UrbanArt Biennale
The UrbanArt Biennale is a biennial exhibition that deals with urban art . The aim of the biennale is to shed light on current positions in this art movement, to document its development and to give an overview of the world urban art scene. Venue of the exhibition is the European Center for Art and Industrial Culture in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte in Saarland Völklingen .
history
In 2011 the first exhibition entitled Urban Art - Graffiti 21. New York, Paris, Berlin , Völklingen took place in the Möllerhalle of the Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site. The idea for this came from the general director of the hut, the art historian, museum educator and cultural manager Meinrad Maria Grewenig . As one of the first of his guild, he noticed that, apart from the banal graffiti - " graffiti " in the urban world, artistically designed graffiti, which often had sophisticated furnishings, was increasingly present in public spaces . Grewenig had already dealt with Pop and Op Art in the run-up to the Biennale and examined their influence on Urban Art in a number of extensive exhibitions in the Völklinger Hütte World Heritage Site.
Grewenig's idea of a biennial on the subject of urban art was also influenced by an artistic peculiarity in the Saarland capital of Saarbrücken . The city motorway runs along the Saar in the inner-city recreation area of Staden . Below this expressway, the 450-meter-long graffiti area " 4560 ", which is considered to be one of the largest contiguous legal spray areas in Germany, was legalized on the concrete wall between the motorway and the towpath . It has been painted by internationally known artists at several meetings. One of these prominent graffiti artists was Patrick Jungfleisch from Saarbrücken, artist name Reso . Grewenig was able to win him over as a consultant and actor for his plan to install a biennial. Reso also arranged the necessary artist contacts, as he was deeply rooted in the global urban art scene.
concept
The UrbanArt Biennale offers a comprehensive presentation of the young art movement Urban Art. It documents the upheaval in this art on the way from the streets to the museums. Each biennale is devoted to a special thematic focus, be it geographical, artistic or personal focus. The core of the respective biennial is formed by extensive exhibitions by international urban art artists, which are presented in the huge halls and former workrooms as well as in the outdoor area of the former Völklinger Hütte. The central exhibition location of the Biennale is the so-called Möllerhalle in the former ironworks , which has an exhibition area of over 10,000 m². Its rust-brown dust walls and the silo indentations that visitors can walk into create the desired tension between the urban art works of art and the rough industrial architecture of the ironworks.
UrbanArt Parcours
For the first time in the young history of the Biennale, the central exhibition in the Möllerhalle was supplemented in 2013 by an open-air gallery with 100,000 m² of open space, the “UrbanArt Parcours”. The northern outer area of the former hut, on which the coking plant was located, includes an open-air area called "Paradise". Consciously and deliberately, nature is allowed to unfold in this landscape garden without human intervention, so that a charming arc of tension emerged between the exterior of the monumental hut, which is characterized by industrial architecture, and the terrain reclaimed by nature. In this environment, urban artists assemble installations that correspond in a special way to the natural location and form a synthesis of large-scale technology and nature. The “UrbanArt-Parcours” is to be expanded as part of all future biennials.
Exhibitions
2011
In 2011 a large exhibition entitled Urban Art - Graffiti 21 New York, Paris, Berlin, Völklingen was presented for the first time. The presentation in the Völklinger Hütte, at that time not a center for urban art, wanted to give an overview of the diversity of contemporary street art. It turned out to be a stroke of luck that at the same time as the Völklingen exhibition, the presentation Art in the streets , which was similar in content and setting standards , took place in the renowned Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles . The international art world - museums, galleries and specialist media - reported intensively on both exhibitions. As a result, Völklingen's new project quickly became the focus of international art observers.
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2013
Meinrad Maria Grewenig calls the transformation process, to which the first biennale in 2013 was primarily dedicated, “From the street to culture”. The beginnings of street art - graffiti, urban knitting , adbusting, etc. a. - were originally signs of a protest attitude, however understood. They were perceived by the owners of the painted surfaces, that is, by private as well as public owners, as damage to their property. The state reacted by criminalizing and prosecuting the “damage to property”. Over the years, the framework conditions for this art form had changed permanently: it became mobile, independent of location and accepted by the cultural environment. The new art movement was and will also be of interest to the museum. Grewenig predicts that Urban Art will “... become worthy of a museum as a symbol of the beginning of the 21st century. UrbanArt will change the museum in this way. "
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2015
The second biennial opened on March 29, 2015 and ended on November 1 of the same year. It was still the primary goal of the 2015 Biennale to present a retrospective on the international urban art scene. This time, young artists who do not yet have the same reputation as the stars of the scene were deliberately invited to offer them an international forum for their work. With over 80 artists from 21 countries and six continents, the exhibition has doubled compared to 2013. Furthermore, new rooms (signal boxes and coal tower) were added.
With urban art works from the Arab region and especially from Egypt , the 2015 Biennale set a country focus for the first time. During the “ Arab Spring ”, graffiti and other forms of street art were used as a means of expressing the fight against repression, social injustices and for free expression in the Arab states and particularly in Egypt. This was impressively demonstrated in the German documentary Art War by Marco Wilms. The Biennale also showed works that dealt with Islamist terrorism and the Paris attack (“ Charlie Hebdo ”). The “course” of the 2015 Biennale was upgraded with new installations, such as the 25 meter high tree graffito by the French artist Ludo
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2017
The fourth biennale took place from April 9, 2017 to November 5, 2017. Over 100 international artists from 17 countries and four continents showed a total of 150 works. One focus of the 2017 Biennale was the “UrbanArt 2.0” project, which revolves around avant-garde work using IT technology . A second focus highlighted the South and Central American urban art scene in Argentina , Brazil , Chile , Colombia , Mexico and Venezuela . As part of the biennale, 20 permanent installations were created. In addition, a lecture series with international experts on current scientific positions in urban art was offered during the exhibition . In total, the event attracted 150,000 visitors.
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2019
The fifth UrbanArt Biennale took place from April 14th to November 3rd, 2019. Works by 100 artists from 20 countries were again on view. The focus was on interventional works under the motto Unlimited . More than 110,000 visitors could be counted.
See also
literature
- Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Urban Art - Graffiti 21. Wunderhorn-Verlag, Heidelberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-88423-372-6 .
- Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): UrbanArt Biennale 2013. Wunderhorn-Verlag, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-88423-438-9 .
- Fascination Völklinger Hütte: UrbanArt and 60 years of pop history are presented as a world cultural heritage site. In: Kunstraum Metropol Freiburg. Issued December 2013.
- Seize the potential for the future. Meinrad Maria Grewenig on the museum of the 21st century. In: Kunstzeitung. Lindinger + Schmid publishing house, Berlin, May 7, 2013.
- Völklinger Hütte: l'art urbain dans la salle des mélanges. In: Le Républicain Lorrain. Metz, March 23, 2013.
- "Schmerei" becomes a cultural asset. UrbanArt: First graffiti biennial in the Völklinger Hütte. In: Trierischer Volksfreund. March 23, 2013.
- Andreas Blechschmidt (Ed.): Free OZ! Street art between revolt, repression and commerce. With photos by Theo Bruns. Association A, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86241-424-6 .
- Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): UrbanArt Biennale 2015. 2nd, extended edition. Wunderhorn-Verlag, Heidelberg 2015, ISBN 978-3-88423-510-2 .
Web links
- Youtube: Report on the UrbanArt Biennale 2013 (German language)
- Video for the 5th UrbanArt Biennale 2019
Individual evidence
- ↑ Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Generation Pop! Exhibition catalog. Wunderhorn-Verlag, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-88423-450-1 .
- ↑ Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Avant Pop. Josef Wittlich - paintings. Exhibition catalog. Wunderhorn-Verlag, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-88423-449-5 .
- ↑ Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Game Art . Exhibition catalog. Hatje Crantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2003, ISBN 3-7757-9185-X .
- ^ Graffiti wall on the Saarbrücken city motorway ( memento from March 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) at location-guide.de
- ↑ Grewenig: The power of UrbanArt. In: UrbanArt Biennale 2013.
- ↑ Grewenig: The power of UrbanArt. In: UrbanArt Biennale 2013.
- ↑ Esther Brenner: The revolution on the walls. Egyptian graffiti artists in the Völklinger Hütte. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung (Culture) of April 13, 2015, p. B5.
- ↑ Esther Brenner: A Mecca for sprayers and rappers. Völklinger Hütte opens the season with an “UrbanArt” show. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung (Culture) of March 25, 2015, p. B4.
- ↑ Esther Brenner: When the pictures learn to walk . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung from 1./2. April 2017, page B4
- ↑ Report to PressReader
- ↑ UrbanArt Biennale® 2019 Unlimited “of the world cultural heritage Völklinger Hütte goes into the final exhibition week at voelklinger-huette.org