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Festival Nuart street

Nuart 24

It was a with great pleasure i accepted an invite from my old friend Martyn Reid to participate in the Nuart festival in Stavanger Norway (They also do a Nuart Aberdeen ). I worked on this festival for over a decade being first invited as an exhibiting artist (when it was more of a New Media festival in 2004) and coming back year after year in a progression of roles from curator to artist and production manager. The year after we met Nuart started to focus on street art, the budget was small and the possibilities of painting round the city were non existent. We ended up painting some abandoned buildings in a down at heel part of town as well as staging a small show up at the arts centre Tou Scene in 2005.

Since then the Festival has grown, huge murals appeared around the town, logistics grew, cherry pickers were hired with a huge volunteer task force who’s amazing help allowed the thing to grow into a world leading festival of art on the street, drawing camera crews from CNN from the USA, Google it. With amazing artist line ups from across the globe, the curation of each years participants tells you a lot about the way street art has developed over the years, covering most aspects of public space art intervention. From situationalists to muralists, wheat paste to spray paint, key artists from the history of the medium as well as show casing the breadth of the techniques happening on the street today.

I did a decade of production and have visited them a few times as an artist over the years, so it with great pleasure to be invited back for this years ‘Intangible’ festival. A back to basics approach to urban mark making. A what you can carry method of production on un sanctioned spaces. Not a mural in sight. I have always been a fan of floor based works that you come across when walking round a town. It all seemed to start with that for me. Over the years people have worked out logistics for larger and larger works. Rollers on poles, fire extinguisher and extendable ladders, anything you could carry on public transport and then over fences but it rarely involved a cherry picker or a scissor lift.

For 5 days i wandered the city with a hi-viz popping up life size works, i used a ladder once… it was lovely. I have a good knowledge of the city built on my years of production of the festival which meant i had a good idea of places i wanted to paint and images i wanted to drop there. What a wonderful week thank you Stavanger, a sea of thumbs ups, Coffee and cake, even two six packs and a packet of fags! Most importantly i didn’t get chased once.

A couple of things didn’t fit the walls chosen, and were painted over, sorry for that. But i think that much of it will stay and brings a certain something to the places chosen, but like all street art it’s councils and maintenance contracts that are the curators of our public space.

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murals norway Nuart street

Framed

A half finished mural

Some beautiful night shots taken by B Tallman

So i’ve been painting a series of underpasses in Stavanger over the last few years, the latest collaborating with Martyn Reed . The idea is to make the wall look like the Summer show at the RA. The Royal academy Started in 1768 with a the type of show that was in style across Europe hanging the works with much of the walls covered by hundreds of frames these rooms were often called Salons shows.

The difference with this install is that all the easy to reach frames are empty waiting to be filled by passers by. It took 3 and a half days to put up close to a hundred frames. Thankfully i had help from Helga, calum and The J0n. On the last morning people had started to fill the frames with collage , acrylic paint and Pen. Looking forward to how this wall is going to progress, bit nervous too.

photos by Brian Tallman
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commission mural Nuart Stavanger

Herbarium, Kluge, Stavanger

Commissioned by Nuart festival for a stunning new building in Stavanger, Norway.

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Festival Nuart street Uncategorized

Nuart 2019

It was nice to be asked back to Nuart after a few years away from Stavanger. As i used to work on production for the festival, the visit was radically different to my previous years experiences. Coupled with the fact i was painting my new Gaffa-tape “Stick em” up series, it gave me a fresh pair of eyes to see the town and festival. No cherry pickers, no assistants and no confirmed walls meant i was free to wander the town and paint these little pieces on doors and electrical cabinets at my own pace.

In my opinion, the placement of art on the street is often key to the work’s success, both visually and, often, in terms of its longevity. It’s a dynamic that is hard to re-create during a festival, as artists from all over the world descend on a town or city with pre-ordered paint, ideas and walls. With artists wanting to go large, festivals wanting a mark worthy of the booking and a city wanting eye-candy to brighten its darkest corners, that placement is often overlooked. As a producer, i am only too well aware of the conflict between all the interests, the art form and its roots. So it was great when Martyn Reed offered a retro way of working for my trip to Nuart 2019.

Photo by Runa Andersen

A map showing the spots painted over the 4 days in town.

Nuart is a festival close to my heart, it’s always great fun and the shows in the beer halls at Tou have been some of my proudest production moments. It’s always a great crew thats easy to work with and a real party feeling for the week or two that you’re there. Loved a lot of the work around me and it was a pleasure to be asked back to take part

Above Oscar and Gabriel, local rude kids who have grown up with Nuart and who i’ve know through the festival since birth. This year they made it into the show.

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Festival film Nuart

Take your pick

I am sure you all know that feeling… After a big night out, you wake in the morning with that horrible feeling of dread and guilt at what has gone on the night before…Then you realise you probably got away with it? Then you remember you had a camera crew with you… Good job they are very good friends!

MZM PROJECTS” is an independent group formed in Ukraine by Kristina Borhes and Nazar Tymoshchuk, focused on research and documentation of the street art, graffiti, post-graffiti and other artistic practices in urban culture.

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Festival Nuart Stavanger Uncategorized

When the Music’s over….Turn off the lights.

Well it’s been a busy, blurry week. Finally there is little to do other than travel home tired and a bit broken. A truly amazing week with a really nice bunch of people. This years Nuart had an amazing bunch of volunteers who helped us all paint walls, drive cars, find lost phones and generally provide the momentum that created the show. They are too numerous to mention, but i will try (if i’ve forgotten you, nudge me and i’ll add your name). Thank you Vegar, Andreas, Erik, Annette, Joanna ,Crystal, GT, Ove, Mirian, Gjoa, Graham, Chris, Emma, Nina, Trym, Liz, Ruth Adele, Epiphany and Thomas. The production team rocked and occasionally rolled. While we lick our self inflicted wounds and pick over the photos here’s a few of the ones i found this morning. There will be a steady stream over the coming weeks. Can’t wait to see the backstage shots that Kay Donnelly caught (it got very messy). Photographs below by Erik Furuland
putupjobflapPhotographs below by Ian CoxIMG_7844_800_Artist_Dotmaster_Nuart_2013_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2013IMG_5333_1200_Artist_Dotmaster_Nuart_2013_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2013_1IMG_4941_1200_Artist_David_Choe_Nuart_2013_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2013_1IMG_6642_1200_Artist_Culture Minister_Nuart_2013_Photo_©_Ian_Cox_2013Nuart was visited by the Cultural Minister for the Norwegian Government, just as you think you’re getting some sort of recognition, they have a bloody election and oust the buggers…oh well bet we will be favourites with the new right wing government….Not!
Well, thats it for another year, can’t wait to show you the silly side of the festival…coming soon!

 

 

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Nuart Stavanger

Backstage Nuart

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group show Nuart Stavanger Uncategorized

Nuart promo

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Festival Nuart Stavanger

Nuart 2013

It’s early days up at Tou for Nuart13, Roa, David Choe, Dot, Dot, Dot and myself have started popping up around town. The weathers great (for the moment) so we’re lapping it up. Loads more folk turn up at the weekend, and it looks like it’s going to be a busy week. It’s been a long time since i painted at Nuart, the last thing was the large Toy bear at the end of Pedersgate, so keeping with that theme… There’s a mean old Toy turf war going on out there, with Kewpie dolls lining out Action men, tin toy Robbie the robot having beef with Mr potato Head, there’s trouble in Toy town.

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toy_combo1

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Categories
commission Festival Nuart street

A call for walls in Stavanger

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It’s often hard being an artist and head of production for Nuart, your often too busy to really make a mark and often facilitate other artists walls before turning to your own needs. So this is a call for walls, to you the people of Stavanger. Have a Dotmaster work upon your wall! I’ve been coming to the town for 8 odd years now…jeez… Half my bloody facebook is in Norwegian! So now its time to call in a few favours. I need some walls to host my own work around the town of Stavanger. I made around 5 over life size characters to dot around town (excuse the pun) and need a few walls that are 2.5m high by 1.8m-2.5m wide…Ring any bells? Perhaps the side of your house, shop or oil museum? Don’t hold back! it just needs to be flat (i know, i know, that cuts a lot of traditional houses, but…) any colour will be considered. If thats not you, then perhaps you know someone with wall, perhaps they have a boat, a business, an oil museum? If you do then mail mjolbo@gmail.com and ask for Super Marte