Artmossphere: Moscow Biennale of Street Art 2014

The main event at the Biennale was a large-scale exhibition at the ArtPlay Design Center showcasing  graphic work, installations, sculptures and mural painting of all invited artists.

Artmossphere Biennale brought together more than 50 artists from all over the world and occupied several galleries and public spaces in the city. The main action took place at Artplay Design Center where the exposition on 3000 square meters included the retrospective of American photojournalist Martha Cooper. During the exhibition Spanish artist Okuda installed a sculpture at Muzeon Park of Arts and several facades in the city were painted by the participating artists.

As a part of satellite events program, artists Alexey Luka, Anatoly Akue and Dmitry Gutov painted three trolleybuses, which make trips around the Garden Ring. Moscow Museum hosted the exhibition of train writers called Fragment, Schusev State Museum of Architecture — the exhibition Street Arch devoted to the history of monumental art in Moscow. French artist JR showcased his works at Solyanka Gallery. Moscow artists Alexey Luka and Dmitry Aske unveiled new graphics, paintings and assemblages at the exhibition The Long Tomorrow at Pechersky gallery aside from lectures and workshops.

The basic biennial concept was no concept. The only thing united all the participants - that is what they are working on the street. That is why it was possible to observe such a variety of styles, free from any academic school cliché methods and art experiments. At the Artplay were presented just as traditional works — canvases, drawings, murals, sculptures, installation, — so unexpected: for example, carpets.

Sabina Chagina, curator:  — I always get this question question: if it is street art, why you set up the exhibition in a gallery? The thing is that artists who started their career with graffiti, do not only work in the street but also in the studio — they paint on canvas, create sculptures and installations. You should not perceive street art only as New York graffiti of the 80-s, it evolved long time ago. Murals, post-graffiti, grafuturism, public art — call it whatever you like, it is a part of contemporary art.

We chose artists whose work do not associated with intricate concepts, temporal statements, speculation on popular topics. We are interested in a deep philosophical artistic view on the common routine things that exists outside of time or politic. So, perhaps, most of the participants, specially foreign -are the followers of Russian avant-garde — Constructivism and Suprematism.

Derek Bruno employs a combination of both two and three-dimensional work in efforts to illustrate the mental processes of perception. He uses basic shapes, colors and proportions to assist the viewer in a dimensional exploration of how one’s mind and eyes go about unpacking the world before them. Bruno describes himself as “A Maker. Seriously. Always. And if I’m not in the act of making, I’m probably discussing it.”

RUFO Project

Eltono's abstractions could be seen in the streets of more than 80 cities. His works appeared at Tate Modern, Fundacion Miro and Artium Museum. For the last 12 years it has been Eltono's great concern to combine street art with gallery art. Especially for Artmossphere Eltono dragged painted wooden planks face down through the streets of Moscow and added maps of his route to the project.