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Founded in 2009, Stencibility has carved out an international reputation for supporting independent street art in an era dominated by large-scale mural festivals. This year’s festival dates run from Tuesday 18th – Sunday 23rd June, 2019 and celebrates their 10 year anniversary of “anarcho-street art”.
Fourteen street artists from six countries will descend upon Estonia’s second city – Tartu – this week for the 10th anniversary of one of Europe’s longest running street art festivals, Stencibility. Spanning the spectrum of street art from graffiti to graphic design, illustration to interventionism, this year’s line-up boasts established names such as Poland’s Michal ‘SEPE’ Wrega and Belgium’s Bisser alongside emerging talent such as Russian duo Your Mom’s Knights and a host of local up-and-comers.
Artists invited include; SEPE (PL) ★ BISSER (BE) ★ YOUR MOM’S KNIGHTS (RU) ★ SOMEART (PL) ★ KRÕÕT KUKKUR (EE) ★ SIGUEL (PL) ★ ZAHARS ZE (LV) ★ GLOW (BG) ★ LAZY BRA (LV) ★ MAARI SOEKOV (EE) ★ PINTSEL (EE) ★ KIWIE (LV) ★ VOUR (LV) ★ SÄNK (EE)
Site-specific artworks, installations and interventions will be supplemented by a satellite program of events including artist talks, workshops and the launch of the 2nd issue of the Tartu Street Art zine.
This year’s festival gives birth to the term anarcho-street art, which takes its inspiration from the anarcho-punk movement that established itself in response to the corporatisation of an initially anti-establishment art form. Anarcho-punk embraced the syncretic fusion of various strains of ideological anarchism while advocates of the movement identified with various social justice issues from workers rights to the anti-war movement. Anarcho-street art, as proposed by Stencibility, offers a similar alternative for street artists by establishing a festival framework that allows for the type of unsanctioned creativity that imbued street art with its original potency.
“We believe that street art isn’t meant to be curated, filtered or censored. Our main aim is to preserve maximum creative freedom for our participating artists. Stencibility offers an alternative to mural-based street art festivals but all the benefits of the festival platform for non-muralists. When artists arrive to Tartu, they get a map of the festival walls, a bicycle and their cans of spray paint. No-one can reserve a wall and everyone can use all the walls during the festival period. The wall owners have given the festival permission to paint but they have no control over the content: that means no sketches prior to the artists arrival. Instead, all works can be born on the spot, inspired by the surrounding environment.” Stencibility Festival Co-Founder Sirla
As part of the festivals effort to bring more awareness to different forms of expression within street art, Stencibility is also hosting the second iteration of the hugely successful SLÄP! sticker exhibition, featuring over 10,000 stickers from more than 200 artists from around the world. The show transforms a four-by-four truck into a mobile exhibition, which after the opening in Tartu sets off on an epic road trip to 11 different cities in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.
Stencibility Festival is proudly supported by: City of Tartu, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Civitta, Converse, Skizze, Akzo Nobel, Karl Bilder, Omniva, Barlova, Mäshroom Stuudio, Egg Shell Stickers, Sticker Mule, Pulk Design, Pühaste and Tartu 2024.
A full program of events and program schedule is available here.
