Blu (artist)
Encyclopedia
Blu is the pseudonym of an italian artist who conceals his real identity. He lives in Bologna
and has been active in street art
since 1999.
painted in the historical center and suburbs of Bologna
, the capital of Italy
’s Emilia-Romagna
region. In the early years of his career his technique was limited to the use of spray paint, the typical medium of graffiti culture. His characteristic style appeared in 2001, however, when Blu started painting with house paint, using rollers mounted on top of telescopic sticks. This new solution allowed him to increase the painted surface area and convey a stronger intensity to his visual vocabulary. Huge human figures, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes dramatic, who looked as if they were borrowed from comics
or arcade game
s, began appearing along the streets of Bologna
around this time.
Another aspect that influenced his early career was the practice of a shared artistic action. Artists such as Dem, Sweza, Run and, above all Ericailcane, were his companions during nocturnal raids where an anonymous creative participation overcame the need of signing their pieces. Also, during those years, Blu started experimenting with digital animation and he created short interactive video clips that were used as a visual contribution to the live musical performances of the collective OK NO.
The collaboration with Ericailcane had its best results from 2003 to 2006. The two personalities complemented each other; while Blu was painting his characteristic human figures Ericailcane made his typical animals. The two artists, friends in real life, continue to work together although less often.
Starting in 2004, some art galleries noticed Blu’s artistic value and invited him to take part to one-man or collective shows. Yet Blu, throughout his entire youthful career, attempted to limit his presence within the official art world, preferring other kinds of territories.
Since his major pieces, outside of his videos, have been immovable murals, the survey below of Blu's work is geographical rather than chronological.
, Nicaragua
, Guatemala
, and Honduras
in a festival in Managua
called “Murales de Octubre.” On that occasion he painted a wall, significant in the history of South American murals, on the Avenida Bolivar where, in 1979, Victor Canifrù celebrated the Sandinista revolution. With this he achieved one of his most imposing murals which was immediately dubbed Hombre Banano (Banana Man) by the locals, referring to the protest of the workers on banana plantations.
The following year, from October 2006 to December 2006, he returned to Central and South America
for a long circuit of murals that included Mexico City
, Guatemala City
, Managua
, (Nicaragua
), San José
(Costa Rica
), and finally, Buenos Aires
(Argentina
). A year later he was again in South America, in Sao Paulo
, Brazil
, participating in the festival “A Conquista do Espaço” (Conquering Space). On that occasion he came up with a new interpretation of the “Christ of Corcovado
” of Rio de Janeiro
. In Blu’s version Christ
is literally submerged by tons of guns and rifles.
From the Fall of 2007 to the Spring of 2008, he lived in Buenos Aires
, devoting all his efforts to the creation of a video called Muto (Silent). In addition to receiving many international awards, such as the Grand Prix 2009 from the Festival of Clermont Ferrand, “Muto” has been seen by 7 million-plus viewers on YouTube. It is also available in high definition on Blu’s website under the Creative Commons license. This video is composed of hundreds of paintings on walls, made throughout many streets of Buenos Aires
and, frame by frame, creates more than seven minutes of an animated mural.
In 2009 Blu started his umpteenth tour around South America
visiting Bogotà
for the festival “Memoria Canalla,” then to Montevideo
, Uruguay
, back to Buenos Aires
and, for the first time, to Lima
, Peru
, where he painted the entire façade of an historical building in the central Avenida Arenales. In this huge mural Blu seems to reinterpret the history of South America
, a continent that has been violated by both ancient and modern conquistadores. Blu has visited North America
only twice, and the only notable trip was in 2008, when he accepted an invitation from the Deitch Gallery in New York
to paint the exterior of their Long Island
location.
based art collective which organizes annual happenings of painting performances and print trade fairs, invited Blu to a festival that took place in the West Bank
. Together with many other international artists—among them, Banksy
, Mark Jenkins
, Sam3, Ron English, Ericailcane, Swoon
, and Faile— Blu has painted on the wall around Bethlehem
that separates the West Bank from Israel
. On a watchtower of the very symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Blu painted a figure who naively tries to tear down this open-air prison with his finger.
for the first time where he made many pieces around Camden Town
and Willow Street, and at the former headquarters of art-gallery website Pictures on Walls. That same summer he took part in a two-man exhibit with Ericailcane at the Lazarides Gallery. The following year, the Tate Modern
presented an exhibition on the phenomenon of street art and invited Blu, along with J-R, Faile, Sixeart
, and Os Gêmeos
e Nunca, to paint its entire main façade.
. At the festival “Segundo Asalto" in Saragossa, he, along with the artists San, Tono, Nuria, and Nano, painted a mural of a colossal minotaur
picking up an astonished man. Blu’s murals can also be found in Valencia, Linares
, Madrid
and Barcelona
. In Barcelona’s Barrio Carmelo neighborhood, Blu took part in the 2008 edition of the festival “The Influencers”. With the global economic crisis looming, Blu painted a threatening shark whose skin is completely covered in euro bills.
on many occasions between 2006 and 2009, mostly in Berlin
, and always around Cuvrystrasse in a multi-ethnic neighborhood called Kreuzberg
. Thanks to his participation in several of the festivals “Backjump” and “Planetprozess,” he had the opportunity to create some of his works, one of which was painted in combination with gigantic photos by the French artist J-R.
In 2006, during one of these trips, Blu made his first digital animation from images painted directly on a wall, a technique that would be a recurrent theme of many of his future videos such as “Muto.”
, Serbia
in 2009, in Wroclaw
and Gdansk
, Poland
, in 2008. In Gdansk
, located on the industrial harbor where the destinies of twentieth-century Europe intersected, he used an abandoned hangar as the background for his short movie, “Morphing,” where the symbols of this place, loaded with history, are mixed together. Gdansk
Harbor was indeed invaded first by the Nazis, then by the Red Army
and subsequently saw the birth of the trade union movement, Solidarność (Solidarity), and finally, the victory of capitalism
.
Also, in 2008, Blu was in Prague
in the Czech Republic
for the "Names Festival" to paint a mural called Gaza Strip, where tanks and bulldozers are seen chasing each other along a Möbius strip
.
Italy
, above any other country, can boast of having the majority of Blu’s graffiti, both illegal and legal. Among the public projects worth noting are the façade of PAC
(the Contemporary Art Pavilion) in Milan
, finished in 2008; the murals in that city’s Bicocca and Lambrate train stations, done in 2008 and in 2009; three editions of “Spinafestival” in Comacchio
(2005, 2006 and 2007); two editions of “Fame Festival a Grottaglie
” (2008 and 2009). In this last one, Blu completed a video-animation with the New York
based artist, David Ellis. Blu has also taken part in many editions of the festival “Icone" in Modena
and in Ancona
’s “Festival Pop Up” in 2008 where he painted along with Ericailcane a gigantic silos next to the harbor waterfront. Other Italian cities where Blu has left his mark are varied, among which are Prato
, Florence
, Turin
, Ancona
, Rovereto
, Verona
and Pesaro
.
Blu has also painted in several “Centri Sociali”, places that are between squats and self-managed cultural centers. In Bologna his work is visible at XM24, TPO, Livello 57, Crash; in Rome
at Forte Prenestino and Collatino; in Milan
at Cox 18 and Leoncavallo and in Pisa
at Cantiere San Bernardo.
His graphic mania is directly proportional to the epic scale of his murals. His paintings seem to interpret the architectural language of public spaces and reinvent them into new shapes. Thus, his murals are never detached from the places where they were conceived because Blu is a painter in the landscape, urban or industrial. He always tries to communicate with the society which inhabits those spaces, searching for the uniqueness of each place.
Besides drawing and painting, the technical universe of Blu is completed by a skillful use of the digital medium. Proof of that can be seen in his website where his manual craftsmanship is combined with computer programming language.
The recurring themes of his imagery play on the distortion of the human figure. He speaks a pop
vocabulary which resembles the automatic writing process of the surrealist tradition with purely rhetorical processes.
In short, Blu's artistic practice has contributed to a radical change in the art market. His murals and his videos are given for free to the public space of the cities and on the world wide web. His income comes from the sale of multiples, like silkscreen prints
, in those few galleries which represent him, or through the sale of self-made editions.
The works of Blu appear abrupt because they are derived from the free creativity of an artist who has decided to occupy a position outside the sheltered field of art. As magically as they appear they can disappear, sometimes covered by other paintings by Blu himself, sometimes ruined by time and weather, but mostly erased by the authorities in the name of tidiness.
Blu’s aesthetic search is motivated by a belief in an open source philosophy, persistent in its anarchical revolt against contemporary art conventions and unique in beauty.
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
and has been active in street art
Street art
Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, "in the streets" — though the term usually refers to unsanctioned art, as opposed to government sponsored initiatives...
since 1999.
Early career
Blu’s fame began in 1999, thanks to a series of illicit graffitiGraffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
painted in the historical center and suburbs of Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, the capital of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
’s Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....
region. In the early years of his career his technique was limited to the use of spray paint, the typical medium of graffiti culture. His characteristic style appeared in 2001, however, when Blu started painting with house paint, using rollers mounted on top of telescopic sticks. This new solution allowed him to increase the painted surface area and convey a stronger intensity to his visual vocabulary. Huge human figures, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes dramatic, who looked as if they were borrowed from comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
or arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
s, began appearing along the streets of Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
around this time.
Another aspect that influenced his early career was the practice of a shared artistic action. Artists such as Dem, Sweza, Run and, above all Ericailcane, were his companions during nocturnal raids where an anonymous creative participation overcame the need of signing their pieces. Also, during those years, Blu started experimenting with digital animation and he created short interactive video clips that were used as a visual contribution to the live musical performances of the collective OK NO.
The collaboration with Ericailcane had its best results from 2003 to 2006. The two personalities complemented each other; while Blu was painting his characteristic human figures Ericailcane made his typical animals. The two artists, friends in real life, continue to work together although less often.
Starting in 2004, some art galleries noticed Blu’s artistic value and invited him to take part to one-man or collective shows. Yet Blu, throughout his entire youthful career, attempted to limit his presence within the official art world, preferring other kinds of territories.
Since his major pieces, outside of his videos, have been immovable murals, the survey below of Blu's work is geographical rather than chronological.
Central and South America
His nomadic spirit reached its peak in 2005. From the end of that year Blu spent most of his time jumping around in self-guided travels, linking his itineraries to the festivals to which he was invited. At that time he collaborated with Ericailcane and several artists from Costa RicaCosta Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
in a festival in Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
called “Murales de Octubre.” On that occasion he painted a wall, significant in the history of South American murals, on the Avenida Bolivar where, in 1979, Victor Canifrù celebrated the Sandinista revolution. With this he achieved one of his most imposing murals which was immediately dubbed Hombre Banano (Banana Man) by the locals, referring to the protest of the workers on banana plantations.
The following year, from October 2006 to December 2006, he returned to Central and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
for a long circuit of murals that included Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Guatemala City
Guatemala City
Guatemala City , is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Guatemala and Central America...
, Managua
Managua
Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name. It is the largest city in Nicaragua in terms of population and geographic size. Located on the southwestern shore of Lake Xolotlán or Lake Managua, the city was declared the national capital in...
, (Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
), San José
San José, Costa Rica
San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation.Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San...
(Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
), and finally, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
(Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
). A year later he was again in South America, in Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, participating in the festival “A Conquista do Espaço” (Conquering Space). On that occasion he came up with a new interpretation of the “Christ of Corcovado
Christ the Redeemer (statue)
Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. It is tall, including its pedestal, and wide. It weighs 635 tonnes , and is located at the peak of the Corcovado...
” of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. In Blu’s version Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
is literally submerged by tons of guns and rifles.
From the Fall of 2007 to the Spring of 2008, he lived in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, devoting all his efforts to the creation of a video called Muto (Silent). In addition to receiving many international awards, such as the Grand Prix 2009 from the Festival of Clermont Ferrand, “Muto” has been seen by 7 million-plus viewers on YouTube. It is also available in high definition on Blu’s website under the Creative Commons license. This video is composed of hundreds of paintings on walls, made throughout many streets of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and, frame by frame, creates more than seven minutes of an animated mural.
In 2009 Blu started his umpteenth tour around South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
visiting Bogotà
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
for the festival “Memoria Canalla,” then to Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, back to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and, for the first time, to Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, where he painted the entire façade of an historical building in the central Avenida Arenales. In this huge mural Blu seems to reinterpret the history of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, a continent that has been violated by both ancient and modern conquistadores. Blu has visited North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
only twice, and the only notable trip was in 2008, when he accepted an invitation from the Deitch Gallery in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to paint the exterior of their Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
location.
West Bank
In 2007, Santa’s Ghetto, a LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
based art collective which organizes annual happenings of painting performances and print trade fairs, invited Blu to a festival that took place in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
. Together with many other international artists—among them, Banksy
Banksy
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine irreverent dark humour with graffiti done in a distinctive stencilling technique...
, Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins
Mark Jenkins is an American artist most widely known for the street installations he creates using box sealing tape. In addition to creating art, he also teaches his sculpture techniques through workshops in cities he visits...
, Sam3, Ron English, Ericailcane, Swoon
Swoon (artist)
Swoon is a street artist born in New London, Connecticut, and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. She moved to New York City at age nineteen, and specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures...
, and Faile— Blu has painted on the wall around Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank of the Jordan River, near Israel and approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism...
that separates the West Bank from Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. On a watchtower of the very symbol of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Blu painted a figure who naively tries to tear down this open-air prison with his finger.
England
In 2007, Blu went to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for the first time where he made many pieces around Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
and Willow Street, and at the former headquarters of art-gallery website Pictures on Walls. That same summer he took part in a two-man exhibit with Ericailcane at the Lazarides Gallery. The following year, the Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
presented an exhibition on the phenomenon of street art and invited Blu, along with J-R, Faile, Sixeart
Sixeart
Born in 1975, Sergio Hidalgo Parades is a contemporary artist from Barcelona known as Sixe art or Sixeart. He started to paint graffiti in the late 1980s. In the mid-90s he developed his multidisciplinary talents in the fields of sculpture and studio painting...
, and Os Gêmeos
Os Gêmeos
Os Gêmeos are graffiti artist identical twin brothers from São Paulo, Brazil, whose real names are Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and gradually became a main influence in the local scene, helping to define Brazil's own style...
e Nunca, to paint its entire main façade.
Spain
Blu has frequently visited SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. At the festival “Segundo Asalto" in Saragossa, he, along with the artists San, Tono, Nuria, and Nano, painted a mural of a colossal minotaur
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur , as the Greeks imagined him, was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, "part man and part bull"...
picking up an astonished man. Blu’s murals can also be found in Valencia, Linares
Linares, Spain
Linares is a city located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Spain. It is considered the second most important city in that province and had a population of 62,347 in the most recent census. The altitude is 419 meters and the total area of the municipality is 195.15 km2...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. In Barcelona’s Barrio Carmelo neighborhood, Blu took part in the 2008 edition of the festival “The Influencers”. With the global economic crisis looming, Blu painted a threatening shark whose skin is completely covered in euro bills.
Germany
Blu worked in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on many occasions between 2006 and 2009, mostly in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and always around Cuvrystrasse in a multi-ethnic neighborhood called Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
. Thanks to his participation in several of the festivals “Backjump” and “Planetprozess,” he had the opportunity to create some of his works, one of which was painted in combination with gigantic photos by the French artist J-R.
In 2006, during one of these trips, Blu made his first digital animation from images painted directly on a wall, a technique that would be a recurrent theme of many of his future videos such as “Muto.”
Eastern Europe
In Eastern Europe Blu has painted in BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
in 2009, in Wroclaw
Wroclaw
Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...
and Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, in 2008. In Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
, located on the industrial harbor where the destinies of twentieth-century Europe intersected, he used an abandoned hangar as the background for his short movie, “Morphing,” where the symbols of this place, loaded with history, are mixed together. Gdansk
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
Harbor was indeed invaded first by the Nazis, then by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
and subsequently saw the birth of the trade union movement, Solidarność (Solidarity), and finally, the victory of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
.
Also, in 2008, Blu was in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
for the "Names Festival" to paint a mural called Gaza Strip, where tanks and bulldozers are seen chasing each other along a Möbius strip
Möbius strip
The Möbius strip or Möbius band is a surface with only one side and only one boundary component. The Möbius strip has the mathematical property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface...
.
Italy
Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, above any other country, can boast of having the majority of Blu’s graffiti, both illegal and legal. Among the public projects worth noting are the façade of PAC
Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea
Padiglione d'arte contemporanea is a contemporary art museum in Milan, Italy. It is located in via Palestro, near Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli.- References :* - External links :*...
(the Contemporary Art Pavilion) in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, finished in 2008; the murals in that city’s Bicocca and Lambrate train stations, done in 2008 and in 2009; three editions of “Spinafestival” in Comacchio
Comacchio
Comacchio is a town and comune of Emilia Romagna, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, 48 km from the provincial capital Ferrara.-Geography:...
(2005, 2006 and 2007); two editions of “Fame Festival a Grottaglie
Grottaglie
Grottaglie is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, Puglia, southern Italy.-Geography:Grottaglie is located in the Salento peninsula, a whole rock of limestone dividing Adriatic sea from Ionian sea. The countryside around the city is scattered with vast and deep ravines that open the ground...
” (2008 and 2009). In this last one, Blu completed a video-animation with the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
based artist, David Ellis. Blu has also taken part in many editions of the festival “Icone" in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
and in Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
’s “Festival Pop Up” in 2008 where he painted along with Ericailcane a gigantic silos next to the harbor waterfront. Other Italian cities where Blu has left his mark are varied, among which are Prato
Prato
Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...
, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Ancona
Ancona
Ancona is a city and a seaport in the Marche region, in central Italy, with a population of 101,909 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region....
, Rovereto
Rovereto
Rovereto is a city and comune in Trentino in northern Italy, located in the Vallagarina valley of the Adige River.-History:Rovereto was an ancient fortress town standing at the frontier between the bishopric of Trento - an independent state until 1797 - and the republic of Venice, and later...
, Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
and Pesaro
Pesaro
Pesaro is a town and comune in the Italian region of the Marche, capital of the Pesaro e Urbino province, on the Adriatic. According to the 2007 census, its population was 92,206....
.
Blu has also painted in several “Centri Sociali”, places that are between squats and self-managed cultural centers. In Bologna his work is visible at XM24, TPO, Livello 57, Crash; in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
at Forte Prenestino and Collatino; in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
at Cox 18 and Leoncavallo and in Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
at Cantiere San Bernardo.
Techniques, themes and ethic
The list of the places where Blu has left his trace is as long as his collection of sketchbooks which contain sketches, thoughts or simply visual notes. Often these drawings function as a script for his improvisations on walls.His graphic mania is directly proportional to the epic scale of his murals. His paintings seem to interpret the architectural language of public spaces and reinvent them into new shapes. Thus, his murals are never detached from the places where they were conceived because Blu is a painter in the landscape, urban or industrial. He always tries to communicate with the society which inhabits those spaces, searching for the uniqueness of each place.
Besides drawing and painting, the technical universe of Blu is completed by a skillful use of the digital medium. Proof of that can be seen in his website where his manual craftsmanship is combined with computer programming language.
The recurring themes of his imagery play on the distortion of the human figure. He speaks a pop
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
vocabulary which resembles the automatic writing process of the surrealist tradition with purely rhetorical processes.
In short, Blu's artistic practice has contributed to a radical change in the art market. His murals and his videos are given for free to the public space of the cities and on the world wide web. His income comes from the sale of multiples, like silkscreen prints
Screen-printing
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate...
, in those few galleries which represent him, or through the sale of self-made editions.
The works of Blu appear abrupt because they are derived from the free creativity of an artist who has decided to occupy a position outside the sheltered field of art. As magically as they appear they can disappear, sometimes covered by other paintings by Blu himself, sometimes ruined by time and weather, but mostly erased by the authorities in the name of tidiness.
Blu’s aesthetic search is motivated by a belief in an open source philosophy, persistent in its anarchical revolt against contemporary art conventions and unique in beauty.
Principal exhibits
- 2009 - Memoria Canalla, Bogota.
- 2008, 2009 - Fame Festival, Grottaglie, Taranto, Italy.
- 2008 - Street Art, Tate Modern, London.
- 2008 - Influencers, Barcellona.
- 2007 - Santa's ghetto, Bethlehem, Palestine.
- 2007 - Super Fluo, Lazarides Gallery, London.
- 2007 - BackJump Live Issue#3, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin.
- 2007 - Street Art Sweet Art, Padiglione Arte Contemporanea , Milan.
- 2007 - A Conquista do Espaço, San Paolo.
- 2005 - Murales de Octubre, Managua.
- 2005, 2006, 2007 - Spinafestival, Comacchio, Italy.
Videography
- 2001 OK NO, 3'44", music: Foia and Maledetto. OK NO on Youtube
- 2005 Child, animation, 3'27", music: Maledetto. Child on Vimeo
- 2006 Fino, animation, music of Andrea Martignoni. Fino on Vimeo
- 2006 Ffwd, animation, music: irr.app.(ext.). FFWD on Vimeo
- 2007 Fantoche; wall-painted animation, location: Baden, subsequently included in “Muto”. Fantoche on Vimeo
- 2007 1, 2, 3, etc, ; Connections, animation, 10”.
- 2007 La quiete, animation, music: LaQuiete "Sulla differenza fra un sorriso e una risata". La quiete on Vimeo
- 2007 Letter A, wall-painted animation. Letter A on Vimeo
- 2007 Walking, wall-painted animation. Walking on Vimeo
- 2008 Muto, wall-painted animation, music: Andrea Martignoni Muto on Vimeo
- 2009 Combo, (with David Ellis) wall-painted animation, Studio Cromie production, Fame festival, Grottaglie, 2009. Combo on Vimeo
- 2009 Morphing, wall-painted animation, location: Gdansk. Morphing on Youtube
- 2010 Big Bang Big Boom, wall painted animation, location Argentina, Uruquay BIG BANG BIG BOOM on Vimeo
Editions
- Blu (2008). Blu 2004-2007, Studio Cromie.
- Blu (2006). Nulla, Zooo Print and Press.
- Blu (2005). 25 disegni (with Ericailcane), Zooo Print and Press.