The artist BLU from Bologna is known for his very large, often surreal and aggressive but always strong pictures in the public space. His very playful and comic-style pieces often carry an ethnic, political or moral statement, yet without being patronising. Next to his works in the public space, he draws a lot and uses the pictures in animation films. In Wuppertal, his central theme was the daily information overkill in the public space. He worked with so-called 'for free' magazines which are forced on us at every street corner. They hardly ever contain any interesting or relevant content, but instead are completely packed with adverts. For the project, BLU produced and distributed 6.000 of those "for free" magazines himself. BLU chose this format and published his pictures anonymously and without any commentary, explanation or further information. At the same time he designed various walls in the city and with that created a reference to the drawings and his extensive pieces in the public space.
What's the idea behind your project?
6.000 books of drawings placed everywhere around central streets, train stations, bus stops, traffic lights and any other place where people usually walk. A gift for all the people who were going to work or school the day after. It is a kind of "street art take-away" exhibition; if you like the piece, you can take it home. The magazines were completely anonymous and I think most of the people will never know that I did it.
How have you developed your project?
I printed the books in my city and brought everything to Wuppertal in a van. That night, we were about 6 people (but three of us were soon caught by the police) walking around with orange trolleys full of magazines and carton boxes. We started distributing the boxes by tying them onto poles and traffic lights using plastic belts, but then the rain came and we started to spread all the magazines in the Schwebebahn stations and in the bus stops on the main roads. That night every bench was full of magazines and the day after many people were walking around with a magazine in their hands.
Why did you decide to be part of the project?
First I was attracted by the possibility of doing something more than the common wall painting (which I did anyway) using a budget I don't have myself. And also the other artists involved in the project were a big attraction for me, some of them are really good friends and I'm always pleased to work with them. And I always wanted to meet the other ones I didn’t know personally before.
What was special about the project?
The most special thing was the get-together and the exchange I had with the other artists. It is a precious and rare opportunity to meet all these people which are such great artists and persons. Everyone comes from a different part of the world and has his own experiences and a desire to know more about the others. This is the fact that will really last more than the work we have done, and more than the project itself.
We also had many long and interesting talks about what we were doing there, the way we were working with this company behind us and our personal relations with this project. We were searching for the perfect compromise - which is impossible in the end.
What do you think of Wuppertal as a location for this kind of exhibition?
Really nice city, full of nice inspiring architecture: the Schwebebahn train line with a lot of empty factories, the old bunkers from the second world war, the abandoned rail track with its tunnels and bridges.
Do you think the frame of OUTSIDES can be a role model for further projects?
The concept behind OUTSIDES has not been invented for this project, a similar project was already done the previous year in Berlin (without any sponsors), and that's where the idea came from: OUTSIDES had already taken the project in Berlin as a model, which was a development based on the idea of going out and painting together. The special thing about OUTSIDES was the involvement of a company which gave the money and technical support to realise the project in a bigger way with the clear intent of appearing in the media, especially within the graffiti and street art community.
