MEGUNICA

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Movie
Original title MEGUNICA
Country of production Italy
original language Spanish , English
Publishing year 2008
length 80 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director Lorenzo Fonda
script Lorenzo Fonda
production Ivan Merlo
camera Lorenzo Fonda,
Ivan Merlo

MEGUNICA is a documentary film by the Italian director Lorenzo Fonda from 2008. In a mixture of artist portrait and road movie , the film follows the Italian street artist Blu on a trip through South and Central America in autumn / winter 2006 and shows the artist at work. The name MEGUNICA is an acronym of the first letters of the countries visited ME xiko , GU atemala , NI Caragua , C osta Rica and A rgentinien . The film won several awards.

Objective and content of the documentation

Blu is one of the internationally most important and critical street artists of muralism . 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 .

The logo blus
The director Lorenzo Fonda

In order to better understand the history and social problems of the countries, Blu visited museums, had conversations with the locals and exchanged ideas with local artists and self-help groups . In an interview, Blu said:

“Many of the countries we visited have had tragic recent histories, the effects of which are clearly visible: everyday poverty; the exploitation by multinational fruit companies such as Dole , Chiquita and Del Monte and the widespread violence they provoke; the United States- backed dictators; soldiers trained in confiscation and torture in the United States; the drug barons who rule these countries; the desperate people who try to cross the border in hopes of a better life. To hear all these stories from people's mouths is something completely different from reading about them in books. "

- Blu in an interview with Caleb Nilon, 2007 (translation from English)

In Guatemala City , the group of four met with the Caja Lúdica, who gets children off the streets by giving them ballet and painting lessons and teaching them other creative activities. In the slum Barrio Nueva Vida in Ciudad Sandino near Managua , which was founded by thousands of homeless people in 1998 after the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch, Blu held a workshop for children and introduced them to stencil art , a term for graffiti or street -Art that are attached with the help of stencils . During the entire trip, Blu created around 20 murals, which were created legally without a preconceived plan and usually after consultation with the homeowners. The camera consistently followed all work processes. From the 80-hour film material, Lorenzo Fonda wove the encounters, work processes and murals in the style of Cinéma vérité into an 80-minute film.

The experimental project was financed by Mercurio Cinematografica (Mercurio Films). The trip took place from October 28, 2006 (landing in Mexico) to 1./2. January 2007 (departure in Argentina). In addition to Blu and Fonda, the producer Ivan Merlo and Sibe, Blu's friend, took part. Blu, who decided on his identity and so far (as of March 2015) has been keeping a low profile, only agreed to the project on the condition that his face was not shown once.

The MEGUNICA murals Blus

The focus of the film is on the murals that Blu created on the trip. Below you will find in the order of the countries visited ( → photos of the murals, sorted by country ):

Mexico

Blu created the first mural in early November 2006 in Guelatao Barrio in the south of Mexico City . It shows two grotesque human figures whose white skin has been peeled off on the face and stomach area, so that the red muscles are exposed. One figure holds the skin of the face in its hand as a mask and hands it to the other figure with a crooked smile. He left two other murals in Puebla and one in Mérida . In Puebla he recorded the history of the Maya by depicting the root of the world tree over people who were mixed up. The Ceiba , the sacred tree of the Maya, rooted to their mythology in Xibalba , the nine-step underworld . In the second Puebla picture, Blu presented a head lying in a sea of beans with a tree growing out of its forehead. The bean was one of the most important plants of the Milpa , an agricultural system that has been practiced by the Maya in Central America for many centuries until today. The form of cultivation serves the subsistence economy of the indigenous Maya people. For the picture in Mérida - a reclining Indian with a severed head and feet - it only took Blu twenty minutes.

Guatemala

Rubén Darío , possibly sketched in the León mural

In El Remate on Lake Petén-Itzá , Blu drew an elongated, white-colored corn field on the wall of a house , in whose fruit heads yellow-colored Maya are born. Maize was the most important plant for the Maya. The holy book of the Quiché -Maya, the Popol Vuh , reports that the Maya were created from corn. The maize god was one loud Dresden Codex of the most revered gods of the Maya . On the MEGUNICA trip, Blu chose the color yellow several times to represent the indigenous peoples - in contrast to his usually white portrayals of people. In the following works in Livingston , Guatemala City and Panajachel , Blu also focused on Maya, which was depicted in yellow. The picture in Livingston shows a Maya who is amazed at the coins lying on the ground.

Nicaragua

He left three murals on the dreary huts of the favela- like Nueva Vida near Managua, where Blu had carried out the stencil workshop for children. Together with the children, he painted a dwelling with folded arms, which in two different shades of green form a network of solidarity . On the corrugated iron another hut he supported the red painted slogan NO TE drogues (Steer clear of alcohol and drugs ) by drawing next to a father who desperately and appalled by his to skeletons emaciated and mimic the death mask turns solidified child who holds a joint between her teeth and a bottle in her hand.

Blu produced one further work each in Managua and León . In contrast to most of his, usually rather large and low-contour figures, he designed a mural at the Hostel Lazy Bones in León that shows bizarre tourists and other people, a local folklore group, coaches and local animals in fine lines. A face in the picture is very similar to the likeness of the poet Rubén Darío , who is considered the founder of modernism in Latin America and who lived in León. The picture probably contains further references to the people and to the history of the city, which is regarded as the intellectual metropolis of Nicaragua and a center of the revolutionary struggles of 1978/79 .

Costa Rica

Blu produced four murals in Costa Rica, all in the capital, San José . Two days after his arrival in the Central American state, on December 8, 2006, he painted an elongated factory building with a millipede with a human head that moves on arms. The arthropod's gaze is directed at a small human being, which he clasps with his forearms. Two dead people are lying on top of each other on the floor. On the same day he created a female figure with a naked torso, who is covered up to the arms in a conical hat. The exposed brain oozes out of the top opening of the hat. The director Lorenzo Fonda commented on Blus' eagerness to work with the words: Giving Blu an empty wall is like pouring oil into an open fire - not enough on one picture, he painted another one. In the Barrio Rossiter Carballo in the distrito La Uruca, he designed a reclining Indian with hair made of shortened crosses , who holds a church in his hand with an outstretched arm and looks inquiringly at the church. In the fourth picture, two lower legs hang with feet from the top of a factory wall. A third foot is chopped off, the open cut reveals wooden rings in which an ax is stuck.

Argentina

The seven murals that Blu created on the last stage of the journey are in Buenos Aires . He developed the first picture on December 15, 2006 together with the Doma Collective by the artist CHU (Julian Pablo Manzelli). The following day he painted a reclining human figure in white color, which is cut into four parts. The individual parts consist of tubes from which red-colored ants pour out and crawl over the figure.

At the intersection of Calles Cespedes and Giribone (extension of Avenida Córdoba ), he left a mural with an oversized surreal head of around one hundred eyes, which rests on a stooped man who gathers his eyes in a basket like Easter eggs (or his head out of the Basket adds new eyes). In addition, the local street artist Maria drew an army of skeletal robots that water, spray and water a mountain with a hose. Both works were painted over in February 2011. Allegedly, a French company needed the wall as a backdrop for a television production and received permission to paint it over. The largest and last mural of the entire MEGUNICA trip from 28./29. December 2006 extends over three side facades of a block of flats and shows another white-colored man lying on his back. His head and three other body parts are exposed. In the openings, small-scale, detailed scenarios in residential or office buildings are shown in red tones. In 2008, Blu installed a very similar motif with the walk-in head on London's Tate Modern .

Film data and awards

"Best Creative Documentary" at IDFA 2008

The film was produced in 2008 by Mercurio Cinematografica (Mercurio Films), Milan , in MiniDV format . The run length is 80 minutes. MEGUNICA has so far mainly been shown at smaller, specialized film festivals, including the Milano FilmFestival 2008, the Istanbul Animation Festival 2008, the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham 2009, the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2009 and the CutOut Fest in Querétaro, Mexico in 2009. That was in German-speaking countries The work can be seen in March 2009 at the Swiss Youth Film Festival in Zurich and in November 2011 in Hamburg's Gängeviertel as part of the WASH Social Art Festival (Urban Art Movie Night on November 13, 2009). A half-finished version was presented in September 2007 in the Villa Elisabeth ( Invalidenstrasse No. 4) at the Berlin art festival Illustrative . The film was awarded the following prizes:

  • "Best Creative Documentary" (special award) at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2008
  • "Special Merit Price" (Special Jury Price) at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2009
  • "Best Documentary" on the IX. Festival Concorso Iceberg (Visioni Italiane), Bologna 2009.

In addition, MEGUNICA was nominated for the “Grierson Youth Jury Award” at the Sheffield Doc / Fest (Sheffield International Documentary Festival (SIDF)) in 2008.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Original text of the Blu quote: Many of the countries in which we have been have had a tragic recent history whose effects are clearly visible - the daily poverty; the exploitation on the part of fruit multinationals like Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte, and the spreading violence they generate; the dictators supported by the United States; the soldiers trained in the US to seize and torture; the drug lords who dominate these countries; the people who desperately try to cross the border hoping for a better life. To hear these stories from the mouth of the people is not like reading it in books. Source: Caleb Nilon, p. 92 ff.
  2. ↑ All murals from the MEGUNICA trip are from 2006. Blu lists the photos of the murals in his SKETCH NOTE-BOOK, which deviates from the year 2007. Documented in the SKETCH NOTE-BOOK, his website, which is kept in the manner of a diary and regularly updated Blu has been doing his wall paintings, animations and other works since 2000.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Goethe-Institut Madrid: Street Art to go. Madrid Río Blu. As of 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Caleb Nilon, p. 92 ff.
  3. ↑ a b c James Gaddy, p. 100 ff.
  4. ↑ a b Megunica on the website of Lorenzo Fonda (English).
  5. ↑ Lorenzo Giusti, p. 138.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Travel Diary. In: MEGUNICA (English).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f The MEGUNICA murals by Blus
  8. ↑ The Dresden Maya Codex. In: Lacambalam.
  9. ^ Travel Diary. In: MEGUNICA (English). See one of the entries on December 8, 2006. Lorenzo's entry quoted in German translation reads in the original: […] giving Blu empty walls and some paint is like throwing fuel on a burning fire. Not satisfied with one, he painted another, […].
  10. ^ Blu Buenos Aires mural painted over. In: Buenos Aires Streetart, March 2, 2011 (English).
  11. ↑ a b Screening List . In: MEGUNICA (English).
  12. ↑ Film: MEGUNICA in the Gängeviertel. In: Urbanshit, November 7, 2011.
  13. ^ Daniel West: Film beats paper. In: Creative Review , London, November 2007, p. 52 (English).
  14. ^ IX Iceberg Festival, Bologna. ( 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. COMUNE DI BOLOGNA. Settore Cultura e rapporti con l'Università del Comune di Bologna. Bologna, 2009 (Italian). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.comune.modena.it