“The city is a platform where art comes to people”

Until recently, street art was considered daring hooliganism, but over the years it has gained respectability, and now street artists are increasingly involved in shaping the urban environment. Their work changes the appearance of neighborhoods, combats monotony, and in some cases can influence people’s lifestyles.
Russian muralist Vladimir Gupalov (NOOTK) recently completed his new art project in the Buninsky Quarters residential area under construction in the southwest of the capital. The artist told Izvestia about his new work and the role of street art in creating new urban spaces.

“Artists can present contemporary art to citizens”

— Tell us about your work in the Bunin Quarters. What did you want viewers to see in her?

“The idea was to give the block a colorful mood, to replace the black and white tones of the construction site with a bright palette. When I was working, construction was still going on, and in front of me there were just concrete squares, cells of a house under construction. My attention was drawn to the concrete frieze where apartments with terraces were later to appear. AND I decided to depict on it the life that will happen here after, when the house is commissioned. I came up with and drew the characters, their surroundings, how people relax on these terraces. There is a girl watering flowers, a man sitting next to his cat… The action in different elements of the mural takes place at different times of the day – morning, afternoon and evening. By this I wanted to emphasize that in the “Bunin Quarters” life never stops, that this is a cozy world.

— Do you think artists could play a more significant role in shaping the appearance of cities? And what exactly?

— I think artists, first of all, are capable of bringing contemporary art to city streets. Because they are immersed in the context, understand it well, and in their works they carry the most current information, the most current trends. I'm sure street artists will always be happy to show them to people. Another thing is that the artist does not always have complete freedom to work with urban spaces. And this is understandable, because the city is a public space, so you always have to look for a compromise between the concept and what the audience is ready for. If people come to a gallery specifically for contemporary art, then the city is a platform where art comes to people. This kind of compromise is where some street art projects emerge.

— So, the artist needs to adapt to the perception of the urban audience?

– It’s impossible to say for sure. Probably, in cases of some large public projects, curators can direct the artist. But still, to the greatest extent, the artist always thinks about giving the audience some kind of image, some kind of his own vision – and leaving the interpretation to the will of the viewer. Those who pass by a city site are unprepared people, and of course, they will have their own associations, their own meanings. Therefore, probably, art in an urban environment can be either absolutely abstract or very understandable.

“An artist is always looking for breakthrough ideas”

— Do you see a difference between how people perceived street art 10 years ago and how they perceived it today? Has the attitude changed?

“You can, of course, say that there are fewer negative connotations, but overall little has changed. I created my first major work about 15 years ago, so I have something to compare with. Both then and now people react positively to something bright, large, and unusual. Such works surprise people passing by and arouse interest. And they still haven’t become commonplace. Passersby are still interested in what we do, they are interested in it. People break away from their daily thoughts and immerse themselves in art.

— Is it possible to expand the role of street art in the urban environment?

– Certainly. Artists can provide much more than beautifully designed neighborhoods. More daring conceptual projects can be brought to life. Another thing is that until these projects find their implementation, we will not know about them. For example, if I had a brilliant project or idea in my head right now, I wouldn’t talk about it. Every artist is always in search of what will be interesting, revolutionary, breakthrough. Today, urban murals are mainly of an applied nature. I hope that in the future they will become closer to art.

— Is it possible to divide street art into official and spontaneous street art? What is the fundamental difference and relationship between them?

— After the once underground street art entered the mainstream space, a division naturally emerged between spontaneous and sanctioned street art. I personally support, first of all, spontaneous art, because personal initiative from below is the basis for moving forward. When a person buys paint, conceives a plot, makes a drawing, even if the result is some colorful letters incomprehensible to the average person, this is free creativity. Young artists most often start with this. They do small, unsanctioned jobs, gradually working their way up to larger projects. So spontaneous and official street art do not oppose each other, but rather flow into one another.

— To what extent does a street artist, when creating his work, take into account the history of the area, its geographical and architectural features?

— It happens in different ways – it depends on what idea the artist wants to embody. Sometimes space leads you along. While at the Stenography festival in Yekaterinburg this year, at some point I realized that I was literally drawing at the intersection of the architectural and historical sights of the city. When I looked at them, the idea for the work spontaneously appeared to me. This is how my “Orange Route” turned out – a work that united the surrounding buildings of different eras – constructivism, Soviet modernism, modernity – which I mixed with my characters. I worked with the context and the city, combining tourism and artistic components in my project. I also took into account the fact that we are talking about a public space, which should be understandable to people living in the area and passing by my work. I think people enjoy seeing a design that interacts with its environment.

“What causes a negative reaction is what is not clear”

— How does street art change over the years? What are the main artistic trends in this art form today?

— Now in street art there is a movement towards conceptual art, at least in Russia. Contemporary Russian street art actively gravitates towards text-based works. In contemporary Russian street art there is a lot of text, many different verbal puzzles. It is difficult to judge what this is connected with. Perhaps because we are still the most reading nation. Or maybe people just like to communicate information without embellishment.

-Have you ever had to deal with a direct reaction from the public to your work? What is more common – positive or negative?

— I noticed that people have a negative reaction to everything that is not clear. And I realized this from my own example. I usually draw pretty clear things, but understanding naturally only comes when they're finished. And while working, until the outline of the drawing appears, I sometimes hear negative comments from passers-by. Then, when all areas of the future mural have already been painted over, and it all looks like a colorful canvas, it becomes better – that is, t
he negativity from the comments practically disappears. And when the outline appears and the audience understands what is depicted, I hear a lot of positive feedback. So understanding the work stimulates a positive response.

— Surely on the streets you pay attention to the work of your colleagues. Have you seen anything lately that surprised and pleased you?

– I find it difficult – There are a lot of good works, and I’m afraid I won’t remember someone if I list them. But if we talk about what I happened to see on the street and was pleasantly surprised, I would like to recommend the work of Danila Shozzy on Kurskaya. This is part of his architectural series, where he plays with buildings, distorting them, creating the most interesting and most naturalistic visual illusions. The work I'm talking about is located in the Artplay design center area, and if you get there, it's definitely worth a look.