As the city changes around us and more and more of our buildings disappear to progress it’s no surprise that the hobby of urban exploring has begun to take off.  Recording buildings that have fallen out of favour and often left to decay has become a must for eager photographers wishing to capture buildings in the final phases of their lives.

One of the most prominent explorers publishes photos as ‘The Raw‘ and we asked him to share some of those photos with us here at Inspiring City.  Travelling around London and the World in order to get the best images from the most remarkable buildings, one of Raws most notable successes were the images he documented of Battersea Power Station prior to it’s massive re-development.

The power station with its iconic towers

Writing for Inspiring City, Raw told us “It doesn’t get much more iconic than this place and people are often amazed to find out there are two pristine control rooms hidden inside. I had a feeling it would be a tricky place to conquer and wasn’t wrong. It has security with dogs on site 24 hours a day and is protected by numerous high fences.”

“We nearly gave up on both control rooms after hours of getting lost and frustrated but with a bit of perseverance we managed to access both and escape unseen. Control room A had possibly the biggest wow factor of anywhere I’ve been so far and immediately made all our efforts worthwhile.”

In one of the remarkably preserved control rooms

There’s no doubt though urban exploring is a bit of a grey area.  Clearly this is not something for the faint hearted and it would appear the law is quite specific.  “I always abide by criminal law and only ever breach the civil law of trespass which is between me and the landowner, not something the police have the power to arrest me over unless they suspect I have committed an actual criminal offence of some sort.” says Raw.

But it must be risky?  “I take the risk that if I get caught, a landowner might be pissed off enough to drag me through the courts for “steppin’ on moi laaand” and try to sue me for jumping over a fence to take photographs.  The reality is that the landowners themselves are rarely present to pursue such charges so when caught you are asked politely (or not so politely) to leave and take your trespassing interests elsewhere.”

Remarkable images from inside the station

I’d visited the power station in 2013 during Open House when the building was opened to the public for the first time in many years.  The site had been derelict for many years and already mainly a shell but unlike other iconic buildings in London it’s ‘architectural’ value meant that it’s exterior and chimneys at least would be saved.  Still, on the open house there was only a very small section that the public could see, all on ground level and nowhere near the control rooms which, as shown in these pictures, are truly a window into the past.

“There is a thrill-seeking aspect involved in exploring some of these places ” says Raw “due to the fact you’re sneaking into somewhere you’re not meant to be but also a desire to see what lies behind closed doors and document it before it is gone.”

Battersea Power Station is now undergoing a major redevelopment with the shell of the existing structure being retained and the iconic chimneys dismantled before been re-built. It is one of the largest developments in London and will play host to a major mixed use retail and housing space. It is unknown what will become of the control rooms within the building which it is believed have been given listed status. We hope that in some way they can be preserved. The Raw is an urban explorer who documents abandoned spaces around the World, his work can be found on his facebook page which features many of his latest images. All photographs in this post were taken by ‘The Raw’.

Inside Battersea Power Station Gallery

Remarkable images from inside the station

Lucas Levitan has been taking the World by storm, or at least he’s been taking the instagram World by storm! Invading the accounts of unsuspecting users and “stealing” their photos only for them to re-appear enhanced and with Lucas’s unique characters posed all over them giving them a whole new life.

It’s something that’s been gaining Lucas a lot of attention “I create a surprising partnership with other users by ‘stealing’ their images” he says. “I use the word ‘stealing’ instead of ‘choosing’ because it gives a better understanding of the process. I don’t ask for permission which gives both, photographer and myself, autonomy and respect each one’s role in the process.”

Instagram invasion @joseferrolho

In fact it’s often with delight that people respond to finding out their image has been doctored in such a loving way. Never nasty, the images are given a whole new lease of life as they enter Lucas’s cartoon World. “I haven’t had any complaints from any of my ‘victims’ yet, quite the opposite, some of them have became my friends” says Lucas. “I hope it’s seen as a kind and ‘honourable form of robbery’.”

Lucas is a Brazilian multi-media artist from Porto Alegre. He came to London 10 years ago to study an MA in Art and Design at the Camberwell College of Arts. He fell in love with the city and then with a girl, working in advertising and design to pay the bills but always still keeping to his roots as an artist. “I’m an illustrator today, filmmaker last week, photographer last month and conceptual artist last year” he says of his style.

Instagram invasion of @christian_foto

Coming from a family of artists it’s perhaps not suprising he hasn’t pigeon holed himself. His father Claudio is a cartoonist, musician and “genius” as he describes him whilst his mother Eneida Serrano is a “fantastic photographer”, not a bad combination given his eye for an image and his talent for illustration.

But it was an event from recent history that spurred him on to really do more of what he loved. A near miss prompting him to re-evaluate what it is he wanted to do, “A brick fell from the 4th floor scaffolding of a building site and missed me by millimetres”. That close shave prompted him to dedicate more time to his art “it was a turning point” said the man who since last October has been spending 100% of his time on art related projects, “I’ve never been so happy to wake up every morning” he tells me and even though this interview is being conducted over email I could swear he is beaming!

Instagram invasion @raulkrebs

Maybe it’s some of that love for his art which is what can be seen in his instagram invasion project and it perhaps explains some of the reasons why people have responded so well to them and indeed the number of followers he has been gaining on social media has been growing as a result. “I never had any big expectation” he tells me “the full satisfaction comes in the process of doing it, now that it’s getting more visibility and followers I can start thinking how to develop it further.” A book perhaps? Maybe, it looks like we’ll have to wait and see, “I’ve been expanding the project to what I called ‘Photo Invasion – The Untold Stories‘ a comic version where I bring to life many of the characters I use on Instagram.” He’s already made a start and a few stories have been created already.

Last year Lucas even took his photo invasion project to the streets of Shoreditch with an immersive outdoor experience outside in the summer evening. Partnering with pop up gallery ‘Art No Cube‘ this was a one night only gig moving the project from cyberspace to a real space, invading a different neighbourhood displaying his art of the street. It became a street party with gypsy swing rock n roll band ‘Boom La Tete’ adding live music and 300 people coming along to see what all the fuss was about.

Instagram invasion of @jfobranco

“London breathes art and culture” says Lucas, “It’s a multicultural city and that’s the reason I came and I’m still living here for almost 10 years.” However he still finds the more ‘official’ art scene a bit too formal “I like informality, casuality, when art happens by necessity not built to feed a commercial purpose.” Even the small galleries he says are institutionalised. “They create openings that mimic the big ones with drinks and small talks around artworks hanged on walls.”

And what about painting on the streets, has he ever thought of transferring his talents outdoors and could we see the debut of an exciting new street artist? “I met David de Brito, a Brazilian urban artist based in London who invited me to make my characters in large scale. I loved the idea so much I couldn’t take it from my head since then” he tells me. Exciting times then and I think it’s fair to say that his characters would create a bit of a buzz “I’m looking forward to learning and seeing how my stories fit on the streets”.

Instagram invasion @uwa2000

“I have a great memory from the process of doing almost all of them” says the artist as he reflects on his project so far. “A few of them became more successful with more ‘likes’ than the others, but my favourites are always the ones I get anxious to publish. It happens when I think I found an unique story behind the original image.” He cites the example of his interventions on the photos of @fabsgrassi, @thekwentin, @uwa2000, @jankse, @jfobranco and @blacksonik as examples of what represent the main objective of his work. “The original images are great, and my illustrative touch takes the story to an unexpected place. I hope they make people smile.”

Lucas Levitan is a London based multi-media artist from Brazil. His instagram invasion project has been running since March last year and involves the ‘stealing’ and re-imagining of photographs from instagram accounts around the World. His website can be found at www.lucaslevitan.com and examples of his ‘Untold Stories‘ can be found here. He was interviewed over email on 5 January 2015.

Lucas Levitan Instagram Invasion Gallery

Instagram invasion @vitoselma

Instagram invasion of @janske

Instagram invasion of @fabsgrassi

Instagram invasion of @blacksonik

Instagram invasion of @_biel_gomes_

Instagram invasion of @thekwentin

Following the success of Femme Fierce held on International Women’s Day in March last year it is perhaps not suprising that this year, 2015, it’s coming back and the ladies will be doing it all again.

Promising to be even bigger and better than before with workshops, seminars, a kids wall and of course some of the World’s best female street artists it’s hard to imagine yourself not being in the Leake Street Tunnel when it all happens again for a paintfest the likes of which is rarely seen.

Femme Fierce organiser Ayaan Bulale

Kickstarter is the chosen vehicle on which to launch with the hope that this time money could be raised to buy enough paint for all the women who are attending with all the focus on the day going towards the chosen charity Plan UK. Speaking about some of the reasons behind the choice of charity, organiser Ayaan Bulale said that she herself had been touched by some of the issues which Plan UK, a global children’s charity well known for its ‘Because I’m a Girl campaign‘, has highlighted.

Born in Denmark to Somalian parents and then growing up in Sweden before moving to the UK, Ayaan has become a true citizen of the World and has seen first hand some of the horrors inflicted on her own family through the process of female genital mutilation (FGM). “My mother was a victim of FGM when she was six years old ” said Ayaan “and she actually asked for it because in the community and the environment in which she grew up all of her friends had had it done and so she also wanted it.”

Ayaan filming in the Leake Street tunnel

That decision by a six year child set amidst the backdrop of ingrained cultural norms and supported by adults provided a narrative for life long complications that Ayaans mother would have throughout her life seriously affecting her quality of life. “The fact that thousands of children are sent out of this country each year to go through that is horrific” says Ayaan as she reflects upon the legacy it has borne on her family “it needs to be stopped and stopped now.”

So what impact could Femme Fierce have in terms of raising awareness for such an issue? “I’m hoping we will be able to use street art to connect with the younger generation” says Ayaan. It is after all they who find themselves the victims of FGM and of forced and arranged marriages with girls sometimes being whisked away to lands unfamiliar to them in order to marry people they’ve never met, not knowing what life will hold for them in store next. “What better way than art to highlight these issues” says Ayaan.

The Leake Street tunnel where it will all happen

Last years event drew artists from all around the World with people travelling from all over Europe and even Dubai to be a part of what was possibly the largest ensemble of female street artists ever assembled. “We’d painted the Leake Street tunnel bright bubble gum pink” smiles Ayaan “but what was even more amazing was when everyone had finished and packing up to go home and I just turned 360 degrees and could just see what was an amazing amount of art.”

The event caught the imagination with the likes of Time Out, Vogue, the Independent, Evening Standard and of course this very blog all featuring it. On the day no less than 4000 people visited the tunnel to watch the artists paint, mingling with the news crews, journalists and photographers to get a glimpse of the artists at work.

Ayaan in the tunnel soon to be awash with colour

Of course given the nature of this legal space, the art doesn’t stay for long with the art from the event last year only now living on in photographs and the memories of the people who were there. But then that’s the beauty of a place such as Leake Street. The art there is not meant to last, it’s supposed to go, and that’s why Femme Fierce will be so special! A cavalcade of colour from the World’s best artists that’s here today and gone tomorrow. To see the art is to experience and it’s the experience that sticks around much longer.

Femme Fierce, the free all female street art festival, takes place on International Womens Day Sunday 8 March 2015 and will feature over 100 top female street artists painting in the Leake Street tunnel underneath Waterloo. Funding for the event is being raised via a Kickstarter campaign which is now live and featuring a range of impressive rewards.

Ayaan with a spray can, possibly not the best combination

Filming with official film-maker Daniel Lucas from Lazy eye productions

Femme Fierce Gallery – A few reminders from 2014

Ayaan giving a morning briefing to all the artists on the day of the last Femme Fierce

Hannah Adamaszek will be returning

Roo adding the finishing touches to her Femme Fierce mural. It won the judges prize last year

Miss Hazard from Bristol

Steffi Bow all the way over from Dubai was in patriotic mood in Leake Street

Zabous ‘Girls Reload’ nuns got a lot of attention

Cbloxx from Leeds made a lot of fans with this fantastic piece

Spanish artist Elno is likely to be in action again

Art from Norwegian artist Zina with her distinctive blue hues

Vanessa Longchamp in action painting one of her distinctive ladies

Leake Street, home to the Femme Fierce festival

Artists from around the World have been posting their tributes to the murdered cartoonists from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. From all different genres of the art world, artists have been expressing themselves in order to show solidarity in the face of the brutal terrorism which struck at the heart of Paris.

The fact that cartoonists were targeted has resulted in an outpouring of support from the artistic community outraged that such freedom of Speech should be attacked in such a horrendous way. The ironic truth being that the Charlie Hebdo cartoons have now been seen by many more people than who would ever have seen them previously with the next magazine expected to hit a print run of over a million.

If the extremists had wanted to silence the artistic community then they have failed in a big way with the sheer volume of support drowning them out. A particularly powerful theme being that of the pen being mightier than the gun in an evolution of that universally accepted famous truth.

These images have all been posted on social media accounts of the artists themselves and I’ve compiled as many as I could find here. The artistic community have spoken and will continue to do so, “Nous Sommes Charlie”.

Artist Tribute Gallery

JR Artist tribute

Jef Aerosol tribute

Gregos tribute

Charlie Fuuki tribute

Kaws tribute

Faile tribute

Elena de’ Grimani tribute

Eduardo Kobra tribute

C215 tribute

Brisk tribute

Bom K tribute

Ben Oakley tribute

Antoine Stevens tribute

Andorid Jones tribute

Gesta Future tribute

Girls on Top tribute

Kef tribute

Szwedzki tribute

Secret Society of Super Villian Artists tribute

Sal Jones tribute

Pure Evil tribute

Otto Schade tribute

Knorke Leaf tribute

Nychos tribute

Je Suis Charlie at the Trellick Tower

Furia Tribute

Rockwell House, so often the venue to be at the centre of the Shoreditch art scene is to be no more. Celebrating it’s final party on New Years Eve, it was to be the final event for the Hewett Street venue following a remarkable few years which have seen some major celebrations and a whole host of arty goodness.

All in the name of progress as the land on which the arts venue sits on has been taken over by the developers in charge of the massive ‘Plough Yard Developments‘ project. Two new office buildings, a whole bunch of new shops, some supposed ‘affordable’ housing and a redevelopment of the old Curtain Theatre will be created on the site.

Open air cinema at Rockwell House (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

For Rockwell, it’s a bitter pill but perhaps one that was always going to be a struggle to fight against given it’s proximity to one of the largest pieces of brownfield land in the area. That land, bordering the edges of the city and the already massive Broadgate development will now be built upon. Although the creative industries which currently do operate there, including design firms, a dance studio, a film production company as well as a gym, will all have to either close or move on.

In a message on their website, Rockwell House pays tribute to the people involved in making the past few years such a success and who have played their part in helping to make Shoreditch into one of the trendiest areas to visit in the city. Although as they also acknowledge “It’s saddening to note that the very people who’ve made this area interesting are now being pushed out in the name of progress.”

Live painting and live music, a glorious combination (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

And that’s part of the greater risk. With Rockwell House and the businesses which surround it, Shoreditch will have lost a mini creative hub which breathed life into the area and which helped to give Shoreditch it’s creative buzz. This isn’t the only development to be encroaching onto the area with huge developments also proposed just over the road as part of the Blossom street redevelopment, the King John car park development and more controversial still, the huge Bishopsgate Goods Yard development.

All are proposing similar things such as high rises with office and retail space and a crumb towards the preservation societies which would supposedly retain the history of the area. It’s nonsense of course, these developments, just three in a very short space of each other will change Shoreditch forever essentially serving only to expand the footprint of the financial district of the city and pushing the creative heart out further afield.

Dancing into the night in typical Shoreditch style (picture courtesy of Mo Styles)

It’s ironic because let’s not forget that throughout it’s history Shoreditch and the area around Spitalfields has always been on the outside. A place with a deep and enduring history which has supported the development of the city but which the city itself had always kept at arms length. Here the workers lived with the area supporting essential trades such as tailoring, furniture making, brewing and of course the railways. It was just far enough outside the city to be out of sight and out of mind but just useful enough to be near when cheap labour was needed.

But the area has also always had a creative heart and the wider footprint on which Rockwell House sits was once home to the Curtain Theatre, where Shakespeare himself and his troupe ‘The Lord Chamberlains’ men would have played. As part of the Plough Yard Development the foundations of this old and historic Elizabethan theatre will be excavated and preserved potentially allowing plays to be performed in it’s proximity once more.

Rooftop glory in the morning after a paint jam (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

We are glad for this at least although to quote the Gentle Author from Spitalfields Life “It is astonishing to me that the discovery of a location of global cultural significance such as the Curtain Theatre is viewed as a development opportunity to put up another tower block with a shopping mall underneath and I cannot resist the notion that this cheap opportunism will be judged retrospectively as a condemnation of our age.”

But back to Rockwell House and to some of it’s recent history, it was until 2009 the home of an import/export company which went bankrupt in 2009, it was then squatted before being left empty until Jim Vision and Matilda Tickner-Du took over the lease. “When Jim and I first took the building on it was in a huge sticky mess, we spent just 10 weeks building, cleaning, rewiring, scraping, sanding, lugging plasterboard up 4 flights of stairs, and taking 10 tonnes of rubbish out to get it to a rentable and usable point.” says Matilda on the Rockwell House blog.

Dusk skies looking out towards the encroaching city (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

Since then it has been the home to many small businesses and hosted art classes, cinema nights, charity events, music events and more. In short Rockwell House became a mini creative hub supporting creative activities around the area. With views across Shoreditch and into the city it became the perfect location for events and celebrations. From Cuban nights, to Shakespeare, comic book launches, hot tub cinema, loads of live painting and even an event to draw attention to the plight of the bee.

Now though Rockwell House is no more, victim to the sprawl of the ever growing city and another sign of the times that the East End is changing and changing fast.

Rockwell House on Hewett Street in Shoreditch hosted it’s final event on 31 December 2014 and will now be redeveloped as part of the £250 million Plough Yard Development scheme. All pictures are courtesy of Tamara Elhaj and Matilda Tuckner-Du.

Rockwell House Gallery

Chess set playtime (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

Promoting Kick Ass 2 with live painting (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

Looking down the painted staircase (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

View from the window (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

Setting up the stage for another gig

Pool party on the roof (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

13 Coins celebration in art on the rooftop (picture courtesy of Tamara Elhaj)

Jim Vision live painting for a Save the Bees campaign

Crowds in the sun

The Trellick Tower is a grade II listed building in the Royal borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Designed by architect Erno Goldfinger it was completed in 1972 and based on the Balfron Tower, his earlier and slightly small previous version in Poplar, East London.

A short walk along the canal from Westbourne Park tube station and the tower soon comes into sight dominating the local area. Nestled to the side, in the concrete enclosed former communal sports area there is a now a legal graffiti spot which has become a favourite location for writers from around London and further afield.

The graffiti wall at the Trellick Tower

The tower itself is a famous landmark, beloved of movie crews and photographers wanting to find a gritty backdrop for their latest shoot. It was the location for the movie Shopping with Jude Law and Sadie Frost and is a favoured spot for the likes of musician Damon Albarn with the tower making guest appearances in a number of music videos. It was also the home of Tommy ‘Tucker’ Watson in the Grange Hill spin off ‘Tuckers Luck’.

It’s the brutalist design of the building that does it, a design that has actually become quite iconic, something that the grade II listing has emphasised. Not particularly a building that has enamoured locals since it’s creation, as the area has improved over the years it has become more and more accepted.

Code tags on the walls

Walking to the tower wasn’t quite what I had expected. Taking a left from the Westbourne Park tube station it’s only a few metres to the Regents Canal where the towpath leads straight to the tower clearly visible in the distance. On one side the canal is well tended with narrowboats and wildfowl bobbing up and down on the water. On the other, attempts to bring the natural environment back into the area with a series of nature trails have contributed to the softening of the area.

In terms of the graff world, the Trellick Tower is one of the places to be. Taking it’s spot alongside the likes of the Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo and the Stockwell Hall of Fame near Brixton it was perhaps once a little more edgy than it is today but still if your interested in seeing the rawest form of graff then this is where you should be.

The Trellick Tower was visited on Saturday 10 January 2015. It is one of a number of legal graffiti spots in London including the Stockwell Hall of Fame and the Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo. If you know any of the artists featured in the images please let me know via the comments and I will update the captions.

The Trellick Tower Hall of Fame Gallery

The 98 metre tall tower with graffiti wall

Visiting just after the terrorist events against the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Graffiti writers had already paid tribute at the tower with this ‘Je Suis Charlie’ tag

Painted bins at the tower

Code tag on the graffitit wall

Crazy mushroom type creature in the Hall of Fame

Evil santa in the Hall of Fame

Van reflections in the car park

The basketball court is still functional but full of tags

Looking up at the tower

Enigma tag

Street art and the Hall of Fame

View towards the tower

Art in the hall

Looking up to the tower

Close up of Pez work near to the tower on the canal

Code tag on the canalside near to the tower

Pez art on the canalside near to the tower

The entrance to the tower

It’s a common problem within the artistic community! You want to exhibit your work and get yourself out there but you can’t find the space and when you do, it’s often over-priced because there’s an issue with supply and demand.

The problem has been brought to life by curator and lecturer Matt Roberts who estimates that around 28,000 artists find themselves competing for a relationship with only around 2000 UK galleries. It’s a big difference which ultimately can only result in winners and losers. The big name safe bets are often looked after, reducing the opportunities further down the food chain for new and emerging talent.

Free Spaces launches on 30 January 2015 at Rolling Stock

And this is where Art Map London have once again come to the fore. Since a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign last year the platform and website on which Art Map is hosted has received a significant revamp. Evolving all the time as a resource for art lovers and artists now Art Map have launched a campaign to find ‘free spaces’ where artists can be hooked up with venues.

The launch on 30 January 2015 will see up to 15 free spaces identified around the city with the hope being that this will continue to be added to. Speaking on their blog Art Map said “London is filled with empty spaces. There are restaurants with rooms they do not use, there are hotels with empty bedrooms, there are town halls with massive auditoriums, there are empty commercial spaces in between rents, there are community gardens, there are city farms, there are skate parks. In other words London is filled with spaces that you can have for free to show your work.”

Jenny Judova and Kim Judge have launched the Free Spaces initiative

One of those places, Rolling Stock on Kingsland Road, currently houses one of Shoreditch’s trendiest night-time venues. The free space in question is a white walled vestibule area in a space between the main bar and the outside patio garden. Showing me around the venue Art Map founder Jenny Judova told me “the space available here is more than most small galleries and it’s currently unused.”

The inaugural show there will be curated by Art Map’s Kim Judge and showcases a series of artists who had previously existed primarily outside of the gallery system. The likes of Asteronyme, WillKay, Endless and Pauli Bates are being joined by Art Map regular artists Lara Thomson and Gary Russell. It’s the sort of line-up which is unlikely to have gained much traction without the opportunity that the free space gives it and that is kind of the point.

It’s a free space extravaganza at Art Map

Ongoing the idea is to build up a database of venues with surplus spaces which could be used to host and exhibit artists. It’s a bit of a win/win all round with the venue gaining something nice to go on their walls and the artists gaining a unique opportunity to showcase their work with Art Map acting as a go between. With the challenges that artists often face in terms of getting exposure maybe this is just what the art scene really needs.

Inspiring City met up with Jenny Judova and Kim Judge from Art Map London to discuss Free Spaces at Rolling Stock on 15 January 2015. The launch will take place at the same venue on Friday 30 January 2015 from 6pm it will feature a presentation on the free spaces initiative as well as an exhibition curated by Kim Judge.

Free Spaces Artist Gallery

‘Private View’ by Lara Thomson

Bjork is a cat by Gary Russell

Ben Naz by Pauli Bates

Will Kay from Will Kay Facebook page

Endless street art featuring Kim Yong Un

Brick Lane poster by Asteronyme taken from Pinterest

Camden has long been growing in terms of it’s popularity for street art but the past few months have seen a real burst of activity.

Dotted around the Camden Lock area we’ve already reported on the ‘Street Art Sheds‘ initiative which has brought artists from all around the World together to paint the outside of the market sheds occupying the space between the canalside and the railway viaduct. We’ve also looked at some of the work that’s been happening around the Water Lane area in the arches of the viaduct itself and some of the broader activity around Camden in general.

Inkfetish ‘Je Suis Charlie’ tribute on the side of a house in Camden

Led by ‘The Real Art of Street Art‘ and well supported through organisations such as Urban Nerding and ‘Hidden Streets of London‘, this activity has gone some way to transforming the area into one of the most highly populated spots for street art in the city, exclipsing in many respects even the more established East End.

Walk around Camden now particularly the Water Lane, Leybourne Road, Hawley Road and Haven Street areas and the place is awash with art on houses and walls peeking out of doorways and hidden in industrial spaces. But be quick, it may not last long, the whole area is gearing up for redevelopment with the art acting as a last hurrah prior to the bulldozers moving in.

An old chair from one of the traders sheds. Art from Hannah Adamaszek and Fanakapan can be seen behind

In fact as Inspiring City visited the area it was apparent that the move was already beginning to happen. The sheds near to the canalside, once occupied by a variety of traders, were being emptied with the clutter left behind from the clearouts rising in little piles around the area. Eventually this place will be unrecognisable with the footprint of space once occupied by the sheds being redeveloped into a brand new canalside quarter.

But it’s the area just outside the canalside which has seen the real boom in activity, that bordered by Hawley Road and leading into the junction with Leybourne Road. Whole houses having had their frontages painted, houses which may well have had grand histories in their own right, now just biding time prior to the destruction that awaits.

Irony and Fanakapan collaboration on Leybourne Road

It’s a sign of the times as London continues to develop. Developments in the East End are seeing vast swathes of the Shoreditch area eaten up by corporate giants in an ever increasing quest for office and retail space. Whilst in Camden it looks like the ambition is to transform a district which admittedly has suffered from a lack of investment for a bit too long. The canalside by the lock always had a bit of a hard edge and sometimes it wasn’t a particularly nice place to be it will be interesting to see what the next stage of this vibrant areas future will look like.

The street art of Camden was visited on 18 January 2015. The lanes around Water Lane, Hawley Road, Leybourne Road and Torbay Street are due for demolition and redevelopment later this year.

Camden Street Art Gallery

Water Lane

Alex Senna on Water Lane

Dale Grimshaw on Water Lane

Mr Cenz on Water Lane

Captain Kris and The Real Dill on Water Lane

Camden Lane

Three Amigos on Water Lane

Alex Senna on Water Lane

Saki and SPzero76 on Water Lane

Fish by RSCLS on Water Lane

Hawley Road

Dan Kitchener on Hawley Road

0707 art on Hawley Road

Tony Boy on Hawley Road

Trust Icon on Hawley Road

Irony on Hawley Road

Himbad on Hawley Road

Zadok on Hawley Road

Trust Icon on Hawley Road

Torbay Street

The Real Dill and Buckteef

616 on Torbay Street

Mr Shiz on Torbay Street

Mini Deco on Torbay Street

Airborne Mark and Irony Collaboration on Torbay Street

Jimmy C on Torbay Street

Himbad on Torbay Street

Deco on Torbay Street

Fanakapan on Torbay Street

Seeds One on Torbay Street

The Real Dill on Torbay Street

Dan Kitchener on Torbay Street

Leybourne Road

Irony and Fanakapan collaboration

My Dog Sighs

Dede

Faces on the lane

616

Ali Hamish

Mr Cenz

Louis Masai

Haven Street

Dan Kitchener on Haven Street

My Dog Sighs on Haven Street

Pang on Haven Street

The hoardings are finally beginning to come down at the Olympic Park! They’ve been up there a while to cover the ongoing development work but also at the same time inadvertently covering up an elaborate wooden mosaic from artist Mark McClure which was completed midway through 2014.

Now you can, at least, see the artwork from the canalside as you walk between Old Ford Lock and Hackney Wick although getting up close is still tricky. The mosaic is also based on a hoarding covering up another area of the parks development and access to it is still restricted on account of its proximity to a temporary access road.

Mark McClure

McClure’s work is part of the grand ‘living walls’ project to bring public art into the Olympic Park. It joins other large scale works also created onto the hoardings by artists Ben Eine, Jo Peel and David Shillinglaw. The work from Eine, a large scale series of stylised words describing the park, is something we’ve featured before on Inspiring City

Unlike his Living Walls contemporaries though Mark is not usually cast in the ‘street art’ category that the likes of Peel, Eine and Shillinglaw often might be. This may be obvious given he makes mosaics out of wood. Although, “things are blurring and merging” he told Moniker Projects, when they asked him about the subject. “It’s that whole thing, what is street art? Is it public art, is it a mural, is that street art? It’s crossing over.”

Completed in July 2014, the hoardings have finally come down so the mural can now be seen from the canalside

I first met McClure at the Moniker Art Fair in October last year. His stand, a joint installation with fellow Olympic Park artist Jo Peel was typically immersive with a wooden floor made in his unique style. It was an impressive venture but not quite an impressive as standing in front of a full 200 metre stretch with the the Olympic Stadium in the background.

The work itself is made up of ten key pieces, all originally designed on a computer and then scaled up so that Mark could begin the process of finding the wood and putting it all together. It was a process that would take the best part of a year with a small team of people to help him and the use of a warehouse on Blackhorse Road from where he cut and assembled all the pieces together.

One of the 10 sections of the giant artwork with the Olympic Park looming in the background

Marks work could be described as abstract but he says “abstract usually suggests it’s inaccessible.” Instead although it is full of big, bright shapes “people don’t feel alienated by it, whether they get it or not people just like it… there’s colour, it’s big, bold, friendly and quite playful.” The fact that it’s wooden also gives the work an added dimension, it’s meant to be interacted with, to be felt, it lends itself to semi-permanence.

The wood for the key sections of the mural all came from the area of the Olympic Park itself. All reclaimed it adds a link to the past to this very present piece of art. Now playing a very different role to what it might have been used for during the industrial heyday prior to the parks redevelopment. “There’s a history behind the recycled wood” McClure told me, “its been used for something before, even if it’s not a definite obvious story then it’s still contained in the pieces.”

At work in the studio, photo courtesy of Mark McClure

We were only able to visit a small section of the work. Access to it is restricted by a security gate which guards the entrance to a access road. After a little bit of negotiation we were able to get a little bit closer. It would be the first time since July 2014 that Mark had been able to feel the wood and despite being waterproofed it’s still changed. “I like the idea of the wood changing over time and maybe reflecting some of that industrial history” he tells me.

And it’s really that sense of renewal that this and the other art related projects around this area seem to be about. As we walked from Hackney Wick, criss crossing the Lea Navigation, looking into coffee shops and meandering around the grounds of the Olympic Park the change couldn’t be any more stark. This is an area utterly transformed. An area which has received the most remarkable of facelifts.

Mark McClure was interviewed on 24 January 2015 at the Olympic Park in Stratford. The Living Walls project is part of a large scale project to bring public art into the area during the period of it’s redevelopment.

Mark McClure Living Walls Gallery

In situ in the park courtesy of Mark McClure

The giant pieces were put together in a giant warehouse space. Courtesy of Mark McClure

Working hard on the mural courtesy of Mark McClure

One of the sections of the mural

Patterns on the hoardings

Mark McClure next to his work

Spanish street artist Borondo has become a well know feature on London’s streets over the past few years with his work popping up at regular intervals.

Often grand in scale and deeply impressive, his thick brush strokes have entranced street art fans across the East End and his work can still be seen in many places, not least on shop front windows in Shoreditch and on the walls and narrowboats of Hackney Wick.

With ‘Animal’ at the London Newcastle gallery on Redchurch Street, the artist has taken another step to enhance his growing reputation with an immersive and impressive solo show that was meant to impress.

Gonzalo Borondo ‘Animal’ at the London Newcastle Gallery

Eagerly anticipated it has already received rave reviews with the likes of the ‘I Know What I Like‘ arts facilitation group describing it as “a massive effort of great artistic and conceptual merit”. They are not wrong and the show does indeed do it’s best to take the viewer on a journey, an adventure even, throughout the show as the relationship between animal and human is explored.

In total there are 8 multi-sensory areas within the exhibition space all exploring the relationship with nature and man’s attempt to control it. Starting in the entrance lobby with bark chippings on the floor and showing films shot of super 8 you are led through a corridor created with an arch of antlers created in collaboration with Despina Charitonidi. It is meant to represent the trophies of war, or the “symbols of pride reduced to sticks” as the show literature describes.

Trophies of War

The passage leads into a room in which images are projected onto old window frames which have been whitewashed and images scratched into the surfaces both front and back. This, another collaboration this time with Edoardo Tresoldi is meant to create a series of double images which reveal hidden meanings. The scratching technique is something Borondo has used before on the streets of the East End.

Moving on into a remarkable installation featuring a wall made of bales of hay and cages with metal birds flying around as well as being trapped inside. “The birds in the structure lose their essence, yet outside they are fully formed and free. The work suggests nature has its own order but what we impose is an order to capture it, to deny it”, so says the show flyer.

Images are projected onto whitewashed glass with images scratched on the surface

Birds are caged as others fly free

A projector animates a girl crawling in a circle around the floor in the next room in what is a collaboration with Carmen Main. The girl is depicted as a domesticated animal “her need for control and routine destroy her animal instincts, burying her at every turn” so says the show literature. Next a room filled with real and fake grass on each wall draws the eye to a wreath centered in the middle, a supposed examination of the human desire to leave a legacy.

A little cubby hole nearby shows a spiral full of faces hanging from the roof all of which are scratched into the photo frames that make up the installation. This is followed by the most expansive room with a variety of paintings on the walls and on glass hanging down from the ceiling all with what looks to be a hunting theme.

Faces on a pillar

It’s an impressive and immersive exhibition with the viewer taken on a real journey of multi-sensory experiences. To quote the show flyer “we envy what is wild, unpredictable, and the freedom that follows. However, it is what we fear that fascinates us and so we decide to subdue it, keep it in a cage and observe it from the outside. We choose to live in captivity. Artificiality prevails, life ends.”

‘Animal’ by Gonzalo Borondo is showing at the London Newcastle exhibition space on Redchurch Street from 5 February 2015 to 26 February 2015. Those wanted to learn more about Borondo should see an exclusive behind the scenes look as he created his show here with HookedBlog.

Borondo ‘Animal’ Gallery

Scraping windows

The room is a collaboration with Edoardo Tresoldi

Birds flying free

The ‘La Carne’ a collaboration with Carmen Main

A photographer takes pictures in the ‘La Carne’ room

A spiral of faces

Borondo art in the Epilogos room

Fans view some of the work in the large Epilogos room

Hunters on the window

Sheep standing atop a pile of bodies

From life as an investment banker through into a career in fashion, the life of Bri Patty has had many twists and turns on a journey which has led to ‘The Spring Projects‘.

Launching on 1 January 2015, the essence of the project was “to give people a chance”. That chance will come when one lucky street artist from anywhere in the World will get the trip of a lifetime to paint in the famous Leake Street Tunnel for Femme Fierce on 8 March 2015.

It’s a bold initiative from a woman who has always forged her own way in life. Who, after quitting her job at the fashion company Celine chose to do something entirely different during a year long sabbatical. But, instead of using her savings to buy a car or going on an exotic holiday has chosen to pump it into a project designed to give young creative minds a start in life.

Bri from the Spring Projects

The story doesn’t seem quite so strange when you consider some of the other abrupt changes in life direction she has made. A lifelong lover of fashion she found herself in investment banking before giving it all up at the age of 32 to go back to school and studied at the ‘School of Fashion’ in Paris.

Then when the time came to hunt for jobs, it proved to be a bit of a challenge especially with her background “they said you’ve got some great managerial skills but I was too junior for a senior role and too senior for a junior role so I was stuck in the middle” she told me.

It was Jimmy Choo who gave her the chance with a job that involved stapling shoe boxes together “I started at the bottom just to realise my dream” she smiles. “They needed somebody to immediately to cover maternity and I went there and they gave me a chance and then people could see I was really serious.” After that she moved to Dolce & Gabbana in Italy and then on to Celine to become the global head of their shoe divisions.

Femme Fierce is the Worlds biggest all female street art festival

“No guts, no glory” is what she says when I ask Bri to describe herself. I can see why, she tells me a story about being scared of heights and so her solution is to go to the top platform of a diving board and jump off. She tells me that her love of fashion gave her a yearning to work with some of the Worlds top fashion companies but moving from a well paying job as an investment banker to an entry level position in a shoe company was perhaps never going to be a natural move.

But despite having achieved a lifelong dream and having worked for all the brands she wanted, the pressure began to show “it was like ‘Devil Wears Prada’ hardcore but times two.” she told me. “Every Wednesday you were in London and every Thursday in Venice but I lived in Paris so at a certain moment your body is just dead.”

A trip to India to recharge the batteries caused her to think once more about what it was that she wanted. It was there that she realised that now might be the time to focus on what the next stage of her life might look like. The realisation came that of all the wonderful places she had been and the experiences she had had “the most fulfilling thing of my life was when Jimmy Choo said to me, you’re in! It was that thrill of the moment for when you get in, it’s something that I wanted to give back to somebody else in the World.”

The Next Big Thing aims to give one artist the chance of a lifetime

And it’s here that Bri’s real passion comes through, realising that as just one person there wasn’t much she could do with issues on the global stage but there was everything she could do to change the life of a person however small on the local one. “It’s a case of saying, just don’t solve Syria tomorrow just solve (the needs) of that person today” she told me.

Now with the ‘Next Best Thing’ Bri’s Spring Projects will be sponsoring one girl to paint at this years Femme Fierce. That’s all flights, all accomodation, everything and from anywhere in the World for what for one young artist would be the trip of a lifetime and what does she want in return? “Well I hope people say thank you” she smiles.

The Next Big Thing will get the chance to paint in the famous Leake Street Tunnel during Femme Fierce

So far there have been 107 entrants from all over the World, from Nepal to Senegal and from Argentina to Ecuador with the interest from such a wide section of the globe having been overwhelming. The artist, to be chosen by a panel, will join in what will be the largest all female street art gathering ever assembled as 150 artists turn the famous Leake Street tunnel into a remarkable outdoor gallery space.

For one lucky person it could be the start of something big, to put street art in their country of origin on the map. For the other artists involved, a chance to mix it with the Worlds best and for the public, the chance to immerse themselves in one of the purest forms of art. Knowing Bri though she’ll probably just be smiling as the next big thing takes centre stage.

The Next Big Thing is due to be announced on 16 February 2015 with the winner receiving an all expenses paid package to paint at Femme Fierce in London on International Womens Day 8 March 2015. The winner will be determined by a jury of experts including Bri Patty, Stuart Holdsworth from Inspiring City, Ayaan Bulale the founder of Femme Fierce, Ingrid Beazley the curator of the Dulwich Outdoor Gallery and exciting photographer Alexandra Henry

Spend any sort of time with Sam Peacock and it is likely that two topics will be raised, Rugby and Fracking! Rugby, as in the town and not the sport, because that’s where Sam is from and he never shirks an opportunity to pay homage to the place and fracking because, well, it seems to frack him right off!

A landscape painter, it would seem that the inspiration for the show stems from Sam’s love of the countryside and the impact that the process known as Hydraulic Fracturing could have on it. The 52 pieces of work he is producing have all been inspired sites around the country that have been earmarked for fracking. Some don’t have names, only grid references to indicate their locations with many says Sam “being in beautiful areas of the country.”

Sam Peacock in his studio

“I truly hope there is never a day where we don’t question” says Sam when I ask him about what it is about Fracking that concerns him. “The reason why I wished to apply Fracking to my work was simply due to an artistic responsibility we all share as creatives to explore, digest and open up a dialogue, in my case a visual dialogue to discuss this process.”

Sam is known for his use of many different materials. He creates landscapes on metal by what is essentially a process of burning. It’s a hot, complex method but one he has honed over the years and for which he is becoming ever more well known. “The main material you are likely to find in this collection” he says “is dental plaster to deal with the landscape and copper wire to replicate the horizontal bore hole needed to extract the shale gas.”

Sams work can get dusty

But with Sam there is always something more. It’s not just about the fact that fracking is taking place, it’s also about trying to capture the essence of the location, whether it be a field represented only by a grid reference or the town he is portraying. For Sam it’s the myths, legends and colours that “contribute to our heritage” essentially creating art with a direct link to the area.

He tells me about one town, a place called Shotts in the central belt of Scotland between Glasgow and Edinburgh. He goes on to tell me about a local legend he had come across whilst researching, “Shotts once had a giant called Bertram de Shotts living in the woods surrounding the town”. The local giant by all accounts was a bully who would terrorise local traders as be passed through. The art he says takes folklore like this into account “I have envisaged the collection to be a fractured mass of colour, text, legend which would be tied together by the fact that all these places were earmarked for fracking.”

Sam has a lot to say about Fracking and energy policy

But all this aside what about the realities of life on the ground? Isn’t fracking a necessary means to secure the country’s energy mix for the future? For Sam the future is quite obvious and is is one with renewables at its heart. “Governments are ever changing, ideologies are forever developing, energy, the storing of energy and the distribution of energy however is something that needs to be looked at as a long term project which will benefit the environment as well as the populous which utilise it.” he tells me,

And in terms of the best way forward for the UK to meet its energy needs? “Investment in creating a way of storing renewable energy” says Sam. “Owned by state, not to be sold off to the highest bidder. Whether its realistically going to happen, it will ultimately depend on the calibre of government we vote in next and the science behind making it happen.”

“I think this show the gallery are hosting seems to be quite controversial” he tells me. “I can imagine people either agreeing with Fracking, coming to the show and thinking, this guy doesn’t know what he’s on about, or people coming along, not knowing about fracking and leaving with an idea behind some of the dangers involved in it.” Either way he hopes, it will leave an impression.

‘Fractured’ by Sam Peacock will show at the Curious Duke Gallery on Whitecross Street from 5 March 2015 to 15 March 2105. Sam can be contacted via instagram at SamPeacockArt. He was interviewed over email on 2 February 2015 and visited at his studio in Merton on 14 February 2015.

Sam Peacock Gallery

Sams art takes the culture and legend of the place into account

Sams studio is a modest garage in Merton where he prepares a lot of his work

Sam Peacocks studio box of odds and sods

Sanding down the metal

Some of the remnants of art past

Sam in his garage studio

Fractured will show at the Curious Duke Gallery from 5-15 February 2015

In an appetiser to the main event, the juggernaut that is Femme Fierce rolled into Croydon town and brought live street art to the shutters of South London.

Joining forces with the Rise Gallery on St. George’s Walk, the plan was to paint the walls of the area around the gallery in an attempt to bring a little bit of colour to the 60’s shopping centre in which the gallery sits.

Thirty of the artists soon to be appearing at the Femme Fierce Leake Street takeover on International Women’s Day 8 March 2015 descended on the town with the intention of breaking out the spray cans and giving the painting arm a bit of a workout.

For Croydon is was the biggest paint jam of it’s kind ever to have been held in the town and for one day only it became the epicentre of street art activity in the city with more art planned for the area around the Rise in the near future.

So as usual for these sorts of events we brought along our camera and took a few snaps. The Rise Gallery itself will be continuing the street art project in the area over the next few months and will be hosting a gallery show featuring a number of the participating artists on 26 February 2015 so worth getting down to take a look.

Femme Fierce Croydon Takeover Gallery

Elno

Fane

Pyklops

Lilly Lou

Artista

Float

Giusi Tomasello

LisArt

Amara Por Dios

Pixie

Mish

Maggio

Vanessa Longchamp

Roo

Thieu

Mondi

Neonita

Amelia Unity

Anthea Missy

Pang

The Nomar Clan, Aylo and Cbloxx

Miss Hazard

Zina

Femme Fierce Reloaded will take place in the Leake Street tunnel in Waterloo on International Womens Day 8 March 2015. Money for the event has been raised via Kickstarter and the art on the day will be in aid of Plan UK. The Rise Gallery can be found on St Georges Walk in Croydon and represents a number of established and emerging artists.

For more press and articles on the Croydon Take over check out:

Line and Wash – A different kind of urban sketching
Lilly Lou – Yo Croydon
Croydon Advertiser – Female street artists transform St. Georges Walk
London Live – interview with Femme Fierce organiser Ayaan Bulale
London Calling – Femme Fierce Taster
London Calling – Aylo and Cbloxx at Femme Fierce

The street art sheds of Camden have become a popular destination for lovers of urban art over the past few years. One by one the sheds were painted outside of opening hours with a variety of street artists from around the World creating what became a unique outdoor gallery.

Now times have changed and the once bustling market sheds have been emptied as the area is prepared for a large scale redevelopment of the lock district. It’s certainly something that will transform the area and you can see why such a development would be popular, it would be bang next door to Camden Lock.

But although the public will no longer be able to wander in and see the street art sheds there is still a chance to save them with Camden Market inviting any youth or community groups that feel like owning a shed to email shareAshed@camdenmarket.com in order to register their interest as the protective barriers are lifted for a brief time to facilitate a viewing of the sheds scheduled for 24 February 2015.

Nandon Mambo was just one of the artists to paint a shed

And of course there are still public art murals to be seen on the outskirts of the former market area particularly around the Water Lane and Hawley Road areas although the latter in particular is also undergoing redevelopment at the moment and the art in much of the area is now being demolished along with the buildings. The street art has come into this area as a precursor to the transformation that is to come.

Wandering around the market as the traders were packing up was a strange experience. Always so bustling, most of the sheds were now empty and the ones that weren’t were being packed up. Piles of debris were piled up at various intervals. Some of the merchandise that would have been sold to tourists which was clearly not worth the effort of even bothering to take away.

A trader starts to pack things away

We’ve covered the whole journey of the street art sheds of Camden here on Inspiring City. A project backed by ‘The Real Art of Street Art‘ who managed to convince the owners of the market that street art was a perfect antidote to the otherwise bland wooden sheds. Not only that but they managed to attract some of the Worlds best street art talent to the area.

Now though the next stage of this areas history is about to take shape with Camden Lock Market likely to change for good. In terms of the work already done to establish street art in the area this is something which will continue and it will be great to see how the place continues to evolve.

Camden Lock market was visited on 18 January 2015 as the traders were beginning to move out. Inspiring City has visited the market a few times capturing the different art appearing. For some of the articles check out:

A Whistle Stop Street Art Tour around Camden Town
Street Art Sheds of Camden – North Londons Funkiest art project
Water Lane in Camden Gets a Street Art Makover
Street Artists turn Camden into a massive outdoor gallery

Camden Lock Sheds Gallery

hanging around until the market closes for good

Empty sheds

Piles of debris littered the aisles

Ghost sheds

One of Lous Masais bees at the front of this row

These sheds once overlooked the lock

as did these, art from the Real Dill taking centre stage

Rows of sheds a lot of them with art

Art by Kaes and Thieu

A slight evolution of the original message ‘This is a Good Kiss Spot’ by 0707

Rows of sheds with art from ‘Girl’

Seeds, Idiom and Reset

Rubbish and dead rats with art from Irony

An old chair from one of the traders sheds. Art from Hannah Adamaszek and Fanakapan can be seen behind

Three of Greece’s top street artists will be amongst the 150 artists taking part in the next edition of Femme Fierce on International Womens day 8 March 2015.

Simoni Fontana, Mariana Cute and Cleo43 have been forging a name for themselves in Greece and around Europe with the ‘Banksy Tunnel‘ in London being the next place to showcase their skills.

We’ve already met Thessaloniki based artist Simoni two years ago when she exhibited with the Artaz Gallery at the Moniker Art Fair and her fragile and dreamlike artwork really caught our imagination. A real standout artist, she is one of the top female street artists working in the World today and we can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with.

Alongside her, two Athens based artists Mariana Cute and Cleo43 will be painting in London for the first time. Both have unique styles with Cute interacting with the street furniture of daily life and which to create her happy little characters and Cleo’s original and slightly abstract work sure to draw attention.

Simoni Fontana collaboration with ‘Ser’ on Agia Napa

All are represented by innovative Athens based studio Artaz, “I can’t stop thinking that more female artists should be out on the streets and Femme Fierce is doing just that” says Cleo as she contemplated the upcoming mini Greek invasion, “participating at the festival is an opportunity for me to contribute to this cause and get involved with the global street art community.”

It’s a sentiment that is expressed for the other artists too, representing a major opportunity not only to showcase their work on this major stage but also to meet and work with other female street artists with the scene in Greece being particularly male dominated. So let’s now take a look at all three and what we can expect to see…

Simoni Fontana

Queen of Greek Street Art, Simoni Fontana works around the world. Fragile and dreamy and abstractly hinting at self-portraiture, her style is characterized by an almost childlike innocence and is equally effective on tiny canvases as it is on giant murals. Her references draw from Japanese iconography and manga, filtered through a sensitive western outlook and her personal aesthetics, dictated by pop surrealism. “Femme Fierce is such a great initiative, putting the spotlight on the work of female street artists. Plus I love London! I so look forward to it.” says Simoni

Simoni Fontana in action in Greece

Simoni Fontana in Athens

Simoni Fontana with Ser on Ioannina

Mariana Cute

Born in Athens,but working all over the place she never misses the chance for a creative getaway. Her art draws from a fantasy world located inside her head, but is also largely inspired by the world of advertising, branding and society’s consumerist mentality. She is a street artist, with an emphasis on the literal ‘street’ aspect. She is passionate about creating works either in situ or with the purpose of leaving them on the streets. Partial to large scale and prone to exuberant statements, Mariana’s work is positively optimistic; her characters usually emerge in awkward locations (from building sites to remote beaches) and love to surprise and interact with people. “I am super excited to have the opportunity to create live art together with an army of girls – we are going to have a blast!” says Mariana

Mariana Cute in Berlin

Mariana Cute in Thessaloniki

Mariana Cute at work on one of her creations

Cleo43

From Athens, Cleo43 is a new but dynamic entry in the female Greek graffiti scene and an active member of the Athenian Street Art community. Her style is characterized by its naive quality and is rooted in international folklore. Her ignorant throw-ups and trademark masks, whether painted or in 3D form, are typically executed in vibrant colours, reflective of the artist’s exuberant personality. “Participating at the festival is an opportunity for me to contribute to this cause and get involved with the global street art community.” says Cleo.

Cleo 43

Cleo43 collaboration with Cacao Rocks

Cleo 43 at the Gradient Street Art Festival

Simoni Fontana, Mariana Cute and Cleo43 are all street artists based in Greece and they will be taking part in Femme Fierce: Reloaded on 8 March 2015. They are represented by Artaz Gallery in Athens and all pictures and biographies in this post have been kindly provided by them.

A few months ago Inspiring City teamed up with Femme Fierce and filmmaker Daniel Lucas of Lazy Eye Productions to film the Kickstarter video which ultimately did it’s bit to help raise the £2500 needed to put on the biggest paint jam of the year.

That money will be used to, in the main, pay for the spray paint that each artist will use in order to create an elaborate series of murals in the tunnel running underneath Waterloo station known as Leake Street on 8 March 2015, International Womens Day in aid of Plan UK.

Taking part in the filming of the video were Femme Fierce veterans from 2014 Joyce Treasure, Mish Chang, Candy Lo, AR, Karis Knight and Artista. All have their own unique styles from lettering to abstract and from Manga to Toast, this collection of artists are a real representation of the diversity of the street art scene in London.

On a rare sunny Sunday in late October all of the artists were on hand to film the video alongside Femme Fierce founder Ayaan Bulale. The idea being to paint a few murals and see how things went. So, as part of our run up to the main event we thought we’d pay tribute to some of the art and the artists of the Femme Fierce with this video created using footage from the day filmed by Lazy Eye.

Mish Chang – www.mishxmish.com

A self confessed typography geek, Mish move to London a few years ago from Singapore. “A friend brought me spray painting about one and a half years ago and I fell madly in love with it!” she said explaining how she started with the art form. Today she’s painting her name ‘Mish’ big and bold on the walls of the tunnel. Her recollections of last year? “It was like electricity, you could feel it” she exclaims!

“I remember being told as a young girl, there were activities and hobbies I should do and some that I shouldn’t as they weren’t ladylike or where more boy’s activities” she says. “I was always one to go against the grain and challenge what a girl can or cannot do. Femme Fierce gives ladies of all ages and background a platform to show their creativity with no restrictions in an often male dominated art space. What better way to show girl power and to raise awareness for our chosen charity – Because I am a girl.”

Mish Chang painting in the Leake Street tunnel as part of the filming for the Femme Fierce kickstarter video

Mish half way through her letters

She also recently painted at the Croydon paint jam with the Rise Gallery

Joyce Treasure – www.joycetreasure.co.uk

Sydenham based artist Joyce Treasure is a mixed and multi media artist who on the street has a penchant for painting hummingbirds and double headed ladies. According to her website she says, “at the heart of my practice is an interest in human behaviour, relationships, how we communicate, social issues and our relationship with identities and how these correspond with the source of our being.”

Speaking in the tunnel she spoke of the importance of an event such as this, saying “I think it’s important to give a platform to female street artists. It gives a nice sense of community and coming together and team spirit and all the vibe that you get when you collaborate with other artists. It gives you a sense of belonging and of being a part of something bigger than yourself.”

Joyce Treasure next to her art during the filming

A smiling Joyce with her iconic Hummingbird

Joyce’s work from Femme Fierce 2014

Candy Lo – www.uncandy.co.uk

The recent winner of the Secret Walls event in London, Candy Lo is an artist inspired by Manga cartoons. Something, she says, which has always been a big part of her life. The event for her last year was a chance to get involved after turning up to see what all the fuss was about on the day. She turned up, picked up a few cans and decided to get involved.

“The good thing about this event” she says, “is that there was such a diverse amount of people coming through. There were families with young kids just coming down and looking at the art, it was super friendly and just a real good vibe”.

Candy Lo painting during the filiming

She is inspired by Manga characters and you can see that coming through in her art

Candy was the recent winner of the Secret Walls competition in London. Photo by Nick Fox

AR – www.annarewinska.com

Originally from Poland but now plying her trade in India, AR has gone from strength to strength since Femme Fierce, what’s more she also featured in an Inspiring City interview as she painted one of the sheds in the now disappeared Camden Lock Market. More normally an illustrator, it was the first time she had painted a large scale mural using a spray can. “It gives the possibility of really quick development and also leaving a mark everywhere you go” she said of her rapid advance into the street art scene. “Since March I’ve done so many pieces and met so many people, it’s just such a good opportunity to bring all of the girls together to show that there are so many other people who love spray painting .”

AR in the tunnel during the filming

AR during her interview with Inspiring City in Camden

AR piece created during Femme Fierce 2014

Karis Knight – www.karisknight.com

For Karis, last years event represented the first time she had painted together with a large group of other female artists. An abstract painter, she has been honing her skills with the spray can and like many others relished the chance to form relationships and discover who’s who. “There were a lot of pieces that I had seen recently and I genuinely thought that they had been painted by a male not a female” explains Karis “so it was really interesting seeing all these signature street art pieces around that were actually done by a female and it was quite refreshing.”

Karis Knight during the filming of the Kickstarter video

Karis from above

Karis next to the piece she created for the video

Artista – www.itsartista.co.uk

We featured Artista during the run up to last years Femme Fierce and we do so again happily here. The muralist has gone from strength to strength during a 2014 that saw her break out of the London art scene and onto the world stage painting around Europe and at the exclusive Art Basel event in Miami. Hers is a style which is instantly appreciated by all who see it and which has been gaining a legion of fans. Needless to say her ‘flying toasts’ have become one of the most recognisable tags around.

Artista painting toast in the Leake Street Tunnel

Artista from above

Painting at Femme Fierce 2014

Femme Fierce: Reloaded will take place in the Leake Street Tunnel on 8 March 2015, International Womens Day. Money for the event was raised via Kickstarter and the murals on the day will be painted in support of Plan UK’s ‘Because I’m a Girl‘ campaign.

Ayaan, Artista and Joyce Treasure during the filming of the Kickstarter video

An international search for a street art star of the future has concluded with Argentinian artist Fio Silva winning the prize and coming to the attention of the wider street art world.

Organised as part of the Spring Projects ‘Next Big Thing‘ talent search, Silva will make her international debut painting the Shoreditch Art Wall on Saturday 7 March followed by a spot at the main event on International Women’s Day, 8 March, for Femme Fierce Reloaded, the largest gathering of female street artists ever assembled.

Fio Silva is the Next Big Thing. Photo by Daniel Lucas

From Hurlingham, a little village outside Buenos Aires she had never previously left South America and had no passport. This was prior to a speculative entry into a competition which featured some of the Worlds top artistic talent from a total of 40 different countries and offered the chance of a lifetime to paint in some of the Worlds top locations.

With a jury featuring experts from around the artistic World, Silva’s work had an immediate impact with it’s dynamic colours and energetic portrayals of the natural world impressing immediately. According to Fio “I love to paint animals in fusion with organic things like leaves, branches, trees … I love to paint things that are moving, they are not static things, they mutate to become that change.”

From Hurlingham near Buenos Aires, Fio will be embarking on a European Tour. Photo by Daniel Lucas

Fios story is one of renewal through art, only deciding to focus on the streets at the age of 19 following a personal tragedy, the death of her boyfriend. “I always had an affinity and curiosity for drawing but even if I was at ease with drawing, I never thought I needed it to feel good.” said Fio. “Today it is what I love to do and what I need to do above all things.”

Now her art has come to the attention of the wider world with Spring Projects founder Bri Patty captivated by her story as well as her art, “Little by little the beautiful consolidating power of nature that she put on walls started to restore not only Fio but also the streets in her little village Hurlingham.” said Bri. For Fio, the recognition of her art on such a stage was a turning point “I am simply too immensely happy” she says, “the sadness of why I started painting finally is transforming into dreams for better times.”

Fio painting in her home town of Hurlingham. Photo by Daniel Lucas

After the main event at the tunnel, Fio will make her way to Amsterdam and then Milan where a short documentary film created by Lazy Eye Productions and regular Inspiring City collaborator Daniel Lucas will be screened for the first time. All in all it’s been a whirlwind for the artist who said, “I always thought that something like this could happen in a movie or something like that. I never even went on a plane in my life, and now I can do it.”

“There is no place that I love to paint more than the streets” says Fio. “I think it is the best place to express what I do, because it’s public and everyone has access to see what you do. To change the colour, shape and the content of a wall is mind blowing.”

Fio Silva Gallery

The Shoreditch Art Wall has seen more than it’s fair share of artists pop by over the last few years with its prime location widely seen as one of the key spots for street art in the city.

Now, the team behind Femme Fierce have partnered with charity Plan UK and taken over the space using it to draw attention to the charities ‘Because I’m a Girl‘ campaign.

Part of a weekend full of activities the wall is the precursor to the following days festivities taking place on International Womens Day when, in the Leake Street Tunnel underneath Waterloo, up to 150 female street artists will be gathering to transform it into a huge mix of murals and colour all in the name of Plan UK.

Spray cans and a quote from Rosa Parks picture courtesy of Rob Wilson Jnr

The two events together draw attention in particular to the issue of forced marriage and it is this which the murals on the art wall hope to draw attention to. Plan UK themselves are embarking on a major campaign to ‘give child marriage the finger‘.

Artists taking part are a real mixture with varied styles, they include top French stencil artist Zabou, Argentinas ‘Next Big Thing’ winner Fio Silva, Norway’s blue hued portrait specialist Zina and the East End’s very own LisArt.

Fio Silva – Fio Silva Facebook Page
Currently embarking on a European tour, Fio Silva is the Argentine winner of the Spring Projects International talent search to find a street art star of the future. Since in the UK she has painted walls in Croydon, Turnpike Lane and Shoreditch prior to a spot at the Femme Fierce festival in Waterloo. We featured Fio when she first came over to the UK from Argentina and this can be found here.

Fio Silva painting on the Shoreditch Art Wall by Rob Wilson Jnr

Fio Silva the winner of the next big thing by Rob Wilson Jnr

Free as a bird by Fio Silva by Rob Wilson Jnr

Zabou – www.zabou.me
One of the top stencil artists operating in London today, Zabou has been rapidly making a name for herself on the local and international scene. We’ve featured Zabou lots of times on Inspiring City and it’s easy to see why, she has a style that is constantly evolving. For more information about Zabou check out an interview with her here and her TED talk here.

French artist Zabou by Rob Wilson Jnr

Zabou is becoming well known for her stencil work. Picture courtesy of Rob Wilson Jnr

‘Dream Big’ by Zabou

LisArt- LisArt Facebook Page
LisArt is a local stencil artist known for her dynamic portraits and colourful backgrounds. She painted recently in the Croydon Arts Quarter and chose to portray Rosa Parks the American rights activist on her mural.

LisArt by Rob Wilson Jnr

LisArt by her finished mural of Rosa Parks

‘Because I’m a Girl’ with LisArt by Rob Wilson Jnr

Zina – www.zinaartist.com
Zina is the Norwegian Queen of Blue Hue with the colour as her signature. Well known for her blue-scale portraits of women and children. She has been getting a lot of attention this past year and has painted around the World as well as extensively in the UK.

Zina in action on the Shoreditch Art Wall by Rob Wilson Jnr

The finished mural by Zina on the Shoreditch Art Wall

Zina by her finished mural by Rob Wilson Jnr

The Shoreditch Art Wall was painted by Zabou, Fio Silva, LisArt and Zina on Saturday 7 March in aid of the Plan UK ‘Because I’m a Girl’ campaign. The Femme Fierce Leake Street Takeover in Waterloo takes place the day after on Sunday 8 March 2015. Pictures in this post are courtesy of Rob Wilson Jnr from Fluid4Sight

Street art has just become the next Rock and Roll! Or, so you might think. The hoards of cameras clicking away certainly gave a hint to the sort of interest this event was having, such is the effect of this second installment of the all female takeover in the infamous Banksy tunnel.

The much anticipated Femme Fierce returned to the thoroughfare known as Leake Street underneath Waterloo station for the second year running and transformed it into a sea of murals with artists ranging from young beginners to some of the Worlds very best taking part.

A legal graffiti spot, the tunnel was made famous in 2008 when Banksy hosted the first of his infamous CANS festivals. It was this that led to its designation as a free space for artists to paint and which set the scene as the go to place for the Femme Fierce festivities.

The Banksy Tunnel was turned blue

Hosted for the past two years on International Womens Day, the charity partner this year was Plan Uk. Their ‘Because I’m a Girl‘ campaign has been raising awareness of the issue of child marriage with a number of the Femme Fierce artists having taken part in the painting of a mural on the Shoreditch Art Wall the previous day in recognition of the campaign.

Also part of the festivities were a series of seminars on issues ranging from Marketing for street artists, the history of Leake Street Tunnel from LDN Graffiti and even one from ourselves here on Inspiring City about the way that social media has changed street art.

lilly lous tribute to Malala with Artistas spray can

All that is for a different day though, the real action took place on the Sunday when upwards of 9000 people visited the tunnel to see the live art and to soak up the atmosphere. Students from DV8 training also took part in terms of providing entertainment as well as recording the events whilst a host of other videographers, bloggers and photographers made sure to add to the assembled body of work online.

For the artists it was an excellent opportunity to showcase their work on such as accessible stage and for the public a chance to enjoy the creation of free live art in a festival atmosphere with some of the best talents around. Needless to say there was a lot going on and frankly just too much for us to record all the artists here in this little post. We did give it a good go though so check out the gallery below to get a feel for what was an amazing day and an amazing event.

Femme Fierce 2015 Gallery

Lots of Action

The crowds in the tunnel were packed all day

Both inside and out

Work in the tunnel featuring the likes of Zina and Roo

Stephanie Thieu was one of the artists hosting workshops the day before the main event

Photographer Lewis Phillips set up in a portable studio to take portraits of the artists during the day

The pimp of Femme Fierce guarding the tunnel

Some Powerful Messages

Mr. R and Papa GiBs came over from France to paint this powerful message. The boys donned wigs and make up for the day to support the cause

Final Girls ‘I believe you’ piece

Charlie Girls 3 women swapping masks

Next to Hazard, Weardoe and Wonnersh painted what looked to be a graffiti piece. That is until you look at the detail and realise that it contained a history of womens rights

Some of the detail contained within Weardoe and Wonnershs impressive piece

Anthea Missy’s mural was one of the most powerful of the day showing a girl locked inside a ring.

Maga’s tribute to Malala Yousafzai

Georgies ‘Believe in Me’ piece. Photo by Rob Wilson Jnr

Vanessa Longchamp also had a powerful message to give with her mural about the horrors of child marriage

S.O.S painted this piece to raise awareness of the horrors of FGM.

The S.O.S piece was very impactful

Mutiny chose to use the event as a means of drawing attention to the plight of birds at threat from extinction

Whilst this artist chose to draw attention to the plight of the tiger by creating a mural made up of mini paw prints representing each tiger still active in the wild

And showcasing the very best of street art talent from the UK and the World

Cherie Strong normally best known for her delicate drawings did the same thing but massive and on a wall

Miss Hazard went big with one of her familiar portraits

Neonita went bright as ever

Pixie looking like she’s about to get up to no good decided to paint a meditating sloth

Denise Mangaram aka LadyLashDee picked the same spot as last year and went bigger

Suzko went for the same cute cat as last year

Painting next to her Stedhead from the Isle of Man

Emily Evans did a large scale paste up

Emily Evans piece in the tunnel

Wolfmutha has a penchant for owls and that’s exactly what she painted

Wolfmutha in action in the tunnel

Cbloxx and Aylo produced another stunning mural

Cbloxx and Aylo next to their mural. Photo by Rob Wilson Jnr

Something beautiful is about to happen by SLM art

Haunting piece by JDK

Pang mixing up her styles

Sarah Doyles BooB piece made a reappearance

Float’s colourful hanging baubles

Joyce Treasure and Annatomix

Sri back with her distinctive golden style

1stop went for the flying hearts

London based French artist Zabou decided to make a show of the whole event, hugely popular with the public as she dressed for the occasion and was constantly surrounded by photographers

The Finished Zabou piece ‘Girls Reload mark 2′

French artist Stephanie Thieu gave a workshop the day before and then painted with her mother who had come over from France. Her mural was a portrait of her mum and was a total suprise as she created the portrait without telling her anything about it.

From France but living in Belgium, Anthea Missy is a popular artist with her unique footwear

Rytual from Austria painted this striking portrait

Fio Silva, Squarehead and Mondi

Fio Silva, the Argentinian street artist had won an international talent competition to paint at Femme Fierce. This Rhino was the fourth mural she had painted in four days

Orginally from Singapore but now based in London, Mish Chang went to the the same spot as last year and went for her mermaid ‘fish out of water’ theme.

Swedens popular Amara Por Dios

Simoni Fontana all the way from Greece. Photo by Rob Wilson Jnr

Simoni and Cleo43 having a chat. Photo by Rob Wilson Jnr

Greek artist Cleo43 in the middle of creating her colourful abstract piece

Greek artist Marianna Cute painted these little champions of Leake Street

Spanish artist Elno portrait by Rob Wilson Jnr

Romania’s Adriana Doi’s colourful piece

Italy’s Guisi Tomasella painted the goddess Athena

Final Girl came over from Canada to paint at the event

Norways Zina, always popular with the press

Zinas finished piece

Artists from the next generation on this wall included Dutch talent JoJo

And the winner of the most spectacular piece of the day as chosen by the judges

Hannah Adamaszek won the judges prize for most spectacular piece

The Leake Street Tunnel

The Best of the Internet

Needless to say that with so many artists it’s been practically impossible to document everything here but luckily the festival also brought some of the best in the blogging World. So to see more check out…

Dutch Girl in London – Femme Fierce Reloaded
London Calling – Femme Fierce Reloaded Review
London Street Art Design – London Rocks Leake Street and Focuses on Zabou and Thieu
The Diary of a Journalist – The Girls Show the World how its done
Jona Quest Art – Female Street Art Festival (including video of performer Holly Flo Lightly)
Demotix – Uk’s largest all female graffiti and street art festival

I first became aware of Fio Silva through an international competition arranged by the Spring Projects to find ‘The Next Best Thing‘ in street art. Entrants from all around the World were whittled down to five and then just one in a painstaking process to find a street art star of the future who had the ability and talent to crossover and be recognised the World over. It was as a judge as part of this process that I got to know Fio’s work in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.

Now, although the streets of London are a far cry from home, this is where Fio Silva finds herself, painting the walls of the city having won the Spring Projects ‘Next Best Thing‘ talent contest.

Fio Silva outside her wall in the centre of Shoreditch. Photo by Rob Wilson Jnr

Flying to Europe was a first having never previously been on a plane before or even held a passport. She first touched down in Bologna, the home of Spring Projects founder Bri Patty. Painting a quick wall there with locally based Dutch artist Zedz, her next stop was London where she would ultimately paint at the Femme Fierce festival in the famous Banksy Tunnel underneath Londons Waterloo.

Meeting in person for the first time, Fios first London wall was to be in the up and coming artist hotspot of Croydon near to the RISE Gallery which had hosted a warm up to the Femme Fierce festival some weeks before in the newly dubbed ‘Croydon Arts Quarter‘. A trip to North London the day after saw her paint as part of the exciting Turnpike Arts Project. This was followed by trips into Shoreditch, the heart of the London street art scene, to paint at the famous Shoreditch Art Wall and then inside Montys Bar, the cool bustling artist hangout on Brick Lane.

All this activity was packaged around the main event when on International Womens Day 8 March 2015, Fio Silva joined over 150 female street artists to transform the famous Banksy tunnel as part of the Worlds biggest all female street art festival. Such was the interest in her home country she was also invited for an audience with the Argentinian ambassador as the culmination of a whirlwind tour in which she left her mark on the city. All this prior to leaving in order to paint walls in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Milan.

Fio grew in up Hurlingham in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, an industrial neighbourhood with humble people. Growing up she describes it as a time of “cute and fun experiences”. It was here in Hurlingham where her love of art was also born although painting outside was a late response to a personal tragedy. Today though she says “it is what I love to do and what I need to do above all things.”

Fio painting her wall in Montys Bar, Brick Lane

Her inspirations she says, come from her relationships. Her family history and her neighbours “I think all the situations that I experienced were and are inspirations for what I do” says Fio. “There is no place that I love to paint more than the streets, I think it is the best place to express what I do, because it’s public and everyone has access to see what you do.”

In Argentina, as in much of South America, street art is a lot more ingrained in the culture. “The public space is open to all” explains Fio “both graffiti and urban art, many people go to work in the streets and most people accept it and like it”. Finding wall space is not an issue with people willing to offer up their walls and doors “it is socially accepted” she explains. Even to the point that many councils go some way to encouraging it with street art murals becoming a kind of mini-industry.

At her first wall in London in the Croydon Arts Quarter

“Changing the colour, shape and the content of a wall is mind blowing” says Fio as she explains further what attracts her to the streets. “People understand it, are suprised and feel connected to it. Maybe there is this person walking to work every day always next to this gray and empty wall, but then one day it is alive again with new colors, something that perhaps moves. It evokes something in the people.”

And that is perhaps what drives her to paint her dynamic murals. Animals fused with organic things such as leaves, branches and trees “I love to paint things that are moving” says Fio, “they are not static things, they mutate to become that change.” For Fio movement seems to be key in her art and any casual observers would be able to see that too, the energy with which she embraces her murals is obvious to see.

Taking part in the Turnpike Arts Group project in North London

“I love to paint animals, I love to paint things that are moving…things that express force! I think these are concepts that have much weight in my life…I believe that everyone needs to move, everything moves, something ends and something else begins, everything. Often I try to represent all that in an animal.”

This was a theme picked up by photographer Alexandra Henry also a judge who as part of a panel was responsible for identifying Fio as the winner of the ‘Next Big Thing’ project. “Fio Silva and her street art strongly represent the pool of incredible female talent emerging in South America.” said Alexandra. “With animals and nature as her central focus, she brings attention to movement, change, and evolution, reminding us that nothing is permanent.”

Fio Silva painting on the Shoreditch Art Wall by Rob Wilson Jnr

London and Europe now represent a new canvas for this lover of movement. A new place in which to paint her dynamic animals. “Winning this competition meant something really amazing in my life” said Fio. “Actually, I never thought that something like this could happen. I always thought that something like this could only ever happen in a movie or something like that. I never even went on a plane in my life, and I am one of the happiest people on the planet.”

“In life you never have to stop looking and being curious with every single thing that happens around you” Fio says. “The street is a beautiful place to say something, to express art, to protest, to know the other. I am grateful for all the people I met in this constant search. I never cease to be grateful for life, in both the good and in the bad because it is all part of the same thing.”

Fio Silva European Tour

Bologna, Italy – 4 March 2015 – collaboration with Zedz

Fio Silva collaboration with Zedz in Italy

Croydon, London with the RISE Gallery – 5 March 2015

A snake in Croydon

Turnpike Lane, London with the Turnpike Arts Group- 6 March 2015

Roaring lion and birds in Turnpike Lane with work from ATM

Shoreditch Art Wall, Shoreditch, London with Zina, LisArt and Zabou for Plan UK’s ‘Because I’m a Girl’ campaign – 7 March 2015

Free as a bird by Fio Silva. Picture by Rob Wilson Jnr

Leake Street Tunnel, London for Femme Fierce: Reloaded – 8 March 2015

Rhino in the tunnel

Montys Bar, Brick Lane, London – 9 March 2015

Two stags in Montys Bar on Brick Lane. Picture by Fio Silva

Spuistraat, Amsterdam, Holland with Amsterdam Street Art – 11 March 2015

Fio Silva collaboration with Sjem Bakkus from Amsterdam Street Art.

Hope Box, Amsterdam, Holland with Plan NL – 12 March 2015

Fio Silva painting at the Hope Box in Amsterdam

Barcelona, Spain with Street Art Barcelona – 13 March 2015

Fio Silva in Barcelona

Milan, Italy, European Tour Finale collaboration with Microbo for Spazio Tadini with guest DJ Esa and HT Krew – 14 March 2015

Fio Silva Monster in Milan. Photo by Daniel Lucas