Street Art As Provocations To Change The World

I've always been attracted to the street art movement. Although I hate stupid tags without meaning, I have fallen in love with artists who open your mind while looking at their art, while providing beauty to the towns they work in. Banksy (UK), Invader (FR), or Zibe (IT) are just a few.

It all started with markers and spray cans years ago, but lately the street art movement has evolved; artists are getting more creative and are using a wide variety of tools and supports to open our eyes to the society in which we live!

Here are two examples of powerful street art project:

1. Alexander Orion is a Brazilian artist that uses the "Reverse Graffiti" or "Clean Tag" technique, which consists of selective removal of dirt and grime to reveal a fresco of clean wall (image, above). The technique is being used by several other artists as well, proving its powerful impact.

The goal of Orion's project is to highlight both the extreme quantities of pollution coating the tunnels of São Paulo and the public’s carelessness towards it. His choice of graphic imagery for the installation—a 160 meters long (525 ft.) collection of sightless skulls—serve as a blatant reminder that the toxic pollution released from the hundreds of thousands of vehicles that commute back and forth through the tunnel on a daily basis have left a tangible mark, not just on our physical structures, but also in the air we breathe and in the environment that is supposed to sustain us.

Orion was approached by authorities several times during his nightly visits to the tunnel, but they were powerless to stop him because there’s nothing illegal about cleaning… In the end, they could only remove his installation by high-pressure hosing the whole tunnel from end to end; but they didn’t stop there, they continued onto every other tunnel in the city, cleaning them all!

Artist’s website: www.alexandreorion.com/ossario/images.html

Video: youtu.be/JwsBBIIXT0E

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2. JR is a photographer and artist that describes himself as a "photograffeur." He flyposts large black and white photographic images in public locations—in a manner that is similar to the appropriation of the built environment by graffiti artists. The idea is to show the world its true face by pasting photos of human faces across massive canvases.

He says that the street is the largest art gallery in the world… And in this way, he can touch people that don’t go to museum.

One of his most famous projects is called "face2face." For this, he worked with Palestinian and Israeli citizens to explore the similarities of their daily lives, rather than focusing on the divisions; he highlighted fundamental human emotions. Israelis and Palestinians doing the same job—such as taxi drivers and teachers—agreed to be photographed crying, laughing, and making faces. Their portraits were then pasted without authorization from the local authorities in eight Israeli and Palestinian cities as well as on two sides of the wall that separate the two countries, demonstrating that art and laughter can challenge stereotypes.

When he did the project, people wondered why a stranger came to paste faces of "enemies" in their hometown. But he explained his concept, by showing two portraits (one Israeli, one Palestinian) and asked them: who is the Israeli and who is the Palestinian. Most people couldn’t answer him. That's when they understood that behind their cultural differences, they are very similar, and remain human first and foremost, and human with similar values! 

Video: dai.ly/bplUUY

For more info about the artist or other projects, such as "Women are heroes," have a look at the artist’s website: jr-art.net/

JR's TED Prize 2011: www.ted.com/talks/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html (Thanks to Joyce Lee for sending the TED link)