As we venture into new territory with this issue, we find ourselves exploring multiple worlds inside the minds of highly talented fine art photographers. It is our first issue with no single theme running throughout tying everything together under one concept. This is our first No Theme issue. We have expanded the subject-matter horizon to focus on the special things happening in fine art photography, under any theme, within any context. We go into the private living spaces of subjects and explore their intimate realm against a backdrop of a very public city in Aurore Valade’s ‘Turin’. Then we soar up into the sky and into Laurent Chéhère’s whimsical world of ‘Flying Houses’. Bringing us down to Earth, to fall flat on our faces is Sandro Giordano’s tragically humorous series ‘In Extremis (Bodies with no regret)’. Sandro Giordano shows us how the tragic downfall of humanity can bring us comic relief, and puts us face to face with our sadness through humor in his gravitational series ‘In Extremis’ (bodies with no regret). Cerise Doucède takes into a world of suspended reality, where a single thin string is all that ties the real to the unreal in her series ‘Égarements’. After almost 20 years of living in Beirut, David Hury shows us a Beirut all his own in his The Beirut Book project. But that’s not all, there are more phenomenal works by photographic geniuses to explore and ponder in this first No Theme issue of Soura Magazine. Traveling between diverse worlds and exploring multiple ideas has been quite an adventure and we hope it never ends. Enjoy! The Soura Magazine Team
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Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Ahmed R. Abou Naja Managing & Creative Director Marwa R. Abou Naja Editor Nahla Samaha Contributors Aurore Valade Sandro Giordano Cerise Doucède Tali Kimelman Laurent Chéhère David Hury Nikita Nomrez Published by
UNEXPLORED PUBLISHING © Cover Photograph Courtesy of Sandro Giordano About Issue 39 There is safety in limits, security in knowing the parameters within which you operate. Adhering to a clearly defined set of criteria keeps things in perspective, keeps them concise, and keeps us comfortable. Until comfort is no longer satisfactory, and discomfort flashes us a seductive smile and promises thrills of the unknown and exhilaration of the undiscovered. And you slowly find yourself giving up the shelter of what you know, for the arousal of what you don’t. We have, for now, released the creative shackles of having a single theme running through the issue, and opened up the floodgates of ideas, concepts, mixed themes, and more. The theme is: No Theme. We travel from one photographer’s mind to the next regardless of subject-matter. We’ve broadened the content horizon to include all that has titillated us, excited us, and stimulated us in the world of fine arts photography without the restraint of a single theme.
United Arab Emirates P. O. Box 5337 Garhoud, Dubai Tel: +971 4 283 3254 Lebanon P. O. Box 14-5184 Mazraa, Beirut Tel: +961 1 654 910 Editorial Inquiries: editorial@unexploredpublishing.com Marketing Inquiries: marketing@unexploredpublishing.com Distribution Inquiries: distribution@unexploredpublishing.com ISSN 1997-0625
Venturing into the unknown, the uncomfortable, is a rush. How far it will take us, we don’t know. But for now, roaming the realm of unrestricted creativity and innovation is making the uncomfortable amazing.
All text and layouts remain the copyright of Unexplored Publishing. Soura Magazine cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited material or transparencies. Soura Magazine is fully independent and its views are not those of any company mentioned herein. All copyrights and trademarks are recognized and all images are used for the purpose of criticism and review only. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without a written permission of the publisher. Soura Magazine can accept no responsibility for inaccuracies or complaints arising from advertisements featured within the publication.
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CONTENT | ISSUE 39 14 Aurore Valade Limits of the Private Sphere 24 Sandro Giordano From Stage to Lens 34 Cerise Doucède Tying Reality to Fantasy 44 Tali Kimelman Images from Within 54 Laurent Chéhère Stories from Far and Nea 64 David Hury A Beirut all his Own 74 Nikita Nomrez Urban Canvas
2015 | Volume 1 13
Photography | Aurore Valade
Aurore Valade
Limits of the Private Sphere Aurore Valade is a French photographer born in 1981, who creates images that play with the iconography of scene-ography. Valade photographs people that play themselves in their own home. In these very elaborate stagings, clichés return to the surface significantly reflecting social, economical or cultural conditions of our time. They also reflect some of the values that question the limits of the private sphere.
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In these very elaborate stagings, clichés return to the surface significantly reflecting social, economical or cultural conditions of our time. After studying at the Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Aurore Valade attended the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie d’Arles, graduating in 2005. Her work Intérieurs avec Figures (Interior with faces) was awarded the 2005 Bourse de Talent Prize, 2006 Quinzaine Photographic Nantaise Prize and the 2008 Fondation HSBC pour la Photographie Prize. A monography Grand Miroir (Big Mirror) was published by Actes Sud Editions, followed by Plein Air (Outdoors), published during the same year by Diaphane Editions. Her recent exhibitions have been held at Casa de Francia in Mexico in 2014, at Gagliardi Art System Gallery in Turin (Italy) and at Stieglitz19 in Antwerp (Belgium) in 2013. In 2012, her works were shown at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles (France). Aurore Valade is represented by the galleries Gagliardi Art System (Turin), Stieglitz19 (Antwerp) and by the agency Picturetank (Paris).
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Photography | Aurore Valade
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The World of the Subject Words by Maria Cristina Strati Aurore Valade builds her photographs around her models’ stories and tales. She stages their daily lives, hence questioning our ways of life and our private spaces. The subjects are all Turin inhabitants. They are portrayed in profile, against a white background, inside their apartments. A window, or glass wall, is clearly visible on the background of each image, and through it you can glimpse a view of the city. The photographs are constructed according to three classical painting genres: the portrait, interior scenes and vedute. Each composition is the fruit of a meticulous labor of photomontage and retouching.
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The photographs are constructed according to three classical painting genres: the portrait, interior scenes and vedute. The interiors are accurately designed by the artist, who personally chose the spaces and rearranged the furniture and objects so that the result could be adequately rendered in painting. Every photograph also contains references to current events in magazines or switched-on televisions that have legible titles, after which the work is named. As we have mentioned, every image simultaneously contains three historicalartistic genres. The first is the portrait, again in profile. Here the model for the artist are Renaissance historical paintings, first and foremost the wellknown Duke of Urbino by Piero della Francesca, but also photographs from entomology and cultural anthropology treatises that blend recent trends in contemporary art (for instance certain works by Thomas Ruff). The second genre is the interior, inspired by the atmospheres of Flemish paintings. The last is the view, again containing explicit references to Renaissance art. Each image is the product of painstaking photomontage and photo-editing, aimed at giving photography the visual feel of a classic painterly work. However, despite these radical technical interventions and remakes, the artist clearly wills her photos to retain a realistic look, adhering faithfully to the objective truth of the moment they were taken.
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Each image is the product of painstaking photomontage and photo editing, aimed at giving photography the visual feel of a classic painterly work. Valade’s work refers to an essay by the German poet and critic Rainer Maria Rilke called Notes on the Melody of Things (1898), in which he reflects upon the theme of the portrait in works of art. In Rilke’s writings, the view of the background is similar to a melody, in which each character is part of a choir, each person’s voice contributing to create the harmony of the whole. According to the poet, it is not – therefore – the faithful reproduction of a character that creates the possibility of a relationship. What is, instead, more important is the representation and the understanding of the ‘world’ in which the subject lives, the world hidden behind the figure. A space which, in the works presented in Arles, is presented like an interior loaded with objects and memories, a space which opens on the perspective view of the town or on the shared and globalised world spoken about in the media – newspapers, television – present in these photographs. © All images courtesy of Aurore Valade www.Aurore-Valade.com
2015 | Volume 1 23
Photography | Sandro Giordano
Sandro Giordano
From Stage to Lens
Sandro Giordano was born in Rome on October 6th 1972. He studied set design at the Istituto di Cinematografia e Televisione di Roberto Rossellini in Rome. Immediately after graduating he began working as a light and sound engineer in Roman theatres. In 1993, Giordano studied acting in one of Rome’s best private schools and the following year he began his professional career as an actor with directors such as Luciano Melchionna and Giancarlo Cobelli on stage and Dario Argento, Davide Marengo, Carlo Verdone and again Melchionna in film.
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Immediately after graduating he began working as a light and sound engineer in Roman theatres. Sick and tired of the entertainment industry, Sandro moved to Barcelona where he’s lived since 2010. He often returns to Rome because he’s in the cast of the show Dignita’ Autonome di Prostituzione to which he is deeply attached. Since October 2013, Sandro has been entirely devoted to the photographic project ‘IN EXTREMIS (bodies with no regret)’.
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Photography | Sandro Giordano
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Photography | Sandro Giordano
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The Fall of Humanity My photographs are “short stories” about a world that is falling-down. Each shot tells about worn-out characters who, in a sudden black-out of mind and body, crash with no attempt to save themselves. They are unable to, because of the fatigue of the everyday representation of living, oppressed by appearance instead of simply existing. We live in a distorted world of plastic surgery, which perpetuates stereotyped images that feed a preset marketing model.
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I believe that perfection is in imperfection. It is in strong contrasts, in frailty, and in the humanity that makes each individual different from the rest. I believe that perfection is in imperfection. It is in strong contrasts, in frailty, and in the humanity that makes each individual different from the rest. I hide the face of my characters in order for their body to speak for them. This fall is the point of no return. There’s a saying, “You must hit rock bottom to start over.” The fall of my characters is their hitting rock bottom, as they’ve reached their limit beyond which their false self cannot go. Each of them saves an object, they hold it in their hand and it symbolizes this falsification. This pretence is represented not only by the objects but also the clothes, the hairstyles and the location! Everything that is visible in the picture represents their pretence while the smashed body expresses the truth, which has to, in fact, crash to be told! I never use dummies in my shots; I use professional actors who are able to interpret what isn’t visible with their bodies, because I want the invisible to be visible.
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Everything that is visible in the picture represents their pretence while the smashed body expresses the truth, which has to, in fact, crash to be told! Since I was a child I’ve always loved films by Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy because they made me laugh. In their films we often see terrible things happen to the characters, serious accidents; i.e. the fall. The instinctive reaction is bewilderment and awkwardness towards the unlucky fate of the character but then that same awkwardness breaks into a liberating laugh. This is the effect I wish to recreate through my photographs: tell tragedy through irony. A broken down humanity that I look to with fondness and attachment and from which, I myself, don’t feel excluded from.
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A broken down humanity that I look to with fondness and attachment and from which, I myself, don’t feel excluded from. It is this feeling of empathy that allows me not to judge but to share the stories I tell, in the hopes that, if I manage to get a laugh out of a spectator, this be a favorable auspice, one of believing in a better and more authentic future. That laugh, finally, is a revelation. © All images courtesy of Sandro Giordano www.instagram.com/__remmidemmi
2015 | Volume 1 33
Photography | Cerise Doucède
Cerise Doucède
Tying Reality to Fantasy
Cerise Doucède was born into a family of jurists in 1987 in Toulon, France, where she currently lives and works. She entered the world of art through drawing, which she started at a young age and for which she had a great passion, having observed her mother painting since she was a child.
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She purposefully leaves strings visible in her images to display a connection between reality and fantasy.
After graduating from Spéos photography school in Paris in 2010, Doucède was the 2011 winner of the Royal MonceauRaffles Paris photography contest and received €20,000 to work on a personal and never-before-seen project that was integrated into the hotel’s artistic program. Opening doors for her, this led to her participation (along with Nan Goldin, David Lynch, Youssef Nabil and Martin Parr) in an international traveling exhibition, Lady Dior As Seen By, reinterpreting the mythical and modern Lady Dior bag, and a solo exhibition at the famous Café de Flore in Paris’ SaintGermain neighborhood, and she took home the HSBC Prize for Photography in 2013. Doucède performs little digital manipulation on her photos, limiting herself to erasing the structure on which her objects are suspended. She purposefully leaves strings visible in her images to display a connection between reality and fantasy.
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Photography | Cerise Doucède
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Photography | Cerise Doucède
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The Time to Dream I’ve always known that I wanted to practice a creative profession, but I’d never imagined being an artist. I wanted to be an architect, designer and then finally I studied to be a graphic designer, which allowed me to get closer to the world of the image. It’s also there that I started photography, firstly to support my projects and finally photography became the goal itself of my creations. The graphic spirit of my images most certainly comes to me from these studies.
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I wanted to be an architect, designer and then finally I studied to be a graphic designer, which allowed me to get closer to the world of the image. Even if my images are complex to create, they are easy to understand, and what pleases me particularly is allowing the viewer to make up a story and ask himself questions. Thereafter, how deep the questioning goes is out of my hands.
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My models aren’t professionals and it’s quite difficult to have a neutral gaze. I often have to wait until they become really bored to obtain a certain look. My models aren’t professionals and it’s quite difficult to have a neutral gaze. I often have to wait until they become really bored to obtain a certain look, which is the reflection of a certain weariness that says, ‘What am I doing here?’. It’s at these moments when we are left face to face with ourselves that our minds need to travel or wander off the most. And that’s when I really start to take photos that I know will be the right ones. An artist is a person who makes one think and reflect. And if by seeing my photos, some people ask themselves questions and make up their own stories, then my gamble has paid off. If I have a message to convey, it’s that one must take the time to dream. © All images courtesy of Cerise Doucède www.CeriseDoucède.fr
2015 | Volume 1 43
Photography | Tali Kimelman
Tali Kimelman
Images from Within
Tali Kimelman came into contact with images for the first time while she was doing a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering and working with Magnetic Resonance Imaging, taking pictures of people from inside. She started getting interested in photography and experimented for a couple of years with both photography and post production until she took up the profession full time. Kimelman works as an advertising photographer in Uruguay, South America for local and international clients. When she is not taking or editing pictures, she likes to spend her time doing yoga or cooking.
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Tali Kimelman came into contact with images for the first time while she was doing a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering.
Direction of Photography & Post Production: Tali Kimelman Creative Direction & Art Direction: Mariale Ariceta Assistant of Photography: Gabriel Adda Post Production: Emilio Amengual, Matías Ferrando, Sabrina Pérez, and María Pérez Art & Production: Victoria Ismach, Majo Gago, Lorena Bottaro, Lucía Silva, Leandro Amestoy, Made Occhiuzzi and Ana Giovanoni. Production Companies: Kef Sensei (Uruguay) and Making Fun (USA)
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Photography | Tali Kimelman
Hidden Express These scenes were made for a hidden object video game called Hidden Express. In the game, the player is given a list of objects and presented with a scene in which to find them all. The list consists of a text description of the item you need to find and you are supposed to use your visual senses to spot the required objects as fast as possible. When you find the object you click on it and the object disappears. You win when you find all the objects on the list.
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Our sceneries are intriguing and mysterious and sometimes a little spooky, but mostly they are fun to play. Our sceneries are intriguing and mysterious and sometimes a little spooky, but mostly they are fun to play. All images were shot in Montevideo, Uruguay with a big crew of artists and photography technicians. Castles, vintage houses, school labs, theaters, museums and antique shops were altered to produce these stuffed scenes, full of details charged with history, transforming them into whole new places that are both fascinating and fun. We were the first team to create visuals for a game entirely through photographs and postproduction. Achieving this, with more than 70 different sceneries, was a process that took almost 2 years. Each image involved moving hundreds of props, spending hours putting together the scene, and a lot of imagination.
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We were the first team to create visuals for a game entirely through photographs and postproduction. A taxidermist lab, a room with treasures, a pink room where old ladies drink their tea, the table of a fortune teller and a vineyard, were imagined by Mariale Ariceta, the art and creative director, and later came to life with the help of her art team. The lighting was carefully planned and extreme care was needed not to move the objects on set, so the scene could be photographed again to record the ‘disappearance’ of the objects.
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Each image involved moving hundreds of props, spending hours putting together the scene, and a lot of imagination. After the images were ready, the post-production process started. Each object that was to ‘disappear’ needed to be carefully cut out and sometimes some other objects were added to make the scene even more challenging for the player. Thankfully, the game was a big success. © All images courtesy of Tali Kimelman www.TaliKimelman.com
Photography | Laurent Chéhère
Laurent Chéhère
Stories from Far and Near
Laurent Chéhère is a French photographer from Paris. Employing traditional photography and digital manipulation, the series ‘Flying Houses’ isolates buildings from their urban context and releases them from anonymity. Houses seem like they’re flying in clouds, like kites. Inspired by a poetic vision of old Paris and by movies such as Howl’s Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki, The Red Balloon by Albert Lamorisse, Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, as well as Federico Fellini films; the images of the artist seize an unexpected levitation.
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The large format served a double purpose of telling a story from afar and another from up close. For his series ‘Flying Houses’, Chéhère explored the Parisian neighborhoods of Ménilmontant, Belleville and Pigalle, and nurtured his interest in gypsies, African immigrants, old circuses, erotic cinema, decrepit hotels, or just boring little houses. In the gallery, the images are show in very large format, so that they may make sense, leaving it to the curious observer to discover details such as graffiti, writing, anachronisms, character, windows, and references to film or music. The large format served a double purpose of telling a story from afar and another from up close.
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Of Buildings and Spaces In my series ‘Flying Houses’, the photo ‘Circus’ was inspired by a sad circus in northern Paris, along a dirty highway. There is a tribute to the Fellini film La Strada, as well as inspiration by the character of the angel played by Bruno Ganz in Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders. Perched on the shoulder of a statue and observing humans, the angel falls in love with a trapeze artist. In my picture, a dwarf plays that role. He’s dressed as a clown and tries to light a cigarette on a snowy roof.
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Perched on the shoulder of a statue and observing humans, the angel falls in love with a trapeze artist. The photo ‘Still Life’ is inspired by an old famous taxidermist workshop in Paris as well as cabinet of curiosities. On the background Totoro, a character by filmmaker Miyazaki, is hidden. It’s sort of my charming take on Noah’s Ark where the animals seem… alive.
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Everyone reacts differently, people will see what they want to see, they invent their own story. ‘The Great Illusion’ from afar is a building that seems liberated of the city. Closer it’s an unsafe building with African immigrants that seem like “boat people”. It’s a metaphor of their odyssey. I give a few keys; I suggest a piece of life with some little detail. Everyone reacts differently, people will see what they want to see, they invent their own story. © All images courtesy of Laurent Chéhère www.LaurentChéhère.com
2015 | Volume 1 63
Book | David Hury
David Hury
A Beirut all his Own
David Hury was born and raised in Paris but came to age in Beirut as he moved to Lebanon in 1997. In Beirut, Hury discovered a completely new life, which he felt was full of possibilities. Hury was a young journalist and tried to discover Lebanon’s reality by working for local newspapers and magazines. Hury began to learn ceramics with a very talented Lebanese ceramist who happened to be one of his father’s students in Paris. That is where his interest in glazing and enameled plates finds its roots. Fond of Arabic calligraphy and modern typography, Hury worked hard to design his own fonts with clay and enamel.
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Fond of Arabic calligraphy and modern typography, Hury worked hard to design his own fonts with clay and enamel. The 2006 July War was a turning point for Hury. He started to work as a correspondent for some daily newspapers in Europe, covering Lebanese and regional news. During the 2006 War, Hury launched a French speaking blog called Chroniques Beyrouthines with Nathalie Bontems, another French journalist. It was quite successful, and they did some live blogging, quite a while before Twitter. A Parisian publishing house called Riveneuve asked the pair to write a book based on their blog. It was Hury’s first try as an author, and Jours Tranquilles à Beyrouth (Quiet Days in Beirut) contains more than one hundred chapters telling their perspective of Lebanese history from 2006 to 2008. The book was launched in 2009.
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As a journalist, Hury was tired of writing reports on violence in Lebanon. He needed to show something else, something more inspirational.
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Two years later, Hury published a bilingual book, Beyrouth sur Ecoute (Wiretapping Beirut) with Amers Editions. It contained forty-one short stories, each one illustrated with a photograph he selected from his archives. This book gave birth to another project: Beirut Prints. This collective brought together a group of Lebanese photographers in addition to a few photographers of other nationalities to present works on a seemingly simple idea: reveal the other faces of Beirut. As a journalist, Hury was tired of writing reports on violence in Lebanon. He needed to show something else, something more inspirational. In fact, Beirut can sometimes be violent and war-ridden, it is full of flaunt provocative singers and dubious politicians. But it’s also a lovely place, and Hury felt the urge to reveal its poetry and mysteries. Around the same, he began to teach at the Lebanese Fine Arts Academy (ALBA) in Beirut. One of the projects he managed with his students lead him to write his third book about mentally and physically disabled children in Lebanon, 7 Jours Parmi les Anges (7 Days Among Angels), in which stories were told through words and pictures.
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One of the projects he managed with his students lead him to write his third book about mentally and physically disabled children in Lebanon. Later Hury began working on The Beirut Book project. It started when he stole a blue sign on a soon-to-be-demolished building, with the number thirteen on it. A self-professed lover of Beirut’s graphic identity, this inspired a long creative process that included typography and photography. The Beirut Book was launched in November 2014. A last tribute of sorts to his adoptive city after eighteen years spent in Lebanon, it was time for Hury to move on.
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Visitors of the book fair were able to try their hand at the exercise. They wrote whatever they wished about the city. In ten days, more than three hundred people had taken part in the game: Lebanese visitors, foreigners, authors, Swedes, Frenchmen, Afghans, a Goncourt winner, a Renaudot winner, and other prominent figures. Later, more penmen such as composers, photographers, filmmakers, a prime minister, and an ambassador also took part. In this book, everyone has been treated equally and identified with a first name and an initial. Beyond these more or less known figures, it was mainly the words of children, who enjoyed passing by the wall several times to discover the strata of phrases in continuous proliferation.
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In ten days, more than three hundred people had taken part in the game: Lebanese visitors, foreigners, authors, Swedes, Frenchmen, Afghans, a Goncourt winner, a Renaudot winner, and other prominent figures. All these words were mixed with those of ordinary passers-by and with those that social media users contributed online. And naturally, languages followed suit. On the wall plastered with pieces of paper and blue ink, there was French, English and Arabic of course, but also Armenian, Croatian, German, Swedish, Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian. This diversity is in Beirut’s image. Difficult to reproduce faithfully.
The Beirut Book I will not make a lengthy speech about Beirut – The Beirut Book, published by the publishing house Tamyras, speaks for its' self. All I wanted to do was give voice to those who either love or hate this city. The Beirut Book was born from a series of illustrations inspired by the enameled blue name plates found at the corner of Beirut’s streets, and created by Beirut Prints, a collective of photographers formed four years ago. I was lucky enough to have Céline Khairallah, a Lebanese designer who runs Scene Beirut, create an Arabic font especially for The Beirut Book. Initially, these illustrations relied on a simple principle: rework the phrasing of well-known quotes to include the word ‘Beirut’. The very first one was inspired by the U2 song ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’. An observation that turned out to be false since the streets of Beirut actually have names even when its inhabitants are rarely aware of them.
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The Beirut Book was born from a series of illustrations inspired by the enameled blue name plates found at the corner of Beirut’s streets. Later, this phrase spawned others, all drawn from the language of Shakespeare and pop culture: Star Wars, Nirvana, Alien, Orwell… In the fall of 2013, the idea was reshaped as an interactive activity during the book fair Salon du Livre Francophone de Beyrouth. First, the idea had to be transposed to the French language, reworking phrases or quotes from authors such as Victor Hugo, Amélie Nothomb, Gérard de Villiers, groups or singers such as Téléphone, Yves Montand and Noir Désir.
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I took a photograph of this installation. It became clear that something had to be done with these spontaneous expressions. On the evening of the book fair closing, I took a photograph of this installation. It became clear that something had to be done with these spontaneous expressions. Stage them, engrave them in photographs, enrich them with new sentences, or set them free. The Beirut Book has neither page numbers nor chapters or theme classifications. Its pages reflect the way Beirutis (at heart or just stopping over, whatever their origins) perceive their city: chaotic, tender, full of hatred, libertarian, fettered, amorous, sexy, nostalgic, critical, unbearable, cynical.
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But The Beirut Book is only the first step of a more complex project. As I intend to leave a mark on this incredible city. But The Beirut Book is only the first step of a more complex project. As I intend to leave a mark on this incredible city, I’m currently producing real enameled blue signs with the sentences picked in the book. If I virtually wrote on Beirut’s walls through my photographs, I planned to install real metallic plates in Beirut’s streets in 2015. Therefore I hope people will photograph them. In a way, it will loop the loop. © All images courtesy of David Hury The Beirut Book published by Tamyras www.DavidHury.com www.BeirutPrints.com
2015 | Volume 1 73
Art | Nikita Nomrez
Nikita Nomrez
Urban Canvas
Nikita Nomerz is a graffiti and street artist hailing from the western Russian city of Nizhniy Novgorod. In his series titled ‘Living Walls’, Nomerz brings derelict buildings to life with his whimsical characters. Below you will find a small sample of Nomerz’s awesome work.
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Using urban space as his canvas, Nomerz experiments with many techniques and styles.
Using urban space as his canvas, Nomerz experiments with many techniques and styles. He’s an avid traveler, who exhibits in various places all over the world, and is a guest at many festivals.
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Art Living on the Street I started in school with classic hip-hop graffiti but became more interested in street art and began all sorts of experiments. Now basically I like to play with space and objects. I am inspired by the place itself. I love watching the city and finding an interesting point. Usually I do not spend so much time to create one work, sometimes less than an hour. But it all depends on the size of the object and my ideas.
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Usually I do not spend so much time to create one work, sometimes less than an hour. But it all depends on the size of the object and my ideas.
On the bank of the Oka River in Nizhny Novgorod the project, ‘Living walls’ began in 2010 as a part of the first street art object ‘Big Brother’. It was the beginning of a new series of street works, sharing the common idea of giving second life to old and abandoned buildings. The project features art works in the different parts of Russia that interact with the environment. Architectural elements, windows and cracks on the object become part of the artworks.
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Architectural elements, windows and cracks on the object become part of the artworks.
When you are creating street art, you create a dialogue with passers-by, with architecture, with nature and with other artists. Artworks that have been done on the streets are living their own life. © All images courtesy of Nikita Nomrez www.Nomrez.com
2015 | Volume 1 77
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