The Cans Festival

"Graffiti belongs to everyone and no one. On a section of a condemned wall, I put up a graffito. . . (A) bank director stopped the construction work, had my carving cut out as a fresco and inlayed it in the wall of his apartment."
- Pablo Picasso

Art is Art & Street Art is Art plus

Modern graffiti has its roots in 1970s African-American hip-hop culture, in which graffiti "tags" the term for the heavily stylised signatures and symbols that compose a lot of graffiti, were a form of vandalism and protest, a declaration of personal and cultural identity, and a way to reclaim neglected spaces.
Now practiced as much by white skate-punks as by black youth, some graffiti has achieved remarkable beauty and skill—even making it into art galleries—while remaining vandalism in most places.

The Cans Festival, a stencil art street battle, took place last month in the Leake Street of London, where a line-up of renowned graffiti artists made the street explode with colours and powerful social messages. The event dubbed the Cans Festival, which took place in the UK, grabbed the attention of a wide audience.
The disused road tunnel, in South London, was turned into a giant exhibition space, for some of the world's graffiti artists who dabbled with their paints in front of an enchanted enthusiastic audience. The in a half-mile stretch of the tunnel in Leake Street, Waterloo was transformed from a dark forgotten corner to a cutting edge exhibition space, with stencil graffiti on the walls and 3D art installations. Artists who took part are the reference in their field. To name a few, Blek le Rat, Pure Evil, Jef Aerosol, Banksy, Logan Hicks, Eelus, as well as members of the public, who were also invited to join. The pictures featured in this page speak loud the kind of atmosphere that prevailed at this major street art event.

The Tate Innovates...

Design by Edel Rodriguez

THE TATE MODERN'S STREET ART EXHIBITION

The label Street Art has been used since the late Seventies, and the work, by its very nature, is in constant flux and hard to categorise. Broadly speaking the term has come to define the more visual and engaging urban art as opposed to text-based graffiti and tagging.
Today & for the first time ever, the Tate Modern --The Tate Modern in London is Britain's national museum of international modern art-- has commissioned artists to paint the facade of its building along the Thames, signaling the project as the first major public museum display of Street Art in London.

Street Art at Tate Modern brings to the fore an important aspect of current art practice and one that has influenced acclaimed artists, including Basquiat and Picasso.
So finally, street art gets a major recognition by an institution that could hardly be topped, in terms of established art: The Tate Modern of London. The works of six internationally acclaimed artists will be presented to tag the museum's façade.
The artists are: Blu from Bologna, Italy; the artist collective Faile from New York, USA; JR from Paris, France; Nunca and Os Gemeos, both from Sao Paulo, Brazil and Sixeart from Barcelona, Spain. All six artists are represented in major collections around the world and regularly shown in gallery exhibitions and biennales; but their work began in public urban spaces and remains indebted to Street Art and graffiti traditions.

Street Art at Tate Modern opened at the same time as Tate Modern’s four day festival of art and performance, where 'The Street Art Walking Tour,' an urban tour of specific art sites around the city is scheduled and presented by a group of five Madrid-based artists: 3TTMan, Spok, Nano 4814, El Tono and Nuria.
In addition to that unexpected yet eclectic & formidable happening at Tate, an interactive evening with experimental New York artists, Graffiti Research Lab, is set to reface the Tate Modern with graffiti light projections. Street Art at Tate Modern running through 23 May-August 25th 2008 at Tate Modern, Bankside London SE1 9TG.

Exclusive photos by Sirdab correspondent: Gina Mansour

Clean Beirut

Arofish, a stencil artist living in the UK, has tagged our funky town Beirut. Here is the Sukleen man he drew; he explains how he got inspired for this stencil graffiti. More of his work in Beirut here.

"These Syrian guys who tirelessly clean the streets here are the true heroes of the city if you ask me. I filled in the cracks on this wall and painted it white one fine morning in front of half the Lebanese army and a crowd of protesters. Tony Blair was in town for a spot of hypocritical mumbling and the city became even more of a militarized zone for the day. Martyrs Square and most of central Beirut was off limits.
Another great day for democracy. I went back home covered in crap, put on the TV and there was Caiomhe Butterly (whom I'd said goodbye to in Aita al-Shaab the day before) inside the conference hall. She was unfurling a banner about Israeli apartheid while security bustled around her and Tony stood behind, guiltily fumbling his fingers and trying to look unruffled. Next day, I did a dawn assault on the wall as I'd been clocked by a few plain clothes guys with radios the day before. Thanks go to May for writing the Arabic and for negotiating so skillfully with the roaming security guards."