On March 10th, we celebrated the launching of "Ocho por Tres" in "La Recámara", a space for projects and micro-residences in the back area of La Gran gallery. As they themselves describe, "La Recámara" ("The Chamber") is the place where the cartridge is placed in the back of a firearm, a perfect metaphor for a project that is generated in that place (with the invaluable support of Pedro Gallego and Sara Blanco) but shoots in the streets.
We spent three hours of smiles, wine and debate. I especially enjoyed getting suggestions and very constructive critics, even from those not so familiar with art. Somehow I feel that everyone can contribute to a project like "Ocho por Tres" because it has among its many targets the constant debate with all types of spectators.
During around a month, it will be possible to sit on the sofa of "La Recámara" and contemplate a 175 x 120 cm paper - the size of a bus shelter billboard- with a hand-copied fragment of the chapter "No space" from the book "No Logo" (Naomi Klein, year 2000). The handwriting will act as a whisper, attracting the attention of the curious people that will bring "their ears" to a poster that this time won't be a shrill advertisement, but a simple drawing paper where a human calligraphy relates all its own identity. Beside it, a video recorded and edited by Julien Gallez (that I attach below with the English subtitles option) documents the entire process of placing the first poster of urban artist Vulovak: the workers climbing the ladder, the passers-by watching and giving their opinion.
It wasn't easy to convince older people to allow us to record them, so we practically just managed to register some young people. I hope that on future occasions, people will be encouraged to give their points of view, not only positive, but also any aspect of the project that they feel is improvable.
The exhibition also counts on a series of sketches for sale that constitute the search for a defined style, according to an imagery in which I have long felt at ease: silhouettes and letters with clean lines that melt together, creating new shapes and messy knots. The forms of the billboards and of the people, the letters that intertwine (writing is sometimes the same as drawing, and vice versa), all in the same space, as an advertising bombardment, but on the other hand clean, white, simple.
From that series of sketches - in which I will continue working and that I will include in the gallery for it aims to show the process of the project - I chose four that will be printed at size 175 x 120 m and placed in random ad places in the city of Valladolid along with the handwritten paper I was talking about before. As a result, there will be four hand-drawn pieces digitally reproduced to a large size, and only one will have truly been made by hand (that was the only way to get the actual size of a handwriting). They are the first five posters of a series of 20 that will be placed throughout the year in different street-display ads, and that will be moving according to the places availability. The first four will be installed tomorrow, March 28th, in the following locations:
I'm really interested in observing the effect of the ballpoint pen draw together with the pastel color, reproduced in a big scale and getting eroded with the sun, the movement from one location to another and the temperature changes during the year that the project will take place. Those posters will come to life! I also like that although Vulovak and I have very different styles, they complement each other very well. Somehow we both create enigmatic and not too obvious forms that each person can interpret in a different way. They are open fields in which we play with shapes and colors, suggesting but not finishing to explain.
And it is that the work of this Lithuanian artist born in 1985 happens to be, above all, fun and juicy. Vulovak (also known as Morfai) prefers the exchange of colors than the exchange of words, and this way he seems to approach a wider audience instead of staying in a field of specialists (isn't this one of the main searches of street art?). Oil painting, photographs, gifs, collages, everything with a touch of sweet humor that seems to say "hey, my friend, why not!"
I absolutely recommend following his work through his blog, FB page ir instagram: @prince_of_baltics.