The 4th edition of the urban art festival Vulica Brasil exceeded our best expectations and attracted around 100,000 people during the 24 hours closing party - official estimate, audience 10x higher than the previous edition.
The official program covered the period from August 17 to September 3, although the last Brazilian artist left on September 16, which meant 1 full month of festival and artistic residencies.
In March 2017, we participated in “TED TALKS: Ideas Worth Spreading”, Belarus edition, “TEDx:Nemiga”. Our talk was called "Soft Power: The Vulica Brasil Experiment".
Video: TEDx Niamiha
The festival had the support of public and private entities, cultural groups and organized civil society, including more than 200 volunteers, fundamental to the event. In the end, 20 artistic, traditional and experimental interventions were given to the city of Minsk, when it celebrated 950 years, including 10 Brazilian and 6 Belarusian paintings (including murals, 2 vintage trams and 1 subway car), 2 sculptures and 2 photographic installations.
Curatorially we emphasized the idea of return to nature, reflected in works that sought to bring to the urban environment the colors of Brazilian and Belarusian fauna and flora. We also had old school interventions and other themes, always respecting freedom of expression.
vULIca braSIL IV
2017
The 4th edition of the Vulica Brasil urban art festival exceeded our best expectations and attracted around 100,000 people during the 24-hour closing party - official estimate, an audience 10 times larger than the previous edition.
The official program covered the period from August 17th to September 3rd, although the last Brazilian artist left on September 16th, which meant 1 full month of festival and artistic residencies.
In March 2017, we participated in "TED TALKS: Ideas That Are Worth Spreading", Belarus edition, "TEDx: Niamiha". Our talk was titled "Soft Power: The Vulica Brasil Experiment" (in Portuguese and Belarusian).
In 2017, Brazil was represented by a record number of muralists (not all of whom consider themselves graffiti artists), painting buildings in central city locations and unusual surfaces like trams and subways:
MURaLISM aND GRaFFITI
Dante Takeo Horoiwa:
In his first Vulica residency, he painted his first mural after a 8-year hiatus during which he dedicated himself to classical painting studies, applying these techniques to his unique mural (Romanovskaya Sloboda 5A).
Diego Dedablio:
in his first Vulica residency, he painted the entire building of the Cultural Center "Korpus" (Prospekt Masherova 9 / Korpus 8).
Ramon Martins:
In his second Vulica residency, he expanded the mural already considered the largest in the world at the time, entitled "Kaleidoscope of Belarus" (Ulitsa Oktyabrskaya 16-25).
Danilo aka Zéh Palito:
In his first Vulica residency, the author of a mural at the Facebook headquarters in Brazil painted the entire building where the capoeira group "Ficag Belarus" is housed in Minsk (Ulitsa Kalvariskaya 18).
Luis "L7Matrix" Martins:
In his second Vulica residency, he created two pieces: painting on the headquarters of Belavia airlines (Ulitsa Nemiga 14) and a mural in the courtyard of the Cherven orphanage for children with special needs.
The Brazilians were joined by some of the main names in Belarusian street art:
OSGEMEOS:
In their third Vulica residency, they created three pieces: repainting of two historic trams (both were parked at "Brazil Street" during the festival) and the unprecedented painting of an active subway car).
ALIAKSEI AKA ANTONY
From Moguilev, in his fourth participation, a first as an independent creator, after three years as a volunteer, he painted chimneys and part of the roof of the MZOR factory ("Brazil Street" 16 and 19).
Mitya Pisliak:
From Minsk, in his second participation, he painted a surrealist still-life mural full of originality (Ulitsa Zheleznodorozhnaya 31/1).
Serguei Rusak aka Izum:
From Lida, in his second participation, he created a delicate mural facing "Brazil Street" with an open heart (Ulitsa Belaruskaya 14).
Evgueni aka Mutus:
From Pinsk, in his second participation, he painted two murals. One of them illustrates the Cosmos, an homage to Ivan Misko, veteran sculptor specializing in astronomy, in the historic building where his studio is located, still in operation (Ulitsa Internatsionalnaya 11A). The second one is at another central city location and illustrates a surreal and dreamy forest (Ulitsa Sverdlova 30).
Roman Enotov:
From Minsk, veteran volunteer, first time as an artist, he painted on the wall the geometric work acquired by Vulica Brasil from veteran artist Serguei Kiriushenko ("Brazil Street" 16).
SCuLPTuRE
In 2017, the Vulica Brasil festival experimented with sculpture for the first time, with the help of the following Belarusian artists:
Bazil aka Bazinato:
3 meter high unfathomable and adorable sculpture on the sidewalk of the "Brazil Street" called "Great Being" - it was vandalized and destroyed after a couple of months in the street.
Duet "EKHO", formed by Vasiliy and Polina:
They sculpted a steel structure covered with braided branches of the native plant "Loza". It has monumental proportions and embraces a section of the historic MZOR factory, located at "Brazil Street". During the work, the location was used as a shelter and creative factory for the duet and about 40 volunteers.
PHOTOGRaPHY
Photography featured in an unprecedented way in 2016, with the production of two photographic installations by Belarusian artist Dasha Buben. The first is the "One Photo Gallery", portraying local women-only-artists, showing their performances, changing the portrait once a month, for a year, in a prime location of the Vulica Brasil courtyard or "dvorik".
The second one is the reinterpretation of the Hall of Honor of the MZOR factory - built in 1912, it has a strong emotional appeal to the citizens of Minsk and is a partner of the event since 2014 - with photos of workers in their workplaces, in poses without artificial makeup, replacing the Soviet-style "passport photo" previously exhibited at the site. It was the festival's tribute to the factory that served as the basis for several of our murals, including the (briefly) largest in the world.
URBaNISM
Architect Lourenço Gimenes' visit meant the continuation of urbanism proposals for Vulica Brasil. In addition to his April visit, he returned to Minsk in August for the festival, in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which invited him to lecture about sustainable urbanism, under the title "Green Blocks in the City: Life Between Buildings". Lourenço gave another lecture, to an urbanism institute, on FGMF's urban projects, and participated as a guest in a master class at BNTU's Faculty of Architecture.
Lourenço and Georgui Zaborskiy, our urbanism curators representing each country, reviewed the development of a master plan of architectural and urban interventions for Vulica Brasil.
In 2017, one of the thematic groups built the "Ideal Skyscraper", a self-sufficient socialization area with solar panels, greenhouse, rainwater collection for irrigation, benches, counter, art gallery on the second floor. Another popular intervention was the urban beach, created in a previously vacant lot on "Brasil Street", a real magnet for children and families at the closing party.
Photos: iVB archive
CINeMa
Cinema also debuted in 2017 at the festival, in two scenes. First, two of the creators of the documentary "Street River", Beto Macedo and Tiago Berbare, visited Minsk at the invitation of Vulica Brasil.