the street is our gallery

Sunday evening, September 13, marked the end of one of the most followed events of this year’s European Heritage Days – the Olomouc Streetart Festival.  No matter what, the bar has obviously been significantly raised, compared to past Live Graffiti shows.

As we already know, the organizer Pauser took a bigger bite this year by inviting top foreign street art and graffiti stars, such as Slider from Germany, Soten from Denmark or an artist who calls himself Mr. Dheo from Portugal. This bunch of very easy going people and great artists expressed themselves on two buildings in Olomouc.

First in the vacant lot in city center, the other in the university hospital grounds. Uninviting lot, vacant since 1969, was rejuvenated by Mr. Dheo’s mural of King Edward VII, who, instead of scepter, is holding an achievement of our times – a selfie stick. No one calls him other than Selfie Made King from the beginning.

The hospital grounds saw a magnificent Batman painted on one of the many prefab buildings, created by the team of Slider, Soten and Pauser. They accompanied their colossal creation with their characteristic graffiti, that have even bigger value for those in the know.

The whole painting show was accompanied by thematically related events. On Thursday, the artists opened an exhibition in Metropol cinema, nicknamed “pure underground” by many. Artists like Piano, Lacmo, Pauser, Furio, made use of the raw nature of former boiler room and naturally interconnected paintings on canvas with graffiti on the walls of the room. Piano and Lacmo are matadors of Ostrava scene, painting since the 90s. Furio represents, together with Pauser, the Olomouc breed.

Another point of view on the SAF took place on Friday during the 7th Pecha Kucha Night event, where Pauser and Piano gave the crowd insights into history of the festival and their street art beginnings. It’s difficult to describe the atmosphere in there molded by their relaxed presentation style. This turned into a surprising finale when the guys took a spectacular selfie with the whole crowd, that even Mr Dheo’s Selfie Made King would envy.

All days were boosted by evening chill in the bar, be it Metro club, Rytmus bar, or other spots. A lot more people arrived during the weekend, the weather was perfect, the Selfie Made King saw a freestyle scooter and bike exhibition in the rhythm of local DJs, and those who wanted to get out of town could have a picnic under the Batman on the hospital grounds. Rad party all in all.

Unfortunately it was impossible to capture all the artists who came over to support the festival and just make a piece on some of the legal walls in the city.

Judging from the great turnout and reactions of the public in the press and on social network, it shows that street art has something to offer, is interesting, entertaining and very likely, thanks to the art created by Soten, Slider, Pauser and Mr. Dheo, has given people a different perspective how to look at street art. Meaning there will always be crappy tags of local toys uglifying historical buildings, but sometimes, among all this garbage, something with real artistic value can sprout, and enrich gloomy cities.

Last word by the organisers: 

We would like to thank everybody who participated on SAF and supported it, especially our fans, spectators, partners, writers who came to paint, people who selflessly helped, but also the critics, because they also help make things better.

www.streetart-festival.cz.