Die kommende Kunstausstellung wird die erste in den neuen Ausstellungsräumen des Urban Art Clash Kollektivs im und am Berliner Yaam sein und erstmalig eine Exposition mehrerer KünstlerInnen in jeweils zwei eigenen Solo Shows. Diese arbeiten gemeinsam im urbanen Umfeld von Berlin und präsentieren ihre Werke auch “auf der Straße”.
AXEL VOID (Miami)
14. August – 13. September 2014
Vernissage: 13. August 2014.
Yaam, Berlin
An der Schillingbrücke (Am Ostbahnhof)
Der Künstler wird anwesend sein.
Axel Void (Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mevs) was born in 1986 in Miami to a Haitian mother and a Spanish father. From the age of three onward, he was raised in Spain. From an early age, he has been strongly influenced by classical painting and drawing.
Since 1999, Axel Void has been in contact with graffiti writing. He studied Fine Arts in Cádiz, Granada and Sevilla, and was based in Berlin until moving to Miami in 2013, where he currently resides.
Today he travels the globe to paint huge murals and we are very happy to have him for the very first Urban Art Clash Show at the new Yaam Gallery in Berlin..
Axel Void / StreetArt Meeting, Berlin. Yaam, next to the east side gallery.
A few years ago my computer broke down. I went to a repair shop in Berlin and met this older man that ran the place himself. There were other people and he must have seen that I didn’t have much money so with my poor German and his poor English he sat me down and explained how to fix the computer myself. I spent the afternoon with him, and among other things he told me his story. He was the son of one of the Nazi generals, and was raised in the Hitlerjugend (Hitler’s Youth). He explained how natural his training seemed, but by the time he grew up and had to take part in the war, he couldn’t do it. They ended up kicking him out of the force and he left the country. He only came back to germany after the war was finished.
He never charged me anything, this wall is dedicated to him.
AxelVoid, Tarifa, Spain.
This mural was done in Tarifa, in the south of Andalucía, Spain. Tarifa is the closest point to Morroco, connecting the Mediterranean to the Atlantic by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. From Tarifa you can see Tanger on the other side of the shore. Its a conflictive yet beautiful place. Uncountable people have died trying to cross. Andalucia and Morroco have had a strong link and this is what the concept of the piece is based on. The dialog between these two places and their genetical and cultural similitudes, divided by a political and a physical border. The image is based on a painting of the Andalucian classical painter Velazquez, named Capesina Joven.
The wall was painted in the neighborhood of El Carmen, also known as Los Pajaritos. Its mostly a sailors neighborhood, in an area that would be considered poor. They hosted us for a week in which we shared food, played football, spent time talking and hung out with the kids. From the kids to the adults to the elder people, they showed us their most genuine hospitality. Painting in the area where I was raised most definitely felt like home.
“El Barrio” East Harlem, New York, 2013.
This wall is based on a photo that Martha Cooper took in 1978. It was published in the book Street Play. It shows some kids in New York builidng a house out of scraps.
Had the pleasure to meet with Martha and collaborate with her for this mural. The concept fits the event that Los Muros Hablan proposed, diaspora.
In a neighboorhood like East Harlem, there is a great mix of nationalities that all meet at this place they now call home. It was really something to see the different reactions and hospitality of the people that would pass by or lived in front of the wall. This wall is dedicated to them.
Thanks to Martha Cooper and the Los Muros Hablan crew for their help and support.
Photo of the wall taken by Martha Cooper.
KNIFE by Axel Void in Wynwood, Miami
“AxelVoid presents his new series of works called “Knife”. The Spanish/American artist opens a dialogue about how art and its duality influences people using knifes as a referential metaphor. Knives serve the purpose of a tool or a weapon, its this ambivalence that the artist underlines. Art, particularly in Wynwood, shares this dichotomy. From the economical development of the neighborhood to the gentrification that it brought. Is this hectic and frivolous mix that brings together artist, collectors, users, homeless people, the fashion industry and the consumers in this particularly confederacy of dunces.”
Jenny Wanda Barkmann
Jaz & AxelVoid // Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Little Haiti, Miami, 2013
R.I.P REEFA
This wall is dedicated to Israel Hernández. He was murdered on the 6th of August by the Miami Police, after being chased for tagging on a wall.
Lupita & AxelVoid, Aguas Calientes, Mexico.
This mural was done in the patio “Casa Mais”, a shelter for the Huicholes indigenes.
They stay there during their peregrination to Wirikuta, a sacred land to them. The mural is based on some figures of the altar of my host Chunga. Often times they name the porcelain figure that appears in the mural María or Lupita. Oddly enough while painting I met Lupita, a 9 year old Huchiole that lives in front of the mural. Since she was hanging out with us I decided to have her do a little piece in the mural, you can find it on the bottom right. She painted a landscape with flowers, a rainbow and a “Peyote”. It’s a ceremonial sacred cactus that they use as guidance to Wirikuta. In the photo you can find her with a peyote plant she brought in order to paint it better.
On November 29th of 2007. Casas Viejas, an important squat house of Sevilla was closed down after 5 years of Occupation. This Social Center had a strong cultural repercussion in the city and became a precursor for the Squatting movement in Sevilla.
To resist the eviction, the assembly of Casas Viejas decided to dig a 4 meter tunnel in the ground where 6 people chained themselves to pipes built in the wall. The eviction lasted 36 hours, given that the firemen refused to intervene. The police chose to torture them by tying and subsequently pulling them with ropes.
Now Casas viejas remains as a vacant lot, surrounded by walls.
This piece is painted on the entrance door of a new Squat House in Sevilla. It was inaugurated on April 27th of this year. Its considered one of the largest of the Occupied Social Centers in Spain. It is still pending a name.
This is the documentary of the eviction called Londres no es Sevilla:
http://vimeo.com/42328786
“Nessuno” AxelVoid, Rome, Italy.
Most cities have a center and an industrial periphery that feeds the city. Ostiense, the neighborhood where the wall is located, was built in the 1870’s as the first industrial area in Rome.
Most tourists possess a romanticized idea of Rome that focuses on its historical importance, yet the city’s present is overlooked, and people continue to preserve an idea of what the city used to be. Neighborhoods like Ostiense create attractions like the “New Colosseum” in order to bring tourists to the area, transforming a neighborhood that formed out of the need to build houses for the workers to reside in into an attraction that distracts tourists from its original nature.
Matriz by Javier Sande & AxelVoid
Còrdoba, Spain.
After being invited by the Antonio Gala Foundation in the city of Córdoba, Spain, I interacted with artists of various disciplines. The idea of working with one these artists to do a mural as part of the Mediocre series arose from this encounter. This artist is Javier Sande, whose work deals with the daily life of the small village he lived in all his life, Roo, in Galicia, Spain. I was interested in making public in a mural what this artist considers to be private and what he conceives with the objective of being presented in smaller scale. Something so routinary and concrete like the action in this image, his grandmother and his aunt sitting together, peeling potatoes, can translate to a general quotidian routine, with the intention of creating empathy.
A raíz de ser invitado a la Fundación Antonio Gala en la ciudad de Córdoba entré en contacto con otros artistas de varias disciplinas. De ahí surgió la idea de trabajar con uno de ellos para hace un mural conjunto siguiendo la linea de la serie Mediocre. Este artista es Javier Sande, y su proyecto gira entorno a la vida diaria de la pequeña aldea en la que siempre ha vivido (Roo, Galicia, España). Me interesó hacer publico en un muro lo que para este artista es extremadamente privado y que el concibe con el objetivo de ser expuesto en pequeñas salas. Algo tan rutinario y concreto como la acción de esta imagen, su abuela y su tía pelando patatas juntas, puede traducirse a una rutina cotidiana general, con la intención de crear empatía.
Urban Art Clash 