‘Places don’t have locations, but histories,’ asserts anthropologist Tim Ingold. Nothing could be truer when thinking about street art, which is both a reflection and symbol of the values of artists and the social needs that revolve around a specific area.
Some street artists, such as Banksy, use stencils for political and ethical battles, and a signature alone is enough to become the talk of the town (just think of the impact of 'Show me the Monet,' a provocation on the link between consumerism and culture, sold at auction for the modest sum of £6 million!).
Other artists express their support for social causes by directly engaging collective sensitivity in a sort of shared visual ritual: for instance, the Italian Jorit, with his profound realism, represents Pier Paolo Pasolini in a mural in Scampia, portraying him as a symbol of hope and culture in the neighborhood. In murals featuring Maradona and Che Guevara, as well as the portrait of Ilaria Cucchi, the aim is to fix precise images in the public's mind, connected to meanings of heroism, victory, and resistance.
Going further, and perhaps looking into a corner less frequented by mainstream media, we can then observe the images between the raw and the fantastic created by Faith 47, a South African street artist who juxtaposes spirituality and nature in an urban environment.
As a description of one of her works, she writes: 'In a single moment, about 2,000 storms hit the Earth, producing about 50 lightning strikes per second. Each lightning strike creates electromagnetic waves that begin to rotate around the Earth. Some of the waves, if they have the right length, manage to combine, increasing in strength and creating a repeated atmospheric heartbeat known as the Schumann resonance. In this series by Faith XLVII, the resonance serves as a metaphor for our collective actions, creating an overall reverberation that we can call human nature. The raw intimacy is explored on walls, abandoned buildings, copper screen prints, canvases, lithographs, and multi-screen video installations, intertwined with subtle references to dates of ancient wars and schools of hypnotism.'
Three artists described, three divergent intentions and styles. These are all forms of complex street art even in their definition: some call it urban art, graffiti-writing, neo-graffiti or post-graffiti, others stencil art, sticker art, poster art; some relate it to street installations, video projections, and practices like yarn bombing, subvertising, or experiences such as the so-called urban muralism or wall painting… To effectively capture this rich complexity, new and rapid languages are needed that identify and transmit identity clearly and directly. Videostrategy® is a great ally for us in this regard, let's see why:
The video is no longer just a support for the voice but a substantial element of the success of a strategy. Let's see how some projects, curated by Social Content Factory, have given a face and dynamism to specific intentions:
"The new Mark All product line has been portrayed through fast-paced sequences focusing on the artist Stefano Bonora at work. By using the products on a jacket as well as on a surface, he demonstrates their effectiveness, conveying the perception of a uniform texture, matte finish, and resistance to water and light. At the same time, he manages to emphasize the value of customization, essential for showcasing one's uniqueness
The Videostrategy® was also effective in showing how an advertisement can become a work of art: the street artist Neve, one of the most renowned representatives of Neomuralism in Italy, was hired by Banco BPM to create a mural at via Marghera 29 in Milan. The goal was to promote the new institutional campaign, and to do so, they chose to depict a goddess in satin and neoclassical style, capturing the ancient flavor of a shared heritage on one hand, and at the same time, the contemporaneity of the symbolic figure, attentive to communities and their innovative drives.
Recently, the Amazon Locker at the Rome Termini metro station was transformed into a work of urban art, thanks to the intervention of the visual artist and tattoo artist Luca Font. The video captured the artist in action, dynamically illustrating the functionality of the locker, which joins the other 21 already installed in the metro of the Capital, allowing customers to pick up or return their online purchases.
We ask Luca Font directly what he thinks about street art and how effective video can be in telling this particular form of art:
What is street art for you, what does it represent?
I have never liked identifying myself with a term, specifically with that of 'street art.' I consider my work to belong to the category of graffiti and post-graffiti, or at the limit, as an updated form of the muralist tradition dating back to the first half of the last century. Anyway, I consider what I do (and what I have always done since I entered the world of writing in the mid-nineties) primarily as an expressive necessity.
The introduction of artistic expressive forms into public spaces already represents, especially when conceived to relate to the surrounding reality, an act of redevelopment. The aesthetics inform the perception that people have of shared places, contributing to making them livable and alive, in a kind of reverse broken window theory that triggers a virtuous circle.
The big problem with enjoying art through social media is that the viewing window remains the same, regardless of whether it is a stamped postage or a painted building. When used strategically, video is generally more useful than photography in partially conveying the experience of standing in front of a painted wall, allowing you to live the very physical phase of creation.
Brands - and more generally public and private commissions - play the fundamental role of patrons because an increasing financial availability has allowed significant development in terms of both scale and frequency with which mural art appears on the contemporary urban landscape in recent years. It remains to be seen whether this is just a trend of the moment or whether it will leave lasting effects, but there is undoubtedly a transformation underway
Article by Isabella Garanzini, Group Head of Storytelling at The Story Group.
Photo source: https://www.romatoday.it/attualita/amazon-locker-termini-metro-b.html
Show Me The Monet, 2005. Fonte: https://banksyexplained.com/show-me-the-monet-2005/
710-650 BC, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 2016. Fonte: https://faith47.com/710-650-bc/
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