GRAFFITI & BANANAS EXHIBITION - The Art of the Street

4.9.2020 –21.3.2021 | Nordico Stadtmuseum Linz

Is this art or can it be trashed? Graffiti and street art have a way of polarising: wilful damage to property for some, for others added value or even art for the city and its inhabitants. When U.S.- American subculture came into being in the 1960s, graffiti became omnipresent in urban environments all over the world.

Since the 1980s a graffiti scene has developed in Linz, too, which became socially acceptable at the latest with the creation of Mural Harbor.

It did not take long for its potential for tourism and business to be discovered. Covering a wide range from “signatures”, political slogans, stencil images and stickers on garbage cans to large-scale colourful spray paintings, these anti- establishment comments are to be found practically everywhere in Linz’s urban landscape. Unauthorised art takes possession of the city, raising once more the question of who public space belongs to. External determination, the culture of permissiveness and self-empowerment are all part of our societal structure and have incrementally been gaining in importance ever since the Covid-19 pandemic became part of everyday life.

The exhibition is the first of its kind to address the history of graffiti and street art in Linz. Photos, reports and contemporary topical art- works illustrate an urban movement whose pictorial language reflects in its murals the sociopolitical climate of our city.

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I am honored to have been invited to exhibit my project Banana Graffiti, including a live painting performance during the opening in Linz, on September 3th, 2020.

Curator: Klaudia Kreslehner

www.nordico.at

Hall of Fame:

ASK, B, CHINAGIRL TILE, HOECK&COVEN, ILLUNIS, KAMI, LOL, MAMUT&KRYOT, MARS, ONETWO CREW, OONA VALARIE, HELGA SCHAGER, SHED, SHUE77, SKERO, VIDEO.SCKRE, WALZE

Mit Werken von Andrea Böning, Robbie Conal, Faile, Shepard Fairey, Faith47, Frau Isa, Ben Frost, Vasilena Gankovska, Gregor Graf, Margit Greinöcker & Betty Wimmer, Marta Grossi, Reinhard Gupfinger, Gerhard Haderer, Reinhard Haider, Keith Haring, Douglas Hoekzema, Eginhartz Kanter, Anton Kehrer, Roland Maurmair, Perfekt World, Pose, Leo Schatzl, Stinkfish, Coco Wasabi, u.a.

On the poster:

Lions Wall by Video Oner, Berlin 2017 Foto: Marc Bauer