Ericailcane

Ericailcane (born around 1980 in Belluno , Italy) is the pseudonym of an Italian visual artist . His artistic work mainly includes graffiti , street art , illustrations and drawings and mainly includes the representation of animal figures. According to the Italian cultural institute in Chicago , Ericailcane belongs to the new generation of European street artists who have revolutionized the design of public spaces .

Ericailcane has been doing Urban Art since the early 2000s. His murals and installations can be found in several European countries, in the West Bank and in North, Central and South America. In the German-speaking area he is represented with a plant in Berlin-Mitte . The mural from 2014 in the courtyards at the Anne Frank Center ( Rosenthaler Straße  39) shows a gorilla pointing a camera at passers-by in the alley. His pictures have been presented at various exhibitions.

Berlin, 2014

Biographical information and artistic career

Ericailcane was born in Belluno, a city in the northern part of Veneto . His father, a scientist, stimulated his son's creative imagination at an early age, which later expressed itself in his anthropomorphic and personified depictions of animals. Ericailcane deepened his artistic skills by studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna (Accademia di belle arti di Bologna). At the academy he took courses in video art and came into contact with street artists. In particular with Blu , whom the Goethe-Institut Madrid now counts to the internationally most important and critical street artists of muralism , he began an intensive collaboration in which both artistically complemented each other. While Blu created his characteristic, often bizarre human figures, Ericailcane painted his typical animals.

Ericailcane's first works in public space were graffiti, which he mainly placed on the numerous, partly occupied, autonomous cultural centers (Centri Sociali Autogestiti) in Bologna. The self-administered cultural centers (o CSA), which are considered the cradle of Italian hip-hop , roughly correspond to the autonomous centers in Germany. He also painted some of his first murals on the facades of these centers. One of the most famous works in Italy is Ericailcane's collaboration with Blu 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.

Despite his aversion to the art market , Ericailcane later took up occasional collaborations with galleries. These include Biagiotti Progetto Arte in Florence , D406 in Modena and Squadro in Bologna. He also participated in the Pictures on Walls website of the London Lazarides Gallery, which was founded to promote street art and markets works by artists such as Banksy , Stanley Donwood and 3DJ. In the summer of 2007 he was represented with Blu 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.

Works

Projecto Crono, Lisbon, 2010

Ericailcane's representations are distinguished by their scientific precision. He mostly depicts his aquatic and terrestrial animal figures in human contexts, which are often charged with social and ecological messages. The majestic, monstrous, and frightening figures of his murals resemble engravings of beasts from the late Middle Ages. Inspired by the children's illustrations of the Victorian period , the works are in the tradition of the French draftsman Grandville , who painted mixed creatures from parts of people, animals and plants in order to characterize certain characteristics of the depicted. His pictures are also reminiscent of the fascinating and at the same time terrifying mythical creatures and demons of Hieronymus Bosch . The same iconography can be found in Ericailcane's drawings, collages and installations, such as in a work he created in 2009 for the city of Bologna for the traditional Vecchione in Piazza Maggiore .

Ordes, 2012

His works can be found in Italy, England, Spain, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Norway, Germany (Berlin), the Middle East, Morocco, the United States of America, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Colombia. Outside of Italy in particular, he created a large part of the murals at street or urban art festivals to which he was invited. For example , a work from 2010 was created for the Lisbon Crono Project, a project for the creative appropriation of public space in which Blu and the Brazilian brothers Os Gêmeos were also involved. Ericailcane's work, a giant crocodile, is located in an uninhabited, formerly representative building on Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo in the center of the city, near the Picoas subway station .

In Stavanger , home of the Norwegian Oil Museum and numerous international oil companies, Ericailcane and Blu attended to 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.

In 2012 he took part in the urban art festival DesOrdes Creativas in Ordes (Órdenes) in the Galician comarca Ordes . He painted the windowless side facade of a residential building with a huge cork's beak with a crown on its head, which pecks humanized frogs, mice and beetles from a bridge, who defend themselves with torches, lances and scythes - according to the web magazine StreetArtNews, an allegory of the revolution , in which the working class tries to overthrow the bourgeoisie . In November 2013, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Bogotá , Colombia, dedicated an exhibition to Ericailcane in which he painted the entrance facade with a reptile carrying a banner with the Latin inscription Lux in Tenebris borrowed from Brecht ( Light in the dark). In his early one-act act Lux in Tenebris , Bertolt Brecht had exposed the close connection between reason and pleasure , between idealism and exploitation . In February 2015, on the occasion of the street art project Manifesto in Mexico City, he created a monkey figure with a ribbon in the colors of the Mexican flag around its neck. The work was censored shortly afterwards by blackening the green, white and red colors of the tricolor .

Exhibitions, videos and printed works (overview)

Ericailcane posts videos , mostly making-ofs of his murals, and animations under free licenses on YouTube or Vimeo . He also lists them on his homepage , from which they can be accessed directly. In addition, he continuously documents all murals, drawings and other works on the homepage.

Participation in exhibitions and festivals (selection)

• 2004 - Ericailcane. Incisioni @Sesto Senso, Bologna , Italy
• 2005 - Ericailcane. Gli animali ei loro uomini, Rovereto , Italy
• 2005 - De motu muscolari @ Spinafestival, Comacchio , Italy
• 2006 - Santa's Ghetto, London , England
• 2007 - Torre di Babele, Monfalcone , Italy
• 2007 - Santa's ghetto, Bethlehem , West Bank (Christmas 2007)
• 2008 - Ora, Cuenca , Ecuador
• 2008 - Muffins, Chicago , USA
• 2008 - Fur, Barcelona , Spain
• 2008 - Il numero delle bestie, Modena , Italy
• 2009 - Gabols, Belluno , Italy
• 2009 - Man Is The Bastard, Los Angeles , USA
• 2009 - Guerra civile, Milan , Italy
• 2010 - With Kabu, Florence , Italy
• 2010 - Bara Volante con Dem e Run, Brighton , England
• 2010 - Breaking The World, Wroclaw , Poland
• 2010 - Procecto Crono, Lisbon.
• 2010 - Nuart Festival, Stavanger , Norway
• 2011 - Il canto della foresta, Modena , Italy
• 2012 - Una vita violenta, Mexico City , Mexico
• 2012 - Canards con Gabo, Niort , France
• 2013 - Ericailcane en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Bogotá , Colombia
• 2015 - Positive-Propaganda x Ericailcane, Munich , Germany

Videos ("making-of") and animations (selection)

• 2003 Helicobacter Pylori , digital animation , music by My Own Parasite, 5'26 ".
• 2004 Le Corbeau , digital animation, music by LUM (Dominique Vaccaro), 1'04 ".
• 2005 Il galeone , digital animation, music by Ronin (Italian rock band), 4'26 ".
• 2007 BLU + ERICAILCANE , video by Lorenzo Fonda on behalf of the Spatio Razmataz Gallery, Prato , 2007. Short documentation about the illegal night painting of a house wall in Prato by the two street artists.
• 2008 Ericailcane at Fame festival , video, 1'28 ".
• 2008 Back to School , with Davide Zucco, video, 4'04 ".
• 2009 Bartleby 30 e lode , with Will Barras and Dem, video, 3'52 ".
• 2009 Il numero delle bestie , digital animation, music by Carlomargot (Italian experimental duo) and Ronin, 4'56 ".
• 2009 Ammazzarne uno per educarne 100 , digital animation, music by Carlomargot, 4'40 ".
• 2009 Ericailcane contro Attack , video, music by Carlomargot, 2'05 ".
• 2012 Canards , with Gabo (Ericailcane's assistant), video, music by Carlomargot, 2'16 ".
• 2012 Balena , with Gabo, video, 1'05 ".
• 2012 Uccello , with Gabo, video, 2'43 ".
• 2012 Racconti dal sottobosco , digital animation, music by Alessandro "cuerno de chivo" Rinaldi, 6'08 ".
• 2013 Drogheda, Ireland , with Gabo, video, 2'27.

Books

• 2005 - Blu / Ericailcane: 25 disegni . Zooo Print and Press. (Split book, 48 pages with 25 drawings per artist.)
• 2008 - Ericailcane: Il numero delle bestie . Logos / D406.
• 2009 - Leonardo / Ericailcane: Potente di fuoco . Disegni su carta 1985/2009, Modo Infoshop.
• 2012 - Ericailcane / Stefano Ricci: Così su due piedi . Squadro / Modo Infoshop / Mami Verlag.
• 2012 - Ericailcane: Il canto della foresta . Modo Infoshop / D406 / Zooo Print and Press.
• 2012 - Ericailcane: L'albero della conoscenza Stampa Alternativa.

Web links

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

• Homepage Ericailcanes

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Ericailcane. In: Definizione, ABC, Dizionario Enciclopedico (Italian).
2. ^ Goethe-Institut Madrid: Street Art to go. Madrid Río Blu. Status: 2015.
3. ^ Street Art Valencia - Part III. ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: STREET-A-TAG, February 26, 2015.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Ericailcane. In: D406 (gallery), Modena. (Short biography with detailed list of works; Italian.)
5. ^ BAZ - Bologna Autonomous Zone. (Italian.)
6. ^ Karin Cruciata: L'arte di Banksy: una critica al "sistema" contemporaneo. E-Book , 2014 ISBN 978-6-050-30544-9 pp. 42-44 (Italian).
7. ↑ Agatited Animations. 10 animators. February 13, 2014 (see section on Blu). In: Ivsonya (English).
8. ↑ Lazarides Gallery: SUPER FLUO By Ericailcane And Blu Preview Night. ( Memento from March 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) September 6, 2007 (English).
9. ↑ ^{a b} CRONO Project in Portugal. In: FatCap, March 3, 2012 (English).
10. ↑ Interview with Pedro Soares Neves about the Crono Project. In: FatCap, July 31, 2012 (English).
11. ^ Nuart walking tour , 2010. In: Dotmasters, September 21, 2010 (English).
12. ↑ DesOrdes Creativas, 2012. Festival Internacional de Arte na Rúa. (Spanish.)
13. ^ Ericailcane New Mural In Ordes, Spain. In: StreetArtNews, July 27, 2012.
14. ↑ Minuto de Dios / 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. Video on Vimeo, making-of of the mural at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo , Bogotá, 2013. 
15. ^ Herbert Knust, Leonie Marx: Brecht's "Lux in Tenebris" . In: Monthly books for German teaching, 65, 1973 p. 117.
16. ↑ Jaime Rojo, Steven Harrington: A Mexican Mural 'Manifesto,' Blackened Flags And Censorship. In: The Huffington Post , Huffpost Arts & Culture, March 4, 2015 (English).
17. ^ Nuart Festival 2010, Artists. ( Memento from February 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
18. ↑ BLU + ERICAILCANE on Lorenzo Fonda's homepage.
19. ↑ 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).