Writing about Urban Art and culture

Rebirth of Russian Street art during the protest movement
2017, Nuart Journal

Russian practice of coming-out in public space by avant-gardists1 in the beginning of the 20th century and by actionists of the 1990s2 was political by nature, similarly to contemporary street art though. This is largely due to the fact that Russian public space is always a place of tension and intersection of various interests: business, government, of ordinary citizens. That is why any access to the public space in Russia is a political gesture a priori.

Urban Art in Russia — serie of articles
2015, Partizaning

Russian avant-garde, non-conformism in the USSR, actionism of the 1990s, Soviet hip-hop and graffiti. Social engaged street art and collaborations with goverment today.
The First Moscow Biennial of Street Art — ‘Plastic world has won’
2014, Partizaning

Recently opened street art biennial "ARTMOSSPHERE" causes a lot of raised eyebrows because of its declared status of mega-exhibition, whereas there is no nexus uniting all the artists, no concept and no curators. The Central Hall of Art Play is jam-packed with abstract and entirely safe artifacts having indirect relation to the street...

Urban Interventions: To Fix or To Break?
2012, Partizaning

Brad Downey, Spy, East Eric, Akay, Vladimir Turner, Jason Eppink, Aram Bartholl, Didier Courbot inside.

Street art has traditionally been associated with murals or with actions like filling the streets with stickers, posters and stencils en masse. But over the last few years there has been a shift towards urban interventions, a concept introduced by Robert Klanten and Matthias Hubner, authors of the book Urban Interventions...

Street Art as the Art of Action
2013, Partizaning

According to popular view, street art evolved from American graffiti. But this is incorrect, except for some forms like street logos (where artists substitute their nicknames with logos), which became popular in Europe in the late 1980's. Long before, there was a completely separate process in France, rooted in different forms of illegal self expression on the street, highlighted during student protests in the 60's and by the Situationist Internationale...
Hacking the City
2012, Partizaning

Here I'm talking about computer activism and hacktivism in the context of the urban environment, based on the principles of computer hacking. This approach involves the analysis of the urban environment, the identification of "weak points" and focusing public attention on them in often absurd ways. Hacktivists are interested in the so-called 'improvement' of the urban environment—but, they use humor in the street as a form of media...