In Brussels, as in most European cities, graffiti is classified as a violent crime. The city has an entire police unit dedicated to preventing it, and reports claim that the city spends over 10 million euro a year cleaning it up. And more young people are getting fined and/or arrested for painting in public – even for simply carrying spray paint and digital cameras, or placing stickers on lampposts. 

Still, street art is surviving, even if just barely. Though most artists working on the streets will never sign their real name, as, if their work was noticed, they would risk arrest for their success. However, when companies do it, there’s no such punishment. 

This year in Brussels, Virgin Express and Apple Computers conducted an advertising campaign in the form of well-placed stencils sprayed on to the streets and in front of theatres, cafes, shops, even the post office. No less than 60 were done in a single weekend (much more than any one kid could hope to pull off in two days).

Since then, there has been another ubiquitous corporate campaign that placed stickers and tagged itself all over the city before taking over TV screens throughout Prime Time.  Ironically, this does not seem to bother authorities. Why are the laws different for companies and individual citizens when the action affects the city in an identical way? Why are individual artists not tied to corporations being locked up, while companies are offered carte blanche in what is called public space?

To show the power of a happy medium, we can also look at positive examples of collaborations between art, industry and current laws. Like a year ago, when an independent fashion store in Brussels, Mr. Ego, had their window tagged in acid. Rather than replacing the window or going through the painful process of an acid buff, Mr. Ego engaged No New Enemies and NNE contributor The London Police to an interesting aesthetic alongside what was only intended to destroy something. No New Enemies and Mr. Ego have been collaborators ever since.

When Nike approached Mr. Ego about launching their new Air Max Collection within the store, they were informed of Mr. Ego’s recent support of the No New Enemies network (a local artist collective) and decided to work together. Mr. Ego paid for and built the new office/gallery space, Nike provided the funding, while No New Enemies produced and curated Blenderhead: A mix of contemporary arts and attitudes by Lucy Mclauchlan (UK), Logan Hicks (US) and Ephameron (BE). This allowed three contemporary artists who had once worked on the streets, to present their individual works. The second exhibition in the new space is already slated for December with Boghe (IT), Nico Stumpo (IT) and a yet-unannounced Belgian artist.

Nike Europe’s approach might be one way to produce collaborations that sustain all interests and allow for collaboration between different creative bodies - a way to protect art from the tyranny of mass media and fine institution. This means we need some art whose value does not need to be measured in dollars.

~Harlan Levey

See It:

Blenderhead at Mr. Ego, 29 rue des pierres, steenstraat, 1000 BXI, is on view through November 15^th, 2006. 

 

For more on Blenderhead’s collaborators:

Nike, nike.com

Mr. Ego, mr-ego.be

No New Enemies, nonewenemies.net and fotolog.com/nonewenemies

 

For more on Blenderhead’s artists:

Lucy Mclauchlan – www.beat13.co.uk

Logan Hicks – www.workhorsevisuals.com

Ephameron – www.ephameron.com

 

For Information on ArtWork or Limited Edition Prints, email: nonewenemies@gmail.com.