Street Smart and NUG

 

Swedish street-artist NUG – behind this crazy video for Fame festival – is ALSO featured in the wild and exuberant exhibition “Street Smart”at Kulturhuset in Stockholm this summer spilling into fall. A cluster of both Swedish and international street artists have gathered to show their signature pieces – from the modest beginnings to fresher, more current work. Some names are well known, others perhaps need introduction. Apart from NUG, Swedish urban artists include Akay, Adam and Kaos. International stars are Faith 47, DTagno and Swoon, just to name a few. But, perhaps the underlying refrains are even better known still: who owns public city space, the legitimacy of anti-art and the need to showcase social power structures. An exhibition about graffiti needs to have these ingredients, and “Street Smart” is no exception.

At the STHLM-exhibit NUG displays art and documentation in the shape of his graffiti film Territorial pissing from 2008, him vandalizing a wagon in front reaction-less bystanders. By all means, go check it out. Clearly “Street Smart” is an upright line of attack for getting a fresh look at some of the hallmark urban expressions, despite the paradoxical and somewhat artificial way of bringin’em together this way.