Blus work

With regard to the animated film Muto in particular, the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art in 2007 recalled Blus' way of working and the sensual expressiveness of his drawings of works by William Kentridge and Robin Rhode . However, he himself speaks of a closeness to Gordon Matta-Clark , whose interventionist and deconstructivist approach to architecture and sculpture he tries to implement in his way of working. The British art author Tristan Manco attested the murals Blus, also in 2007, a certain coincidence: "[...] sometimes with a visual pun or message in mind, but often his images take on a life their own." ("[...] sometimes with a visual play on words or a message in mind, but his images often develop a life of their own. ”) In 2013, Christoph Zang saw Blus' works in a“ morbid and disturbing way thought out and socially critically charged ”, which fluctuated between subversion and aleatoric a great deal of interpretation. and room for association, but often contained subtle / latent and unambiguous messages that were critical of society.

Karin Cruciata already saw a clear political position in the fact that Blu placed his pictures around 2005, primarily at numerous, including occupied autonomous cultural centers (Centri Sociali Autogestiti) such as the Crash ( see below ) in Bologna. The Managua image (Hombre Banano) from 2005 and the Lisbon image from 2010 should be interpreted as sharp artistic criticism of capitalism . In 2010, Blu provoked an art riot in Los Angeles with a clear anti-militarist statement. In December 2010, he was invited in advance of the exhibition Art in the Streets in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles painting the wall of a museum building (MOCA). His mural with the coffins of fallen US soldiers, draped with dollar bills instead of US flags , was whitewashed before completion at the instigation of the museum director Jeffrey Deitch. Blu declined the offer to create a replacement image. Due to the censorship and the encroachment on artistic freedom , artist colleagues produced Blus posters depicting director Deitch as ayatollah with a paint roller in his hand.

The following overview of his works gives more precise insights into the artist's sometimes subtle, sometimes clear, socially critical messages.

Works by location (selection)

As far as the murals are labeled with names, they are mostly titles that the art scene added to the pictures later. In order not to dictate the scope for interpretation and thus to limit it from the outset, Blu usually does not name his murals.

Northern, Central and Western Europe

Germany

Berlin: Cuvry Graffiti (2007/2008)
The two Cuvry graffiti , 2007/2008

In the summer of 2007 Blu took part in the Planet Process , an exhibition project on street art by the Berlin art association Artitude. As part of the project, the first mural of the Cuvry graffiti was created, followed by the second painting in 2008, a joint work with the French street artist JR . The two large-scale facade paintings on the so-called Cuvrybrache in Berlin-Kreuzberg were among the most famous street art works in Berlin. In December 2014, in agreement with Blu, the pictures were painted over with black paint less as a protest against the planned development of the site by a new investor than as a sign against urban development policy and Berlin's handling of art. One picture dealt with the division of Germany - the Berlin Wall ran a few meters away on the banks of the Spree . It showed two masked figures, one upside down. Both reached out and tore the masks off each other's heads. With the fingers of their free hands, the figures formed a W and an E - the US symbols for Eastside and Westside, for East and West. The second picture showed the headless torso of a man who wore a gold watch on each wrist. The watches were designed as handcuffs and connected with a gold chain. The man straightened his tie with his tied hands.

Berlin: Leviathan, also: Pink Man, Backjump Mural (2007)
Leviathan, 2007

In parallel to the Planet Prozess exhibition project , Blu was represented at the third Berlin Backjumps Festival (June to August 2007). As part of the art project, the French street artist Victor Ash painted the mural Astronaut Cosmonaut , which is considered a masterpiece of graffiti art. Blus contribution to the festival is at the southwest end of the Oberbaumbrücke at the end of Falckensteinstraße at Club Magnet (2007: Club 103). The large-scale mural is mostly referred to as an allegory of the mythological Leviathan figure as Leviathan, occasionally also as Pink Man or, after the festival, simply as Blus Backjump Mural . On a gray-colored facade, the picture shows the upper body of a giant, which - as is only revealed up close - is made up of hundreds of small, naked and pink-colored people clutching each other. With white-colored eyes and wide-open mouth, the giant looks at a small human sitting on one finger of his hand and, next to the eyes, is represented as the only picture element in contrast to the amorphous pink-colored crowd in white. The giant threatens to devour the white human being and inflict it on the pink figures that shape him.

Berlin: Global Warming / Hourglass (2010)

In 2010, the Berlin art association Artitude Blu won for the fifth edition of the art project Super Reactive Subjects, for which Blu made two murals. A work on the topic of global warming with the title Global Warming was created like the Leviathan in Falckensteinstrasse 47. Blu used a windowless intermediate facade of the multi-storey silo as a canvas for an hourglass . The upper glass flask was half filled with water, in which an iceberg dissolved. The water dripped onto a city in the lower flask, which was already partially submerged in the water. The mural was later painted over by the Innerfields creative pool in favor of the announcement of a Hollywood film. In the second picture, Blu resurrected the Berlin Wall in Köpenicker Strasse in the form of 100 euro bills.

Cologne: Medusa (2011)
Motel One Cologne-Mediapark-4494.jpg
Transience of street art: walled up Medusa in Cologne 2015
House Hansaring 33 - wall painting-9724.jpg
Head of Medusa, 2011


In summer 2011, Blu created the mural Medusa for the CityLeaks Festival in Cologne . It is located in Neustadt-Nord at the listed building Hansaring 33 / corner of Am Kümpchenshof . An arm extends down from the gable and holds the head of the bared Medusa in its hand . Blu alienates the snake hair of Medusa in hoses, at the ends of which mostly fuel nozzles hang. The pump nozzles bear the emblems of the most famous oil companies , including Shell and BP . The last drops of petrol seep from some open hose ends. If the hero Perseus beheaded Medusa in Greek mythology, the current fuel oligopoly is symbolically “decapitated” by a modern hero. The mural was completely covered or bricked up in 2013 when a new hotel (Motel One) was built on the fallow land in front of it.

Wuppertal: Outsides project, corporate streetart attack (2006)

In August 2006, around twenty street artists from all over the world, including Blu, JR and Os Gêmeos & Nina , met in the Villa Herberts in Wuppertal as part of the Outsides project sponsored by Red Bull . The aim of the street art project was to place works of art in the urban area and present them to an astonished Wuppertal population. Blu brought six thousand textless brochures with his drawings to the one-week “corporate street art attack”, which he put in cardboard boxes at bus stops and street corners to take away. He also provided five facades with murals, four of which thematized the split personality of Gollum / Sméagol , one of the main characters in Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings . Some of the artists' works have been characterized as macabre and morbid and led to heated discussions in Wuppertal about what art is and how far it can penetrate public space .

England, London (2007, 2008)

Blu visited London for the first time in 2007 . In Camden Town, the central part of the borough of Camden , and in the area of ​​Willow Street in Shoreditch , he left behind various graffiti and small pictures. He installed a mural on the former headquarters of the Pictures on Walls web art gallery . In the summer of 2007 he was represented with Ericailcane at the Super Fluo exhibition at the Lazarides Gallery . The exhibition in Soho was dedicated exclusively to the two Italian artists and presented drawings from their work.

In 2008, Blu, together with JR , Os Gêmeos , Nunca (like Os Gêmeos from Sao Paulo), Sixeart (Barcelona) and the New York artist collective Faile, accepted an invitation from Tate Modern on the occasion of the first major street art exhibition in a public London Museum painting the main entrance facade of the museum. The artists were given areas of 15 × 12 meters on the facade of the river facing the Thames . The exhibition was sponsored by the Nissan Qashqai and took place from May 23 to August 25, 2008. Blus's contribution showed a walk-in head. The visible face with one eye, the edge of the nose and part of the mouth as well as the framing of the entire head and shoulder was carried out over a large area in white color with black edges. Twelve floors of a house with around forty individual rooms were set into the accessible, open head section, in which different scenarios of a residential building and / or office building were depicted in small pieces. For example, a school class listened to their teacher, discussions took place in a conference room, and water was let into a bathroom. These pictures were held in orange and stood out against the white face frame.

Norway, Stavanger: Nuart / Oil Disaster (2010)

In Stavanger , home to the Norwegian Oil Museum and numerous international oil companies, Blu and Ericailcane took on the BP oil spill in spring 2010 and the endangered wildlife. On the occasion of the Nuart Festival 2010 they depicted the blue sea on the storage tower of an old factory in the lower area, in which oil-smeared fish and birds gasp and look up accusingly at Blus' figure. The skeletonized figure, made up of pieces of yellow pipeline, holds a drinking cup made from a barrel and filled with oil. On the opposite side of the facade, Ericailcane floats a red oil barrel in the water, on which a gray-white seal is balancing a smaller, yellow oil barrel on the tip of its nose.

Austria, Vienna: Granary (2010)

Blus Wiener mural, 2010

After the " annexation of Austria " to the German Reich in 1938, Nazi forced laborers built the basin of the Albern harbor and five granaries between 1939 and 1942 in the Simmering district of Vienna . As a logistical hub of a future geopolitical and biopolitical order, grain was to be transported from the annexed areas of Eastern and Southeastern Europe to the core areas of the empire via the new Danube port . The widely visible landmarks are considered to be monumental, historical documents of Nazi rule and building activity in the Vienna area.

Blu took up the historical background and in September 2010 painted one of the storage facades as part of the Black River Festival almost over the entire storage height in black, white and yellow. The commissioned work showed the head and shoulder of a man with two ribbons with a lock hanging from his eye sockets . The lock covered the entire mouth area and was executed in a bright yellow color in contrast to the white face. In one hand the figure held a key, also yellow. It remained undecided whether it was approaching the padlock or moving away from it. The memorial work was destroyed in the course of a facade renovation in autumn 2013.

“Comparable to the flak tower redesigned by Lawrence Weiner in 1991 in Esterházypark , this manifest ' brutality in stone ' ( Alexander Kluge ) is to be given its artistic reflection. The project is therefore to be seen as an act of memory politics, which contributes to anchoring the Albern Hafen in the culture of remembrance of the country and possibly initiates the overdue, comprehensive historical appraisal of its building history and the fate of its involuntary builders. "

- Roman Tschiedl / KÖR - Art in Public Space, Vienna, 2010.

Poland

Wroclaw: Statue of Enslavement, The Miser (2008)
The Miser, 2008
Statue of Enslavement, 2008
Never follow, 2011

In 2008, Blu participated in the Breakin 'the Wall exhibition in Wroclaw with two murals as part of the urban art project Out of Sth . The Polish art historian Monika Kędziora described the works as Statua zniewolenia ("Statue of Enslavement") and Skąpiec ("The Miser").

The statue of enslavement on the island of Wyspa Słodowa in the Oder shows a figure with a dress made of padlocks . On her head she wears a mixture of a spiky crown and a crown of thorns . As an expression of her complete submission, the figure is about to swallow the key that could free her from her dress and suffering.

The curmudgeon is located on the side facade of an apartment block at Ulica Wojciecha Cybulskiego 15 in the center of Wroclaw. The figure protrudes transversely with head and arms into the facade, Blu used two small windows to depict the eyes. Above her head she holds a bag from which green 100-euro bills rain onto the street.

Danzig: Morphing (2009)

In May 2009 Blu accepted an invitation to the international graffiti festival Grafffest in Gdansk . He created the animated film Morphing on the wall of an abandoned warehouse in Gdansk's industrial harbor, which traces the history of the place with its symbols since the 1930s in changing sequences. The animation spans the National Socialist era, membership of the Eastern Bloc and the Solidarność trade union , which was founded at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk in the summer of 1980 , and the transformation of the Gdansk shipyard into a joint stock company at the beginning of the 1990s up to Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. Blu represented these epochs by placing the National Socialist swastika , hammer and sickle , the "S" from the Solidarność logo, the € and the $ symbol (with two vertical lines) and let the characters flow into one another several times in the animation.

Krakau: Never follow, also: Ding Dong Dumb (2011)

Blu provoked a controversy in the strict Catholic city of Krakow with an image critical of the church . The mural on the corner of Ulica Józefińska 3 / Ulica Piwna, which belonged to the Jewish ghetto in Krakow in the Podgórze district , shows a bell in the Catholic church colors yellow / white, decorated with the coat of arms of the Vatican or Holy See . A huge hand points the bell like a megaphone at a crowd represented in white. The people look up at the funnel and the clapper with open mouths and tense expressions , a person in the foreground has the inscription "Never Follow" on his back. Blu created the picture, known as Never Follow or Ding Dong Dumb , in May 2011 at the Krakow ArtBoom Festival.

Warsaw: War Mural (2010)

On the trip to the Nuart Festival in Stavanger , Norway , Blu made a stop in Warsaw in 2010 . In the Aleja Jana Pawła II, No. 14, in the center of the city, he painted the street front of a six-story abandoned residential building with the so-called War Mural . Over the entire wall he distributed fighting soldiers in green-brown camouflage uniforms with steel helmets and rifles, some at the ready . The soldiers wear patches with two $ symbols on their sleeves, and an alien emblem on their helmets, made up of € and a hammer and sickle .

Warsaw; War Mural, 2010
Gaza Strip, 2008

Czech Republic, Prague: Gaza Strip, also: Möbius Strip (2008)

One year after his watchtower painting in Bethlehem , Blu addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict again. In 2008, near the Prague National Theater , at Národní třída  13 in Prague's New Town , he painted the Gaza Strip on a house wall , symbolizing the seemingly endless process of destruction and reconstruction in the Gaza Strip . The picture shows tanks and bulldozers in alternating order in the Möbius loop . The endless ribbon, named after the Leipzig mathematician and astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius , gave the work the second name Möbius Strip .

The picture was taken in August / September 2008 as part of the Prague Names Festival (Names-Festu), to which around fifty international street artists were invited. Screen prints of the Gaza Strip, which Blu had made in a signed and numbered edition of 100, are on sale in art dealers for £ 225  each (as of March 2015).

South and Southeast Europe

Italy

Overview
Mural at the entrance of COX 18, Milan 2009

From his early, still illegal graffiti to more recent commissioned works, most of his works can be found in Blu's home country. This includes mainly works in his place of residence, Bologna, and also in Ancona , Comacchio , Campobasso , Florence , Grosseto , Grottaglie , Imola , Milan , Messina in Sicily , Modena , Turin , Rome , Rovereto , Sassari in Sardinia , Verona , Pesaro , Pisa and Prato . In Comacchio, Blu took part in the Spinafestival (art, theater and music festival) in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and in 2008 and 2009 in Grottaglie in the “Fame Festival” (street art festival). He was represented several times at the street art festival Icone in Modena. At the Pop Up 2008 festival in Ancona, together with Ericailcane, he painted a huge silo in the harbor with a bottle in which a man in a diving suit and helmet kneels and holds his hands together in prayer, alienated to crab claws. In 2008 he painted the facade of the Art Museum Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (PAC) in Via Palestro 14 in Milan . Also in Milan, murals followed in 2008 and 2009 on the Bicocca train station and the old building of the Milano Lambrate train station .

Blu left numerous pictures to the Centri Sociali Autogestiti (o CSA). The self-administered cultural centers, which are considered the cradle of Italian hip-hop , roughly correspond to the autonomous centers in Germany. Blus works can be found in Bologna at the XM24, TPO, Livello 57 and Crash, in Rome at the Forte Prenestino (CSOA = CSA Occupato ) and Collatino, in Pisa at the Cantiere San Bernardo and in Milan at the Leoncavallo and at the Cox 18. Am Cox 18 embellished Blu 2009, for example, an elongated wall and the entrance front of the CSA with a helmeted crowd, whose helmets are connected crosswise.

Bologna: Crash (2005)

One of the best-known and most exemplary works in Italy is Blus' joint work with Ericailcane from 2005 on the crash in Via Avesella in Bolognese. The crash, located in the then autonomous zone of Bologna (Bologna Autonomous Zone, BAZ for short), was one of the most radical Centri Sociali Autogestiti with its rigid criticism of capitalism and consumerism . The artists provided two facades of the first crash seat occupied at the time with figures who, according to Karin Cruciata, express their attachment to the squatters' goals, to enforce the common right to public space in the sense of the movement Reclaim the Streets and the capitalist Fight globalization . Even the technique of Campitura (painting with only one color) of applying the figures in light white color to the dirty, crumbling building facade, points to a miserable state of the crumbling public space. The still existing (as of 2014), frightening and disturbing figures are suitable, even after the eviction of the cultural center in August 2007 by Carabinieri and police , to initiate debates in an ironic manner about the failings of society.

Messina: Teatro Pinelli Occupato (Casa del Portuale) (2013)

In the Sicilian port city of Messina, Blu created a mural in 2013 that extends over the entire, elongated wall of a former port authority building, the Casa del Portuale. At the time the work was made, the house was occupied by the artists of the Teatro Pinelli (vacated in January 2014). The mural, in shades of blue, picks up on the city's history in numerous alienating details. It shows, for example: surreal ships on which entire cities are located; Swordfish impaling sunken objects, including a church cross and several cars; sinking people in agony.

Since the gift from the internationally renowned artist Blu contributed to the beautification of the city and represented a significant example of successful urban renewal , the City Council for Culture and Identity (L'assessore alla cultura e alle identità) advocated public recognition and promotion of the old building as a cultural asset. In December 2014, Blus's work was vandalized by being painted over and partially destroyed.

Mural on the former barracks, completed in autumn 2014 after two years of work
Rome: Via del Porto Fluviale, ex caserma dell'Aeronautica militare occupata (2014)

In 2013 and 2014, Blu lived most of the time in the warehouse of a former barracks of the Italian Air Force in Via del Porto Fluviale in Rome (ex caserma dell'Aeronautica militare occupata). The building, built in 1910, has been occupied by around 450 activists from the Coordinamento cittadino lotta per la casa since 2003 . In about two years of work, Blu painted the facade of the huge building with his largest mural to date. The complex mural shows a series of huge faces, which are superimposed on two or three levels and partly nested in one another. Blu used the arched and rectangular windows to represent the eyes. Unlike most of his previous murals, he used almost the entire color palette. Contoured lines and the gradient create the illusion of rich texture and depth, inspired by the trompe l'oeil style . The project was carried out without official approval and was self-financed by the residents of the house without any institutional support.

Portugal, Lisbon: Projecto Crono (2010)

The complete works of Blu and Os Gêmeos in Lisbon, 2010. The giant green crocodile on the facade but one is the work of Ericailcane.

The joint work Blus with the Brazilian brothers Os Gêmeos - voted one of the ten best street art works worldwide by the Guardian - was created in 2010 as part of the Crono Project. Local and international artists, who were divided into four action groups according to the seasons, took part in the Lisbon project for the creative appropriation of public space. The work by Blu and Os Gêmeos is located in an uninhabited, formerly representative corner building on Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo in the center of the city, near the Picoas underground station .

The work consists of two murals that occupy the two street-side corner facades of the building and complement each other in the rounded corner of the facade. Blus picture shows in black and white basic colors a businessman in a suit and with a red tie. The figure wears a yellow crown, the rear teeth of which are formed by three dormer windows . The emblems of international oil companies such as Esso , Shell or BP are incorporated into the crown as a band . In the hand of the outstretched arm, the man holds the globe , which he sucks out with a straw. The hand that holds the earth merges into the rounded corner of the facade. As a counterpoint, Os Gêmeos placed a yellow-colored hand of the same size over the white-colored hand of Blus in the corner, which clasped a small businessman in a crucified position like a doll. This hand belongs to a yellow-skinned young urban guerrilla who is dressed in a green jacket on the adjacent facade and masked with a red-patterned scarf. The warrior holds a projectile in his hand and aims at the doll man with the kind of band ring (Indonesian slingshot). The belt of the spin run as ropes to the highly stretched hands of the puppet's, so the man similar to the puppet of a puppet appears suspended on strings.

Serbia, Belgrade: Summer Festival (BELEF) (2009)

In the city district of Stari Grad , the historical center of Belgrade , Blu created a symbol for the all-devouring Moloch city in Pop Lukina No. 6 on the occasion of the Belgrade Summer Festival (BELEF - Beogradski letnji festival ) . Blu used two windowless, protruding side facades of a residential building for the mural. He painted the larger facade in dreary black and white with a man in the suggested suit. The head is only half executed and consists mainly of a huge, wide-open mouth, the teeth of which are formed from multi-storey residential buildings. Behind the semicircle of the (tooth) city, the tongue forms a barren, treeless landscape. The hand pushes the last tree from the neighboring wall towards the devouring city, which is depicted in a contrasting bright yellow color with a pronounced crown .

Spain

Barcelona: The Influencers, Money Shark (2009); Saragossa: Minotaur (2006)
Madrid, 2010

In February 2009, Blu took part in the festival The Influencers in Barcelona , which has been uniting culture jamming , new art movements and communication technologies since 2004 . At the festival he presented his work in several animated films. In the El Carmel district of the Horta-Guinardó district , he painted a wall bordering the street (cruce de caminos del barrio de El Carmel) with a shark whose scales consist of green 100-euro bills - a pictorial implementation of the term "money shark" (English: "Money shark"). The work on the mural was recorded as a making-of video, in which passers-by accompany the creation process with comments.

In Zaragoza in 2006, Blu criticized the bullfight by decorating a house facade with a huge, kneeling Minotaur , a figure in Greek mythology with a human body and a bull's head. In the hand of the Minotaur wriggles a torero who has killed a bull with a lance or Espada. The bull lies at the bottom of the picture and is shown in red and brown, while the picture is otherwise in black and white. The work was created on the occasion of the second urban art festival Asalto ( Segundo Asalto, 2006), on which Blu made two smaller murals and a joint work with the Spanish street artist San.

Madrid: three murals (2010/2012)

During stays in Madrid in 2010 and 2012, Blu left behind three major works. A mural in the Madrid Rio district shows six men running in a circle with expressionless faces and pulling their purses out of their back pockets. Since they run in circles, the stolen money stays in their circle. The work on a block of flats on Calle Eugenio Caxes, 1, is interpreted as Blu's criticism of a corrupt financial system . It was created in 2010 as part of Medianeras de Madrid, the first project by the Oficina de Gestión de Muros (Walls Management Office, WMO). Since 2010, the office has endeavored in negotiations with authorities and homeowners to win empty and legally paintable wall surfaces for Urbanart and to bring well-known artists to Madrid to design them. The second work, also from 2010, is located in Calle del Doctor Fourquet, 24, in the Lavapiés district on a facade of the Ésta es una plaza (“This is a square”), a space that has been self-managed since 2008 for living neighborhoods . The mural, which is unusually colorful for Blus' work, shows in a blue-framed coat of arms a green crowned tree with red fruits, against which a black bear leans and looks up at the fruits. On the other side, a man is preparing to cut the tree with a chainsaw.

Blu painted the third picture from 2012 on an interior wall of El Campo de Cebada, a self-managed action space on Plaza Cebada in the city center in the remains of the demolished, former sports center of La Latina. On a long wall, Blu depicted a freight train approaching an abyss where the rails suddenly end. The freight cars consist of cars, tanks and lorries that are loaded with huge amounts of civilization waste such as televisions, washing machines, furniture and beverage cans. The tender is completely filled with banknotes and so overloaded that some notes fly away in the wind. The steam locomotive is shown as a power station with chimneys, roof and windows, the fire door extends over several floors. The stoker wears a tie and shovels the bills from the tender onto the grate . The only splash of color in the otherwise black and white work is the glowing red rust and the green bills.

Linares (2008), Valencia (2011), Ordes (2012)

For the Certamen de Graffiti de Andalucía in Linares in 2008, Blu painted half a head over a corner facade that ends with the nose at the lower edge of the house. The head is made up of numerous small heads, each of which is connected by three. It is also very likely that a mural on a storage building from Linares 2008 shows an egg bursting from which people with snake heads fall. The egg, otherwise black and white, has a small black and yellow, slightly alienated radiation warning sign (in the old version with three equilateral triangles).

For the Arquitecturas colectivas festival in Valencia in 2011, Blu contributed a mural with a reclining head to the participatory urban space project El Solar Corona , which devours the corner facade of the house - shown as a column with windows. At Valencia's Plaza del Tossal, he left a face with a lush beard made of yellow snakes. The bearded man holds two gravestones with carved euro and dollar signs in his hands. In 2012 Blu and Ericailcane took part in the urban art festival DesOrdes Creativas in Ordes (Órdenes) in the Galician comarca Ordes . Blu painted the side facade of a residential building with a stand mixer that was about half full , around which hundreds of humanized fruit, vegetable and mushroom figures with cheerful expressions gathered. The brightly colored figures happily climb a ladder to plunge into the red juice from above. The web magazine Street Art News understood the work as a plea from Blus - who is a vegetarian himself - for vegetarianism .

  • Valencia 2011.

  • Valencia 2011. The adjoining car mural is by the Spanish artist Escif.

  • Ordes 2012.

  • Ordes 2012. Detail.

  • Ordes 2012. Detail.

Melilla: Fortress EU (2012)

In the Spanish exclave of Melilla , located on the North African coast on the border with Morocco and sealed off with border systems up to six meters high, Blu presented the EU as a fortress against the flow of refugees in 2012 by alienating the European flag . In true-to-original azure blue , he threw the flag on the wall of a warehouse. He depicted the twelve yellow stars, also in yellow, as the tips / spikes of a barbed wire . The barbed wire connects the spikes / stars to form a closed circle. While the EU circle remains empty, crowds of people push against the fortified space from outside. Blu made a statement about this work:

“Have you have wondered how Europe looks like from the outside? It looks like a huge electrified triple fence decorated with barbed wire. That is how it looks like in Melilla, a Spanish colony in Africa. "

“Are you wondering what Europe looks like from the outside? It looks like a huge triple electric fence, decorated with barbed wire. This is how it looks in Melilla, a Spanish colony in Africa. "

- Blu, 2012.

Middle East, West Bank, Bethlehem (2007)

Blus watchtower figure, 2007. A joint Banksy and Blu model sold for £ 12,500 in 2011  .
Banksy's dove of peace with crosshairs

In December 2007 Blu took part in the exhibition Santa's Ghetto Bethlehem 2007 . Santa's Ghetto is a pop-up shop format that was developed as a sales format by Banksy and other urbanart artists in 2002 . The annual exhibitions at secret locations aim at branding with their surprise effect in the form of guerrilla marketing . In addition to Blu and Banksy, international artists such as Ericailcane , Mark Jenkins , Sam3, Ron English, Swoon and the Faile collective were involved in Bethlehem. The artists wanted to transform part of the Israeli barrier to the Palestinian Territories into the largest and most short-lived work of art in the world. Banksy, wearing a bulletproof vest, contributed a dove of peace and a rat that aimed a slingshot at the wall. After the action an American collector for a piece of the wall Bethlehem offered 150,000 with a work by Banksy dollars .

Blu painted the 25 kilometer long and up to eight meter high concrete wall near Bethlehem with a wide field of tree stumps in which there is a Christmas tree, which is encircled by a wall. Another picture by Blus showed a Santa Claus removing pieces of wall with an excavator. He also painted a crawling giant blowing dollar bills into a group of soldiers. He left a figure on a watchtower who naively tried to tear down the tower by pressing a finger into the concrete - not entirely without success, because the first cracks were showing in the concrete.

Banksy and Blu made a 24.5 cm high model of the watchtower on which Blu painted his figure. The olive wood sculpture was signed by both artists and auctioned at Bonhams for £ 12,500 in  2011.

America

Overview and travel 2006, 2009

Since autumn 2005 Blu has been in America several times, sometimes for several months. In Central and South America in particular , he was invited to various art festivals. He visited Buenos Aires several times, including on the MEGUNICA film tour. For the around 20 murals that Blu created on this trip to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Argentina at the end of 2006 and in which he took up the mythology of the Maya , see

Another long trip in 2009 took Blu to Colombia , Uruguay , Peru and again to Buenos Aires. In Bogotá , the urban art festival Memoria Canalla presented him with the Blu en Bogotá poster , which shows him at work in the Colombian capital. In the finished mural, a businessman's arm holds a credit card, which he uses to grind a sea of ​​human skulls into a line of cocaine . In Lima , he painted the huge facade of an old palace in the central Avenida Arenales with a mural that interprets the history of South America as the violent seizure of historical and modern conquistadors . Blu represented the background as a cemetery made up of tons of bones and skulls - interrupted by niches in which Blu placed the conquerors, crowned by skulls. The modern conquistador carries bundles of money in his hand. In addition, he left works in America in the following countries:

Argentina, Buenos Aires: Muto and other works (2006 to 2011)

From autumn 2007 to spring 2008 Blu lived again in the Argentine capital and used almost the entire time to produce the animation video Muto ("Silence"). For animation, he painted numerous walls in Buenos Aires. Using slow-motion technology , he combined the individual images into playful sequences in which the drawings / figures crawl over walls, through doors and on sidewalks and contextualize street art as always changeable, manipulable and its transience . The seven-minute, music-based animation spread rapidly on the Internet and, as of March 2015, had over eleven million views on YouTube. Muto has received several awards, including the Grand Prix in the Lab Competition category at the Clermont-Ferrand short film festival in 2009 and the 2009 Grand Prix at the Stuttgart Animated Film Festival and the 2011 online audience award in Stuttgart.

In 2011, Blu painted two house walls in Buenos Aires with hundreds of figures in white paint, whose eyes and mouths are covered and connected with an endless ribbon in the colors of the Argentine flag . The work provoked more than 150 controversial reactions on Facebook . The work was partly interpreted as a criticism of Blus of Kirchner's supporters , which the president would have blindly confirmed in office in 2011. Blu himself said, however, that anyone can change the colors of the flag as they wish, depending on where they live. In January 2012, the picture in the lower area with the inscription “Y?” (= “And?”) Was vandalized. This graffito was again painted over in 2013 by the artists Astrid and Nacho with a mermaid with a frog sitting on it. Further works by Blus from 2011 show a grill on the grate of which six people are roasted by blazing banknotes, a monstrous river of coins that falls from the walls of a gigantic city and the earth with continents drifting apart and people lost in space .

Bolivia, Cochabamba: Scales of Justice (2015)

Blu probably created a mural in Cochabamba in February 2015 (other information: in Sucre , the seat of the Bolivian Supreme Court ). The picture on a factory wall shows an arm with a cuff and a gold cufflink holding a balance beam . The balance beam is a symbol of justice and an attribute of Justitia and allegorically weighs guilt and innocence. In the left pan of the picture there is a 1 boliviano coin , in the right there is a three-headed Indio family. The scales are out of balance, the coin weighs heavier than the family.

Brazil, São Paulo: Cristo del Corcovado (2007)

On the occasion of the festival A Conquista do Espaço - novas formas da arte de rua , Blu reinterpreted the Christ statue Cristo Redentor in São Paulo in 2007 , which rises 30 meters in Rio de Janeiro on the Corcovado mountain . Blu placed Christ in his mural version on a mountain of rifles and other weapons and let the statue sink up to the arms in the mountain of weapons.

Chile, Santiago: Río Mapocho / HidroAysén (2013)

In 2013 in the Chilean capital Santiago , Blu took up the controversial HidroAysén dam project as part of the second “Festival de intervención urbana 'Hecho en Casa'” , which was stopped at the beginning of June 2014 by the Chilean government due to violent protests and various deficiencies. Critics of the project feared irreparable damage to the Patagonian ecosystem , including the Laguna San Rafael National Park . Blu used an elongated wall on the north bank of the Río Mapocho , near the intersection of Avenidas Cardenal José María Caro and Recoleta, for the depiction . In the right part of the picture he showed the intact mountains of Patagonia with green foreland and snow-capped peaks in the background. Next to it on the right was a detailed construction site with factory buildings and chimneys, marked with the flags of the companies involved in the project, Endesa (subsidiary of the Italian Enel ) and Colbún SA. He let banknotes rain on the construction site from a mountain slope. At the interface between the mountains and the construction site, he depicted the dam as a grimace, suspended between two mountain peaks and held by cables shaped like robotic hands. The outlet opening is drawn as a mouth reinforced with sharp teeth that only opens the river as a small stream.

Mexico, Mexico City: Flag of Mexico / Estado asesino (2015)

After his stay in Bolivia, Blu traveled on to Mexico City . Near the Plaza Garibaldi and the Garibaldi subway station on line 8 , he reinterpreted the symbolic meaning of the flag of Mexico on the Paseo de la Reforma . In the mural, the green-white-red tricolor is guarded by soldiers lined up all around. The color green of the flag, which stands for hope, was underlaid with a one US dollar banknote . The color white, an expression of the unity of Mexico and originally a symbol of religion or the Roman Catholic Church , shows itself as a crumbling facade. The blood of the heroes of the color red can Blu melt into ragged shreds. According to a local journalist, the work symbolizes a state that has failed because of money, drug wars and the interests of a few , and is protected by the army. In his sketch note book , Blu put photos of the mural under the heading Estado asesino (roughly = "murderous state"). To this end, he put a photo of one of the protest rallies in the Plaza de la Constitución with the slogan "Fue el estado" ("It was the state") painted in glowing letters on the pavement , which refers in particular to the events surrounding the mass kidnapping in Iguala in 2014 relates.

Nicaragua, Managua: Hombre Banano (2005)

In October 2005, Blu, Ericailcane and several Central American street artists took part in the Murales de Octubre Festival in Managua . The aim of the art project was to equip Avenida Bolívar (also: Primera Avenida Noroeste or La 1ª Avenida) in the historic center of the city with new murals and to regain it as a historical art space. The monumental, 100-meter-long mural El Supremo Sueño de Bolívar by the Chilean artist Victor Canifrù in the Avenida, which spanned an arc from the first Spanish caravels to the Sandinista Revolution and which was considered the artistic heart of revolutionary Nicaragua, was in 1990/1991 after the Defeat of the Sandinista whitewashed and later replaced by pictures with tropical decor. Blu contributed the mural Hombre Banano , one of his best-known works, to the project . The picture shows a monster made out of bananas bending over the conveyor belts in a packaging plant. With the banana man , Blu addressed the protest of workers on Nicaragua's banana plantations .

USA, Los Angeles: MOCA (2010)

For Blu's anti-militarist mural at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), which provoked an art riot, see section above .

Exhibitions, videos and printed works (overview)

Participation in exhibitions and festivals (selection)

Works by Blus were presented at the following exhibitions and art festivals; In doing so, Blu usually created new murals for the festivals on the areas provided for this purpose (see also the entries under the respective countries above).

  • 2005, 2006, 2007 - Spinafestival, Comacchio , Italy.
  • 2005 - Murales de Octubre, Managua , Nicaragua.
  • 2007 - Planet Process - Between Space and Art, Berlin.
  • 2007 - Santa's ghetto, Bethlehem , West Bank .
  • 2007 - Super Fluo, Lazarides Gallery, London .
  • 2007 - BackJumps The - Live Issue # 3, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien , Berlin.
  • 2007 - Street Art Sweet Art, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (PAC), Milan .
  • 2007 - A Conquista do Espaço - novas formas da arte de rua, São Paulo , Brazil.
  • 2008 - Street Art, Tate Gallery of Modern Art , London.
  • 2008, 2009 - Fame Festival, Grottaglie , Italy.
  • 2009 - The Influencers 2009, Festival, Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona , Spain.
  • 2009 - Urban-Art - Works from the Reinking Collection in the Weserburg Museum for Modern Art , Bremen . Blu showed: three drawings, the animation Muto, the band Blu. 2004-07 .
  • 2009 - Memoria Canalla, Graffiti y arte en las calles de Bogotá, Exposición en torno al arte gráfico urbano de Bogotá, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO), July 2009, Bogotá , Colombia.
  • 2009 - Grafffest, Danzig.
  • 2010 - Procecto Crono, Lisbon.
  • 2010 - Black River Festival, Vienna.
  • 2010 - Nuart Festival, Stavanger , Norway.
  • 2011 - Draw The Line Festival, Campobasso , Italy.
  • 2011 - CityLeaks Festival, Cologne.
  • 2012 - DesOrdes Creativas, Ordes , Spain.
  • 2013 - Festival de intervención urbana “Hecho en Casa”, Santiago , Chile.
  • 2015 - Positive Propaganda , Munich .
  • 2018 - International Dealmaker , group exhibition with Shepard Fairey, Escif, NoNÅME, Positive-Propaganda eV, Munich

Videography: "Making-of" and animations (selection)

In 2010 Blu released a DVD via Artsh.it containing 33 short films from the past 10 years. After Artsh.it was discontinued, the remaining stocks were sold via zooo.org.

Books

The editions are illustrated books which, apart from acknowledgments in Blu 2004–2007, are almost text-free.

  • 2005 Blu / Ericailcane: 25 disegni . Zooo Print and Press. (Split book, 48 pages with 25 drawings per artist)
  • 2006 Blu: Nulla. Zooo Print and Press. (48 pages, 50 drawings)
  • 2008 Blu: Blu 2004-2007 . Studio Cromie. (160 pages, 80 pages of photos, 80 pages of drawings)
  • 2016 Blu: Nulla 10 years. Zoo print and Press / special jubilee edition of 250 (48 pages, 50 drawings)
  • 2018 Blu: Minima Muralia . Zooo Print and Press. (288 pages)
  • 2018 Blu: Minima Muralia , Special Edition, incl.Sketches zine, 2 posters, Zooo Print and Press. (288 pages).

literature

Web links

Commons : Blu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Goethe-Institut Madrid: Street-Art to go. Madrid Río Blu. Status: 2015.
  2. ↑ Mirka Bałazy, Francesca di Marzo: Blu. In: ArtBoom Festival (archive), Krakow, May 14, 2011 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Caleb Nilon: Bucket of Blu. P. 88.
  4. ↑ a b Homepage Blus: Sketch Note-book. Entry in the blog, Roma 1, November 2014 (English).
  5. ^ Urban Art. Works from the Reinking Collection . P. 186.
  6. ↑ Neelon, Caleb: Bucket of Blu, in: Swindle Magazine in 2007, p.88. . Interview with Blu. Retrieved September 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ a b c Christoph Zang: An analysis of socially critical elements in BLU's Street Art & Animation "MUTO". P. 5 f.
  8. ↑ a b c d Elisa della Barba: Blu: why street art matters. In: Swide.com, November 21, 2012 (English).
  9. ^ Travel Diary. In: MEGUNICA (English). Diary of the MEGUNICA trip, see entry on December 16, 2006.
  10. ↑ a b Blu, Bananas and MEGUNICA. In: Hechomagazine (English).
  11. ^ Karin Cruciata: L'arte di Banksy: […]. P. 42.
  12. ↑ James Gaddy: Yo soy grafitero. [...]. P. 102
  13. ↑ Chris Pallant (ed.): Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function. Bloomsbury Publishing , London 2015, ISBN 978-1-62892-349-0 , p. 36.
  14. ↑ Alain Bieber and Rik Reinking : Interview: This art comes across as very relaxed. (Bieber interviews Reinking.) In: Urban Art. Works from the Reinking Collection . […] Pp. 62–67, quotation p. 66.
  15. ^ Meike Günther: Blu. In: Urban Art. Works from the Reinking Collection . [...] pp. 86–89.
  16. ^ Tristan Manco: Street Sketchbook: Inside the Journals of International Street and Graffiti Artists. Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2007 ISBN 0-8118-6138-4 , pp. 39-43. Statement and quotation from: Christoph Zang: An analysis of socially critical elements in BLU's Street Art & Animation "MUTO". P. 7.
  17. ↑ Christoph Zang: An analysis of socially critical elements in BLU's Street Art & Animation "MUTO". P. 7.
  18. ^ Karin Cruciata: L'arte di Banksy: […]. P. 42 f.
  19. ^ Nicolas Lampert: Street Art Blu's. ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Justseeds Artists' Cooperative , January 3, 2011 (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.justseeds.org
  20. ↑ Los Angeles MOCA Censors Street Artist's Commissioned Mural (video). In: The Huffington Post , Huffpost Arts & Culture, May 25, 2011 (English).
  21. ↑ a b Planet Process - Between Space and Art . Press kit. Exhibition in the Senate Reserve Store, Berlin-Kreuzberg, July 20 to August 19, 2007.
  22. ↑ Evidence of the information about Cuvry graffiti can be found in the main article Cuvry graffiti .
  23. ↑ Backjumps - The Live Issue # 3. ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Reclaim Your City: June 23 to August 19, 2007.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.reclaimyourcity.net
  24. ↑ This Berlin graffiti went wrong. In: Berliner Zeitung , November 18, 2014.
  25. ^ Wall pictures Berlin: Falckensteinstrasse 46, 48 and 49.
  26. ↑ Street Art on Berlin Walls: ROA, Blu, JR, Os Gêmeos and Nomad. In: Avventvra, January 15, 2014 (English).
  27. ↑ Wiebke Hollersen: Man-eating giant. Two street art exhibitions will end in Kreuzberg on Sunday. In: Berliner Zeitung , August 18, 2007.
  28. ↑ Global Warming & War by Blu (5 pics). In: My Modern Met, July 31, 2010 (English).
  29. ↑ BLU Murals are gone! Biggest Streetart Icon of Berlin got painted over. In: Streetart Berlin, January 1, 2015 (English).
  30. ↑ BLU for Super Reactive Subjects 5. In: Art Berlin.
  31. ^ Urban-Culture: News from Blu…, Cologne. In: Urbanshit, July 8, 2011.
  32. ↑ a b Jens Christian Mahnke: Streetart. New mural from Blu in Cologne via Cityleaks Festival. In: Atomlabor (blog), June 16, 2011.
  33. ↑ Commons: Cologne, picture of Motel One and the adjacent old building, on the facade of which the walled-up mural Medusa was located.
  34. ↑ Frank Lämmer (Ed.): We come at Night: […] . Pp. 9, 118-127.
  35. ↑ Nina May: How guerrilla art came about. In: Westdeutsche Zeitung (WZ-Newsline), May 6, 2008.
  36. ↑ Agatited Animations. 10 animators. February 13, 2014 (see section on Blu). In: Ivsonya (English).
  37. ↑ Lazarides Gallery: SUPER FLUO By Ericailcane And Blu Preview Night. ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. September 6, 2007 (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lazinc.com
  38. ↑ Lazarides Gallery: Various drawings by Blus from the 2007 exhibition. ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lazinc.com
  39. ^ Tate Modern : Street Art at Tate Modern. May 23 - August 25, 2008. Press release, April 2, 2008.
  40. ↑ BBC News : Street to adorn Tate's walls. April 2, 2008 (English).
  41. ↑ Maksim Kalanep: Piece of work by Blu on the wall of the Tate Modern building in London as part of Street Art exhibition in 2008. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. May 9, 2008 (Blus picture on Tate Modern ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.maksimkalanep.com
  42. ↑ Blus homepage: Sketch Note-Book: picture on the Tate Modern and three single pictures with detailed insights into different rooms of the walk-in head, 2008.
  43. ^ Nuart walking tour, 2010. In: Dotmasters, September 21, 2010 (English).
  44. ↑ a b Roman Tschiedl: BLU - Untitled / it is obvious , in: Maria Taig, Barbara Horvath (Ed.): Kör vie 07-10: Art in public space Vienna, 2007-2010 , Verlag für moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 2014, P. 206
  45. ↑ Ortrun Veichtlbauer: Brown Danube. Transport route of National Socialist biopolitics , in: Christian Reder , Erich Klein (eds.): Graue Donau - Schwarzes Meer , Springer, Vienna / New York, 2008, p. 240f
  46. ↑ Well-known Vienna: Simmering's ghostly corner. August 13, 2013.
  47. ↑ Roman Tschiedl / Public Art Vienna (BOD): Blu: Viennese harbor. Permanent mural. Implementation September 1 to 12, 2010
  48. ↑ Joel Alas: Out of Sth - 2010. In: B EAST Magazine (English).
  49. ^ Monika Kędziora: Street Art we Wrocławiu. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Obieg, August 10, 2008, updated February 15, 2009 (Polish). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.obieg.pl
  50. ↑ a b Grafffest - the international graffiti festival. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. May 15-17 in Gdansk. In: Modart (English).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blogmodart.rebelmobile.de
  51. ^ Colleen Brogan: Exhibit Gallery. BLU. "Morphing". ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Nowhere but Here, an online exhibition (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ipaintironynotart.jimdo.com
  52. ^ Katarzyna Jasińska: Kraków: kontrowersyjny mural na Józefińskiej. Co na to kościół ?. In: NaszeMiasto, 22./23. May 2011 (Polish).
  53. ↑ Agnieszta Sural: Will Kraków Become the New Global Street Art Capital? In: Culture.pl ( Adam Mickiewicz Institute ), December 2, 2014 (English).
  54. ↑ Kraków. Ding dong dumb. ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: In Your Pocket Guide . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inyourpocket.com
  55. ↑ Andrea Balboa: BLU 'War' Mural in Warsaw. In: FNG-Magazine, July 29, 2010 (Italian).
  56. ↑ Streets: Blu Hits Warsaw . In: Arrested Motion, July 28, 2010 (English).
  57. ↑ Gaza Strip at Národní 13. In: Virtual Tourist, as of June 19, 2014 (English).
  58. ^ Dennis Rauschenbach: Graffiti goes East - "Names Fest" in Prague. Radio Praha , August 28, 2008 (text and broadcast in German).
  59. ↑ Gaza Strip, Art Collectorz (English).
  60. ↑ a b Pippo Lombardo: Blu dipinge un murale sulla facciata della Casa del Portuale a Messina. In: Messina Ieri e Oggi, 2011 (Italian).
  61. ↑ a b Federico Tesei: Blu, lo street artist marchigiano che ha colorato il mondo. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Marche è Cultura, July 3, 2014 (Italian). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.marchetourismnetwork.it
  62. ↑ Photos of the murals at the specified and other locations can be found, sorted by year, on Blus website under Walls.
  63. ^ BAZ - Bologna Autonomous Zone (Italian).
  64. ^ Karin Cruciata: L'arte di Banksy: […]. Pp. 42-44.
  65. ↑ Pippo Lombardo: Blu dipinge un murale sulla facciata della Casa del Portuale a Messina. In: Messina Ieri e Oggi, accessed March 3, 2015 (Italian).
  66. ↑ Claudio Panebianco: Imbecilli all'opera. Deturpato il graffito di Blu dell'ex Casa del Portuale. In: TempoStretto, December 31, 2014 (Italian).
  67. ↑ Blu unveils a majestic mural on Via Del Porto Fluviale in Rome, Italy. In: Street Art News, November 24, 2014 (English).
  68. ↑ Flaminia Savelli: Murales di Blu sull'ex caserma occupata I commercianti: "Sicurezza a rischio". In: La Repubblica (online), February 10, 2015 (Italian).
  69. ^ The Guardian : The 10 best street art works - in pictures. As chosen by designer and author Tristan Manco. August 7, 2011 (English).
  70. ↑ a b CRONO Project in Portugal. In: FatCap, March 3, 2012 (English).
  71. ↑ Interview with Pedro Soares Neves about the Crono Project. In: FatCap, July 31, 2012 (English).
  72. ↑ Belgrade Art Guide: Famous Murals. In: Still in Belgrade, July 7, 2013 (Photography Blus Belgrader Werk; English).
  73. ^ Three new murals in Belgrade by Blu, M-City and Valerio Berruti. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: belgraded.com, August 15, 2009 (English).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.belgraded.com
  74. ^ The Influencers 2009: Blu. February 5 to 7, 2009 (English).
  75. ^ Asalto: Segundo Asalto (2006). September 8-21, 2006 (Spanish).
  76. ^ Jorge Martin: An Office in Madrid Pairs Street Artists With Empty Walls. In: Hyperallergic, January 28, 2011 (English).
  77. ^ Goethe-Institut Madrid: Street Art to go. Ésta es una plaza. As of 2015.
  78. ↑ Ésta es una plaza: Blu en Ésta es una plaza. May 7, 2010 (Spanish).
  79. ^ Goethe-Institut Madrid: Street Art to go. El Campo de Cebada. As of 2015.
  80. ↑ Blu. El campo de cebada. In: Escrito en la pared, August 6, 2012 (Spanish), contains numerous images of Blu's work in Madrid 2012.
  81. ↑ Mural in Linares 2008, photo on Blus website.
  82. ^ Escrito en la red: Blu, Eltono, Charlie Green. In: Escrito en la pared, June 29, 2008 (Spanish).
  83. ↑ a b DesOrdes Creativas, 2012. Festival Internacional de Arte na Rúa (Spanish).
  84. ^ Travel Diary. In: MEGUNICA (English). Diary of the MEGUNICA trip, see entry on December 15, 2006.
  85. ↑ Blu New Mural In Ordes, Spain. In: Street Art News, July 27, 2012 (English).
  86. ↑ Quoted from: Urban Art Core: Blu Mural Against Europe's Border. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. April 19, 2012 (on the Melilla plant, 2012; English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.urbanartcore.eu
  87. ↑ Heike Derwanz: Street Art Careers. P. 69 ff.
  88. ↑ a b Alain Bieber : Banksy in Bethlehem. Santa's Ghetto Bethlehem. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: art - Das Kunstmagazin (online), December 21, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.art-magazin.de
  89. ↑ Tristan Manco: Santa's Ghetto Bethlehem ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tristanmanco.com
  90. ↑ Street Art by Blu in Berlin. In: ArteLocal, June 28, 2013. (Note: unlike the title, the page also contains information on Bethlehem.)
  91. ↑ Bonhams : Banksy - Watchtower Collaboration - Blu signed by both artists painted olive wood sculpture. Auction 18931 Urban Art, Lot 48, September 21, 2011 (English).
  92. ↑ a b Memoria Canalla presenta: Blu en Bogotá. In: Streets: Blu in Bogota, Arrested Motion, November 12, 2009 (English).
  93. ^ Urban-Culture: News from Blu, from Lima. In: Urbanshit, December 11, 2009.
  94. ^ Brad Yarhouse: Animation in the street: The seductive silence of Blu. An examination of his film Muto. In: Animation Studies Online Journal, August 28, 2013 (English).
  95. ↑ Heike Derwanz: Street Art Careers. P. 125.
  96. ^ Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. In: Internet Movie Database (IMDb) (list of winners 2009, English).
  97. ↑ Controversial mural by Blu in Buenos Aires vandalized with graffiti. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, January 20, 2012 (English).
  98. ^ Blu mural in Buenos Aires gets a new look. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, February 4, 2013 (English).
  99. ↑ Blu's bbq: new mural by Blu in Buenos Aires. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, December 12, 2011 (English).
  100. ^ Blu paints another great new mural in Buenos Aires. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, January 11, 2012 (English).
  101. ↑ Blu round up of his best new murals on his latest trip to Buenos Aires. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, January 18, 2012 (English).
  102. ↑ BLU en Cochabamba. In: Bienal de Arte Urbano (BAU), February 27, 2015 (Spanish).
  103. ↑ New mural by BLU in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In: Urbanite, February 27, 2015 (English).
  104. ^ New Blu mural in Bolivia. ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: MashKulture, undated, accessed in March 2015.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / mashkulture.net
  105. ↑ Homepage Blus: Sketch Note-book. Blog. See page 3 in the blog, as of March 6, 2015 (English).
  106. ↑ A Conquista do Espaço - novas formas da arte de rua. São Paulo, July 2007 (Portuguese).
  107. ^ Arte y Ciudad: El mural que el italiano Blu dejó en el río Mapocho. In: Plataforma Urbana, January 27, 2015 (Spanish). Note: In Blus Notebook, images of the Río Mapocho mural from March 2015 are (still?) In the blog under the date June 19, 2014; the work is undoubtedly from 2013.
  108. ↑ Ananda Watanabe: La Bandera Trigarante Mexicana de Blu. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: b1mas4, Periodismo Digital, February 24, 2015 (Spanish). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / b1mas4.com
  109. ↑ Homepage Blus: Sketch Note-book. Blog. Entry in the blog on February 28, 2015; As of March 6, 2015 (English).
  110. ^ Héctor E. Schamis: Fue el estado. In: El País , October 24, 2014 (Spanish).
  111. ↑ David Mayer: Contrahistorias - historical interpretations and historical-political strategies of the Left in transition. In: Polyphonic Pasts - Political History in Latin America. Ed .: Berthold von Molden, David Mayer. Lit Verlag , Vienna / Berlin 2009 ISBN 978-3-8258-1445-8 , pp. 125–148, here pp. 140 f.
  112. ↑ Murales de Octubre progetto partecipativo di arte pubblica. Avenida Bolivar, Managua (Nicaragua) October 16-25 , 2005. In: Designradar (Italian).
  113. ^ David Kunzle: The Murals of Revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979–1992 . University of California Press , Berkeley 1995, ISBN 978-0-520-08192-5 , p. 14 ff. (English).
  114. ↑ Capital Culture Fund : Backjumps The - Live Issue # 3. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. June 23 - August 19, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hauptstadtkulturfonds.berlin.de
  115. ↑ Tate Modern : Street Art. May 23 - August 25, 2008.
  116. ^ The Influencers: The Influencers 2009. Art, communication guerrilla, radical entertainment. Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona , 5. – 7. February 2009 (English).
  117. ↑ Urban Art - Works from the Reinking Collection. , Weserburg Museum for Modern Art , Bremen, 2009.
  118. ^ Urban Art. Works from the Reinking Collection . Pp. 86-89, 186.
  119. ↑ BLK River 2010 ( Memento of the original from February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / blkriver.at
  120. ↑ Nuart Festival 2010, Artists ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nuartfestival.no
  121. ^ Graffiti: Controversial Blu Piece for "Draw The Line" Festival. In: Magazine Respect. July 29, 2011 (English).
  122. ↑ CityLeaks Urban Art Festival 2011 (English).
  123. ↑ Hecho en Casa 2013 (Spanish).
  124. ↑ Positive Propaganda 2015 .
  125. ↑ DVD BLU SKETCH NOTE-BOOK
  126. ↑ BLU SKETCH NOTE-BOOK In: Zooo Print and Press (English).
  127. ↑ 25 DISEGNI: BLU / ERICAILCANE. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Zooo Print and Press (English). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zooo.org
  128. ↑ NULLA In: Zooo Print and Press (English).
  129. ↑ BLU 2004–2007 In: Studio Cromie (English).
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 30, 2015 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Blu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian graffiti, street art and video artist
DATE OF BIRTH between 1980 and 1985
PLACE OF BIRTH Senigallia