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Urbane Folklore – Kunstraum Innsbruck

| Kunstraum Innsbruck from July 6th to August 23rd 2013. By selecting a number of different outlooks on street art, the exhibition playfully approaches the concept of folklore.

Assembling works by Herbert Baglione (BR), Bibichun (MY), BLU (IT), D PLUS (MM), Shepard Fairy (US), A.J. Fosik (US), Os Gemêos (BR), Koralie (FR), Daniel Man (DE), 9 Micro (MM), Thu Myat (MM), Mirko Reisser (DAIM) (DE), SupaKitch (FR), Thu Myat (MM), Vitché (BR), as well as Zezão (BR), it examines how folklore manifests itself through different artistic styles. Thus the subject, usually weighed down by clichés, undergoes a revision and, through the eyes of street art, is provided with a global and universal language, whilst keeping in mind the respective cultural background. Through a sampling of street art and folklore the artists deliberately act at a remove from commercialised cosiness and out-of-date politics. Instead, they translate their own culture’s catalogue of images into a contemporary and popular picture culture that everybody is able to access and understand.

Consequently, the exhibition title also harks back to the concept of a “planetary folklore”, as postulated by Victor Vasarely who, in the nineteen-sixties, defined urban space as a polychromatic, planetary spatial world. With his “unité plastique” Vasarely aimed to create a universal artistic language that should make the urban habitat shapeable and inhabitable for everyone. Thus artistic creation by means of collective participation is turned into a utopian idea, so as to overcome the diversity of cultures and explore the respective models of identity, with their overlaps and interactions. Art in this manner expands the urban space and becomes collective social practice. With the commercialisation of urban space, however, this utopian dream went up in smoke. Today it is media narratives, such as the advertising of international corporations and Hollywood blockbusters, that occupy public spaces all over the world, thus implementing a global picture language into our daily lives. This is where the exhibition starts from and where street art comes into play, shedding a positive light on the subject.


Image above: “DAIM – up and around Innsbruck” / “DAIM – dripping end” / “DAIM ?$ II” | Mirko Reisser (DAIM)
Courtesy: Kunstraum Innbruck / Reinking Collection | Photo © MRpro

The exhibition “Urban Folklore” presents paintings, graphic works, and objects by various artists who shape urban space through their polychromatic interventions in order thus, by way of their own art form, to develop a universally understandable language, a language that is at the same time rooted in their own culture, and to create new spaces for experience in a city. This will be the first time that street art from Myanmar and Malaysia is presented in Austria. Moreover, the exhibition will include a large mural created in situ by DAIM and an extensive spatial installation by Daniel Man. Both artists will be present at the opening.

Artists
Herbert Baglione, BLU, Mirko Reisser (DAIM), Daniel Man, Shepard Fairey, A.J. Fosik, Os Gemeos, Koralie, SupaKitch, Vitché, Zezao, Bibichun, D Plus, 9 Micro & Bart, Thu Myat

Kunstraum Innsbruck
Maria Theresien Str. 34, Arkadenhof
A-6020 Innsbruck
Austria

Thu – Fri: 12 – 6 pm | Sat: 11 am – 4 pm