Juan Danna

Awakening, feeling, thinking, getting fed, loving, conceptualizing and expressing myself in order to print my own essence along with the daily living, submits to creation. This feeling came along naturally during my childhood and totally developed during my youth years. I found myself designing my art, just like the native original people and ancient cultures, shaping the sacred and magic of every day into images which involved first drawings, the study of colors, sculptures, architecture, which then, I applied into my artwork and in different areas such as movies, theatre, designs in settings, decoration, and restorations.

I mostly concentrated on custom and commissioned art, although it was through the progress of my personal artwork where I found the conductive lament that threads the whole to the center of creation. From behalf of that center, where creative love embraces everything I found myself desidentieted from my ego, just to enter into the light of supreme creation in order to accomplish the living towards a higher entity called Art. I live in Art through loving every day, so when death comes there will be no difference.

JUAN DANNA

Born in Salta, Argentina.

Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. “ Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it’s wet.“ Bansky

WHEN THE STREET IS YOUR CANVAS

With urban street art, both the artist and the public play a fundamental role.

Today, artistic representations in the city are not limited to just graffiti; other art forms are also included in the genre of street art, such as paste up, Muralism, or the figure of the street photographer. In each of these forms, we can appreciate the values of the city, the causes it believes in, and most importantly, how someone who lives there, or simply an onlooker can get to know the city via its street art, bursting with expressive images.

For urban artists, expressing themselves in the city’s streets is the only reality they understand, as this is the necessary platform for what they have created, a frame of reference for what they perceive and understand, a way of getting their message across.

Cities are not only the work of architects or engineers, but also of the street artists who create, imagine and reinterpret through their vision. Artists are easily seduced into making the streets their museum or people’s gallery. This is how a new understanding of the urban landscape is derived, and which in the last few decades, has led to a wide spectrum of artworks that highlight the importance of analyzing the iconography of the city.

GRAFITTI Since time immemorial, man has expressed his artistic sensibilities on walls; from the rock caves to the Egyptian murals. But the place where early graffiti was most in evidence is Italy, the excavation of remains from Pompeii reveals a snapshot of Roman life; a fascinating world of etchings, paintings of diverse themes including the erotic, religious, propaganda, inflammatory, vexatious, romantic, sexual proclivities, cults… Some 10,000 examples of such imagery have been found to date in Pompeii alone. However, we give the name graffiti to a type of street art that is largely illegal, and which is generally seen on large surfaces in urban areas; walls, doors, etcetera.

Illustrations, some more abstract, different types of calligraphy, messages, stencils and a lot of spray paint. It was in the 70s that the term ‘grafitti’ came into usage, popularized by American street art and the cultural movements of hip-hop musicians who used graffiti as a form of expression. The walls scream out what is going on in the city, and street artists compete among themselves to conquer the most daring urban spaces.

Is it a temporary, fleeting art form? Yes. Walls get painted over. Is it Vandalism? Yes. The cost to Town Halls is huge. But we cannot deny the fact that today; graffiti is a powerful tool in the art world with increasingly complex forms of expression. Despite its ephemeral nature, we are looking at an artistic movement that is making a strong statement in today’s world.

PASTE UP On the one hand we have the stickers that artists place all over the city, to make us smile or perhaps reflect on something. Like graffiti, pasting up stickers is another tool for the street artist. However, with paste up, the artist is creating posters that are authentic works of art. They are made in a studio, in poster format to later stick them to walls with a special type of glue. More than an act of vandalism, the objective is to create murals in strategic locations and generate a bond with the city-dwellers that makes them aware of the urban geography and to find something positive in it.