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Once again Nuart returns to ‘Tou Scene’… a large converted Victorian brewery. From the beginning of the 1980‘s the buildings stood empty and abandoned for two decades until the location became a popular cultural landmark. Tou Scene is a stones throw from the shore of the west coast Fjords and only a ten minute walk from the town centre of Stavanger. This special location is one of the countries leading arts centers and in September is the focus of The Nuart festival attracting thousands of visitors to its old brewery doors.
As we are driven into Tou Scene, by Nuarts legendary volunteer Tor, you are instantly greeted by signs of its cultural past. With fading street art murals by previous visiting and exhibiting artists on all the exterior walls, this large Victorian building holds onto Nuarts history like an outdoor museum. The Nuart offices inside echo Tou Scenes industrial past and simply fit within its ageing walls. We meet Martyn Reed, Nuarts founder, Manager James and Estella who are all busy organising the event and are extremely friendly and welcoming.
In the courtyard artists are busy preparing their artworks and there is a busy flow of people coming and going. There’s a great atmosphere in the air, Legendary Kodak girl Martha Cooper, with her camera in hand, chats to old friend graffiti abstract pioneer Futura as he chills between painting his indoor mural. Brooklyn Street Arts Jaime Rojo is photographing the build up and Bortusk Leer is sanding down one of his monsters… ensuring they wont bite!
This years Nuart artists include Bordalo II (PT), Jamie Reid (UK), Dolk (NO), Dotdotdot (NO), Ella & Pitr (FR), Ernest Zacharevic (LT), Futura (US), Harmen de Hoop (NL), Icy & Sot (IR), Isaac Cordal (ES), Jamie Reid (UK), Martha Cooper (US), Martin Whatson (NO), Outings Project (FR), Pejac (ES), Pixelpancho (IT).
We head across the courtyard into the ‘tunnels’ where the Nuart exhibition is held. The tunnels act as the perfect hub to host the artists creations. We walk through the cloud of spray paint and listen to the sounds of construction to witness the skills and hard work of all the artists and assistants as they paint their indoor murals and construct their installations. The installations add another dimension to the street art murals usually seen… they become a 3D mural, one you can step into and become part of the art.
The tunnels are a zone where the artists can express their artistic skills, however they wish. All the artists, volunteers and staff of Nuart work exceptional hard and late into the evenings to create their artworks for the exhibition. Check out our photos below to capture the exhibition at Tou Scene.
Dolk invites us with his murals at the entrance to the tunnels. Here Dolk has painted from his new abstract work ‘Buff Series’.
Photo © Ian Cox
Photo © Ian Cox
The first tunnel acts as a stage to Bortusk Leer’s monsters, made out of wood you can walk into Bortusk monster kingdom and be part of the fun!
Behind the monsters there is a simple gold shutter door against the white background by Dot Dot Dot.
Photo © Ian Cox
The second tunnel hosts Pixel Pancho’s and Bordalo II installation. Pixel Pancho has created his human robot with oil ejecting from the centre. Behind lies Bordalo’s Big Trash Animal, the whale complete with murky water jets, both of these artists criticises the oil industry and its detrimental effect of the environment.
The third tunnel hosts Isaac Cordal ‘Cement Eclipses’ in dirt, his business men void of all happiness and dragged through the mud of their non existent lives. To the rear of the tunnel Ella and Pitr draw a huge arm picking up one of Isaac Cordal business men and brings him into the light.
Photo © Ian Cox
The fourth tunnel shows off Ernest Zacharevic skills with his moving piece surrounding the refugee crisis, his playful children in a paper boat sailing underneath the sun, a stark juxtapose to real life. Here he shares the tunnel with Sandra Chevrier’s collaboration with Martin Whatson tagging and the legendary Martha Cooper plays fifty years of ‘children at play’ photos from the early NY scene.
The fifth tunnel is pitch black and the contrast of the light hitting the green plastic bags torn into leaves on Icy and Sots tree is stunning. Here the emphasis is on how non recyclable plastic is destroying nature.
Last but definitely not least is Legendary graffiti abstract pioneer Futura’s tunnel. He paints a grey scale abstract piece of the oil rigs and this works too well. Check it out…
Futura shares his tunnel with Martin Whatson, a familiar artist to Nuart,and paints his characteristic tagging onto a butterflies wings.
At the end of the tunnels there is a make shift class room which shows the formula produced by Harmen De Hoop, with Futura studying hard.
On the back wall the Outings Project paste two characters and artist Jamie Reid pastes up his art, including John Wayne with a nice shade of pink lipstick!
Photo © Ian Cox
Photo © Ian Cox
The opening night exhibition is a great success, beats play outside and as the evening casts shadows over the crowd, we chat to all and the great atmosphere fills up the night sky… as we leave Tou Scene we can see why they are celebrating fifteen years… Nuart is definitely something very special.
GraffitiStreet would like to thank Nuarts founder, Martyn Reed, the great team behind Nuart and the wonderful Tor… its been a pleasure.
Martyn Reed
Manager James and Estella
Tor collab Ella&Pitr
Nuart is on until Sunday 11 October 2015
Opening hours
Wed – Fri 12:00 to 17:00
Sat and Sun 11:00 to 16:00
Last Street Art Tour Sunday 11 Ocobert, 12:00 from Tou Scene, approx 70mins
