On March 1st, the Valladolid billboard management company started its poster renewal route for the new month. But this time, one of the billboards wasn’t advertising, but a splendid artpiece by Lithuanian artist Vulovak, printed in size 8 x 3 m. The operators themselves claimed: "this is something that gets us out of the routine!” as they glued it at a slower pace than usual in order to let videographer Julien Gallez record the whole process that was filling us with emotions and adrenaline.
This documentation will be displayed next Friday 10th from 19h as a starting point of the project in “La Recámara” section (“The Chamber”) of the gallery La Gran, under the title "sin logo", a nod to the investigation of the Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein “No Logo”. As if it was an untitled picture (sin título), “sin logo” implies a whole declaration of war to the excess of advertising through the search of a greater visual purity.
Along with the video, a series of sketches will display my own research process of a unified language to take over different city bus stop billboards throughout the year. They are drawings as they develop, without editing or presumptions, as a sample of the honesty of the exploration - and the project itself -, presenting an aspect that will not be seen in the streets.
I want them to be drawn by hand, because I believe that drawings always portray something similar to the World structure. From my perspective, drawing is everywhere: in art, in design, even in architecture or photography. I could almost affirm that when you are a drawer, drawing is in your everyday life, even in those moments when you’re not physically drawing. Although they will be scanned, adapted and printed later on, they will still preserve the handmade sign that contrasts with the industrial background, usually stripped of all identity.
As an introduction to the project and exhibition, here’s the one minute presentation by Julien Gallez and the recently published article by Sergio Soto Negro:
Article: Urban art to gain ground to invasive advertising
Meanwhile, “Interflow” by Vulovak (also known as Morfai in his street interventions) exposes his innards to the city of Valladolid. An unknown place for the artist, where a Spanish freak girl that he once met in Kaunas contacts him three years later to invite him to display his work. Vulovak paints in the streets, but also in his studio. His subtlety especially draws my attention, with a very personal approach to street art aesthetics, and the simplicity with which he seems to do everything, without too many explanations or speeches. His work seems to be free to me. Beautiful! And that’s all!
As a young artist, it’s not easy to come all the way from Lithuania to Spain, as our budget is very limited. However, I send the images of the process to him, I even sent a picture of the advertising that resided there before his intervention. At that point, his attention went directly to the painting that was right below the billboard. He asked me if it was a work of the Valencian street artist Escif. I sent him the webpage of the artist and his series “Escombro” (Debris) and he soon declared «I am very happy to be next to the work of Ignacio Pérez Jofre».