Above: When in Rome

Above: “I found this real life gladiator in front of the Roman Colosseum where he was charging 5-Euros from tourists to have their photo taken with him. I bargained with him to stand next to the painted gladiator and I got more than I expected”.

Objects 3 – Interview with Igor P

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1. Why have you decided to release a 3rd chapter to “Object” ? What makes it different to the 2 previous books ?

I think, street art must convey a message to people and to be totally interactive. In Russia, street art has poor evolution, but I’m always interested in participating to the graffiti subculture evolution. In 2005 year I created a web-site : www.visualartifacts.ru. This web-site supported Russian street art. After a few months the idea came of “Objects” book.
First and second books contained best works of the Russian street artists and explored ex. USSR graffiti scene. In Russia there’s not enough interesting art projects. So, I had the idea of the Red Cube.

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Third issue like the previous one, is mostly dedicated to Russian street art innovation reviews and events in the street art community. But this issue was conceived as something more meaningful than an ordinary street art album.
“Objects” cubed – is a project aimed to stimulate creative experimentation among Russian street artists, a call to overcome two dimensional and typographic street art, which is unfortunately the  dominant trend in Russia. Our goal is redirect artists’ potential into the field of free art unrestricted to the urban surfaces only. So, this third issue is focused on three dimensional objects and space-volume compositions, created by various artists on the streets of the city. It’s the first time when the title reflects the contents so literally.

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2. What has been the harder on the making of the book ?

Working on the books I had two big problems: artists are very lazy and are not ready for big projects and unique ideas. European street artists inspired by Russian art works and making a copy-past, this very sad. I think it is a big problem, that disturb evolution Russian artists.

3. Watching you book, we really have the feeling the Russia scene is extremely active with many diversity. But at the same time your latest personal project is named “Russian street-art is dead”?

But evolution cannot exist without experiment. Culture that blindly replicates tradition is a dead culture. One of the main intentions of this title – is a call to discover new areas of experimentation, to employ new media, to invent new forms of street expression, because, unfortunately, only a very few Russian street artists dare to tread new paths…
So, I came to the conclusion, that Russian street-art is dead. This subculture is very small and without evolution, it’s dead. “Russian street-art is dead” it’s my conception now, and my last exhibition confirms that.

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4. Can you tell us the name of an artist from Moscow we should know about ?

I don’t really have a new interesting Russian artists to present now. There’s a few artists like me: Scheme, 183, 0331c and Misha Most, but it is not enough.
Right now, I’m working on my own public street-art projects. It’s a bit early to talk about a fourth book.

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5. If I visited Moscow, which are the places I shouldn’t miss?

My recommendation art’s place in Moscow:
Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory,
Tretyakov gallery,
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Official web-site: www.objectsbook.ru

With Best Regards, Igor P.
Homepage: www.prokvadrat.ru

You can order Objects 3 from Europe and from Russia.

You can also download the pdf of Objects 2.

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T.I.G #4

T.I.G #4

Chor Boogie in Brazil

Chor Boogie recently went to brazil painting some commissions as well as collaborate with photographer Jihan Abdalla on her documentation of prostitutes in Brazil …

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Chor boogies involvement was to scout out the right prostitutes for a series he is painting that will be featured in the book as well…along with meeting new artists…. He also collaborated with the Fleshbeck crew painting walls in the dangerous favellas of Rio di Janero . In this case was wild… Simply because they are owned and operated by the drug zars and when we approach the walls we painted we get greeted by a 15 year old with 29 millimeters in his waist saying everything is cool. Hows that to make you feel safe…the people may not have much money  but they have the best view of the city… Also as well .. Painting walls in villa  Mimosa  a red light district of Rio,collaborating with an artist named Bragga and Vagner.. Who where pretty fresh hosts by the way..

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Then comes Sao Paulo connecting with Os Gemeos and Nunca to paint but unfortunately timing was off and people where busy but where pretty fresh guys over the phone  and plan to hook up with them next time….being put up in ritzy hotel in Sao Paulo paid for by Leo Burnett agency one of the top 5 ad agencies in the world ..simply gave a lecture and painted live…collaborating with  Gaz urban art and artists such as Cena7, Emol,and Obranco…then this leaves us to the last part of the trip painting in the 2nd largest prostitute district in the world in campinas …imagine  thousands of prostitutes organized in a 10 mile radius supporting a city of refuge and i mean putting clothes on each others back making sure children get education running water the works … No matter what its still third world and its no joke as i was leaving a transvestite was found bent over naked with there clothes next to him murdered as people from the area scamper to go take a peek, along with a wild police chase because somebody thought it was that time to rob a store…good times …. Could happen any where ..but over all it was an amazing learning trip of my life…