Today we follow up on our interview with Mario Ramírez as TOST Films shares with us their video of Wallpeople San Juan 2013!
TOST Films does a great job of capturing the energy of the event and the city it takes place in. Take a look for yourself at this awesome compilation of footage taken while the wall is being turned into artwork and back again to its original state at the San Juan Art League.
Enjoy! Share! Give feedback!
Interview by Fortunato Velázquez
Photo by Jonathan Delgado
During Wallpeople San Juan 2013 we got to talk to several interesting people that were key to the event's success. This third interview is with Mario Ramírez of TOST Films, our fellow media coverage team during the event.
Let's talk about TOST Films...
Graphic Artist
The project started in 2007 as an initiative for documenting graffiti. At the moment it was started it felt premature. As I met more and more people I built contacts and made networks for the next documentation projects. This is going on at the same time as I am working as a Graphic Artist during the week.
I studied at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico (The School of Visual Arts of Puerto Rico) and grew up with many of these graffiti artists. I got motivated to do this project because I had observed that there existed no one to document this art form and let it be known outside of the local art circles in the Island. People's work also caught my attention, such as Juan Salgado a tattoo artist that started doing murals, and the street art movement that had also been growing in the Island. Graffiti makers are artists, it has become more than tagging or interventions. It has transformed the view of the public as an initiative to take art further than is conventional. There is a muralist movement that has been developing in the Island.
Another contact in the Island was the distributor of Montana spray paint. He invited me to do the time-lapse videos that characterise TOST Films and in this way document the creative process of mural-making. It's a way of exposing art through the media in Puerto Rico in an easier form in the web using tools such as email, YouTube, Facebook, etc. People enjoy watching videos over the web, so we are using that too.
I really like it because it is an initiative like Facebook brought to the wall. It's like rethinking the Facebook strategy, take it back and put it up for personal and tangible collaboration.
People liked the idea of creating a time-lapse about a common wall that was intervened through collaboration. The mission here is to promote local art and give it more exposition.
In the future I would like to own .tv domain for live streaming. Additional to that I have a page in other social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. Eduardo Benavent helps me with the documentation and the diffusion of the webpage. We want to give exposure to the page and our work outside of purely commercial strategies. Although in the future I don't rule out the possibility of creating a virtual gallery.
This is my passion. I have always worked behind a computer but now that I am doing this type of work outside of office hours, I get to be my own boss and have space for creation without any type of rules or obligations.
¿Cómo surge el proyecto de TOST Films? ¿Qué estás buscando a través del proyecto?
El proyecto comienza con una iniciativa en el 2007 para documentar graffiti. En ese momento era algo bastante prematuro. Fui conociendo más gente que me sirvieron de contactos y enlaces con próximos proyectos de documentación. Esto ocurre al mismo tiempo me desempeño como artista gráfico durante la semana.
Soy producto de la Escuela de Artes Plásticas y crecí con muchos de estos artistas del graffiti. Viendo que no existía mucha intención de documentar el arte y darlo a conocer mas allá de los círculos locales de arte en la Isla, me motivé a realizar este proyecto. Adicional a esto, me llamó la atención gente como Juan Salgado que es un artista de tatuajes que comenzó a hacer murales, y el crecimiento que ha tenido el “street art” en la Isla. Los grafiteros son artistas, pues esta manifestación no es simplemente el “tagging”, ni las intervenciones. Se ha transformado la mirada del público a la luz de una iniciativa de impulsar un arte mas allá de sus convenciones. Hay un movimiento muralista fuerte que lleva tiempo desarrollándose en la Isla.
Otro contacto en la isla fue el distribuidor de la pintura en aerosol Montana. Él comenzó a invitarme para hacer los “time-lapse” que caracteriza el estilo de TOST Films, y de esta manera documentar el proceso creativo. Es una manera de exponer el arte de Puerto Rico en los medios de la forma mas fácil, la web, contando con herramientas como el correo electrónico, YouTube, Facebook, etc. A todo esto, súmale que a la gente le gusta ver videos.
¿Qué te parece la iniciativa de Wallpeole?
Me encanta porque es como la iniciativa de Facebook llevado a la pared. Es quizás repensar la estrategia de Facebook, darle para atrás y llevarlo hasta la colaboración tangible y personal.
A la gente le gustó la idea de crear un “timelapse” sobre una pared común en la cual se interviene de manera conjunta. El asunto es mover el arte local, darle exposición y empuje.
¿Dónde puede el público acceder a tus videos y documentaciones?
En tostfilm.com. En un futuro me gustaría usar el dominio .tv para realizar “live streaming”. Además tengo la página de Facebook & Instagram. Eduardo Benavent me ayuda con la documentación y la difusión de la página web entre otras cosas. Nosotros queremos darle exposición a la página sin caer en lo puramente comercial. En el futuro no descarto la posibilidad de crear una galería virtual.
El propósito del proyecto es estimular al público y hasta al mismo gobierno para que se den cuenta que el arte es más que una pasión.
Esto me apasiona. Yo siempre he trabajado desde una computadora y el hacer este tipo de trabajo fuera de mis horas laborales donde el jefe soy yo mismo, y en donde tengo un espacio de creación sin ningún tipo de regla u obligación.
Interviews by Fortunato Velázquez
At Wallpeople San Juan 2013 every participant and spectator became artists and in collaboration created artwork over an urban wall. We got to talk to some of these artists who interestingly come from different creative backgrounds. They shared with us their thoughts about the event. Here are their voices.
Web Developer / Artist
"Wallpeople is great... If you pay attention to people's faces you can see the smiles, the happiness.... those faces you need to look for."
"There are many levels in the art scene in Puerto Rico. There are different markets, but I think we should be looking to contribute directly to society and promote the arts in all its shades."
Stylist / Art League student
"There's a lot of talent here today, in an event that's totally different and open to the public. We need more of these events; it directly benefits the children. The government should insert itself in these initiatives because it helps canalise everyday experiences and situations. In the streets there is a lot of violence and discontent; I consider art as a way to alliviate the mind of those feelings with something that we all like."
Housewife / Art League student
"It is great to have the opportunity to interact with the public and collaborate to accomplish this type of activity. The event lets children interact in a healthy and creative manner. This type of activities foster interactions and good interpersonal relationships."
Art Educator / Art League employee
"Today I see a lot of motivation, especially from the children. From early in the morning they wanted to put their work on the wall. Some groups prepared specific projects two weeks before for the event. I work with the Art League's Facebook page and could observe the motivation and enthusiasm of the public."
"I was really moved by the work of a student that used the song "Color Esperanza" (Color Hope). I think that songs describes hope in music, in the youth, and in the Puerto Rican culture."
Graphic Designer / Artist
"Streets should be used more often by retaking the public space and mobilising people towards collaboration and interaction through art and its tools as links between individuals. The important thing is that people outside of the project can get to know about it so they can too participate in future editions."
Artist / Art teacher
About different initiatives that have been going on in the local scene... "One cannot wait for others to do... This event is important because when different elements come together to accomplish a common purpose, the reach and results are elevated for everyone involved. Diffusion of the arts and culture should be the mission of all sectors of the Country."
Interaction Designer
"I think it's a great idea that should be explored through other means of promotion. I would like to see a thousand people participating at this event... and here sponsors, support and diffusion are key for a future event. I think the local talent should be motivated more for an event like this and not restrain themselves because it is an outdoor activity, but instead embrace the fact that it encourages interaction between artists and the public. The integration of the public is necessary as an integral element of the appropriation of public spaces."
Graphic Designer
"Wallpeople is an initiative for the general public to express themselves and bring ideas that are different from those for the stereotypical spaces for art. At the same time the youth can express their art, which is charged with idealism and conscience. Collaboration is key but (...) there has to be more emphasis in the interactive quality of the event so that the public has a chance to accomplish their ideas and proposals. There could even be workshops in which people can experience other tools and mediums that would let them explore their ideas with other creative approaches."
Artist / Art teacher
"I enjoy this initiative because I think art is for everybody; art is for sharing. Art is an universal language that allows us to relate and communicate with each other."
"I think there was a lot of ignorance about the event; many did not receive the invitation. There's a problem with its diffusion because these type of activities depend on the support of the public and their contribution as spectators and creators. There is a need for more effective mechanisms for dissemination of the arts in the Island that look for the inclusion of the public in the artistic and collaborative process."
Interview by Fortunato Velázquez
Photo by Jonathan Delgado
During Wallpeople San Juan 2013 we got to talk to several interesting people that were key to the event's success. This second interview is with Juan Alberto Negroni the coordinator of Wallpeople San Juan.
Let's talk about what's going on...
It has worked well; it even started earlier than I had predicted although the reception to the initiative has been very similar to past editions. People responded to the Wallpeople Facebook page, sent messages, and kept in contact. We have the support from Marta Mabel of the PROA (Program for Assistance to the Artist of the Puerto Rico Museum of Art).
This year the topic is Music. The first year we did it the topic was "handmade", the year before was "photography" and the year earlier was "art for happiness". In this edition the artwork is based on "Music": artists, genres or even a particular song... anything related to music.
There were promises from artists that are going to participate; we have had a few here already but we are waiting on other artists to arrive. A lot of students from the Art League have participated since early in the morning. There have been people that arrived early and have been waiting.
The event takes a lot of energy and time of planning to accomplish. I think that what is key for the next event is to keep making connections and building contacts, as well as forge commitments to the event with more people even before we know the actual date or topic of the event.
Yes. Aside from i am satos™ Journal, I have TOST FILMS which is a new group that is documenting through video events related to art, urbanism and anything to do with contemporary art.
For me it would be Yellow Submarine and all that The Beatles imply. They are unavoidable because they are fun and enjoyable: everything related to the movie, the colours. Their music at that time for me it's genius.
¿Cuál ha sido la respuesta del público al proyecto desde tu punto de vista? ¿Cómo se ha ido materializando el mismo a la luz de las pasadas ediciones?
Ha funcionado bien. Yo pensé que a esta hora todavía no iba a estar corriendo, pero arrancó antes de lo previsto. La acogida a la iniciativa ha sido bastante parecida a las pasadas ediciones. La gente respondió al Facebook de Wallpeople, envió mensajes, se mantuvieron en contacto. Contamos con el apoyo de Marta Mabel en PROA.
Este año el tema es la música, el año anterior fue “handmade”, el anterior a ese fue la fotografía, y el anterior fue el arte para la felicidad. Y ahora son obras basadas en música, artistas, géneros en particular o hasta una canción. Cualquier cosa que tuviera que ver con música.
¿Se espera una mayor acogida del sector artístico acá en Puerto Rico?
Hubo promesa de muchos artistas que iban a participar. Ya han venido unos cuantos; estamos esperando a ver quién más llega. Muchos estudiantes de la misma Liga de Arte han participado desde temprano en la mañana. Hay personas que han estado esperando desde temprano en la mañana.
¿Esperas poder seguir llevando el proyecto acabo?
Pues mira, el evento absorbe mucha energía y tiempo de planificación. Yo creo que lo importante para el próximo evento va a ser ir haciendo contactos y comprometiendo a más personas con el evento desde mucho antes que tengamos la fecha y el tema.
¿Estás trabajando con alguna otra alternativa o mecanismo a través de web con la cual puedas conectar el proyecto y que abarque aún más?
Pues aparte de i am satos™ Journal tengo a TOST FILMS que es un grupo nuevo que se han dedicado a documentar y a hacer videos de eventos relacionados al arte, urbanismo y todo lo que tiene que ver con arte contemporáneo.
Si tuvieras que describir el proyecto con una canción o un artista, ¿cuál sería?
Para mí sería Yellow Submarine y lo que implica los Beatles: son ineludibles por lo divertido, todo lo que tiene que ver con la película, los colores. Para mí es genial escuchar la música de ellos en esa época.
Interview by Fortunato Velázquez
Photo by Rebecca Díaz-Atienza
During Wallpeople San Juan 2013 we got to talk to several interesting people that were key to the event's success. This first interview we want to share is with Elsa Costas García the director of Liga de Arte de San Juan (San Juan Art League), home to Wallpeople San Juan for the last three years.
Let's talk about the Art League and its initiative for the arts in Puerto Rico...
I am the director of the San Juan Art League, a not for profit private institution that was founded 45 years ago. This year we are celebrating its anniversary with various activities. The League initiated in 1968 by a group of people who identified that in Puerto Rico there was no place to gather people to share art in an environment other than academic or any other informal environment. The League was founded with the concept of a loose workshop.
At the moment of its creation, the League followed the Art Students League of New York.
At the League we are in the fourth generation of families that have been taking classes at the institution and we dare say that 45,000 people have gone through our institution. The majority of local prominent artists have been professors at the League. Some are art professors elsewhere or professional artists that choose to teach. We are proud of our faculty because they have always demonstrated commitment and dedication for art education.
During the 45 years that the League has existed we have never had to close our doors and for approximately 15 years we have not received help from the government. We have a scholarship program that has been reactivated. The program is focused on students who have the talent but have scarce resources. For the last three years we have been doing activities for gathering funds in which artists donate artworks that are raffled among the public who visits us. I has always been a pillar for the League's initiative that we can sponsor students, and to also break with the idea that art is for a particular group.
This is the third time Wallpeople has been done here, as en external initiative brought by Juan Negroni. It brings a lot of pride to us and we enjoy participating because the League is open to other artistic manifestations. The Wallpeople project is great because it encourages communication among the public in a more traditional or tangible manner.
The League is not only about traditional art; it has always been characterised because it provides space for novel artists that traditional galleries would not admit.
Yo soy la directora de la Liga de Arte de San Juan, una institución privada sin fines de lucro que se fundó hace 45 años. Estamos celebrando en este año su aniversario número con diversas actividades. La liga se inició por un grupo de personas que en el 1968 identificaron que no existía en Puerto Rico un lugar donde reunir a la gente y compartir el arte dentro de un ambiente que no fuera académico, o un ambiente informal. La Liga se fundó con el precepto un taller libre.
Al momento de su creación, la Liga siguió el modelo de la Liga de Arte de Nueva York. La misión de la Liga es servir y proveer las facilidades a toda persona que desee desarrollarse en el campo de las artes plásticas en un ambiente no tradicional y donde se sientan cómodos. En la Liga ya vamos por la cuarta generación de familias que han tomado clases en la institución, y nos a atrevemos a decir que por nuestra institución han pasado cerca de 45,000 personas. La mayoría de los artistas prominentes en la Isla han sido profesores en la Liga. Algunos son profesores de arte o artistas profesionales que optan por dar clases. Nos orgullece nuestra facultad porque siempre han demostrado compromiso y dedicación para con la enseñanza del arte.
En los 45 años que lleva la Liga nunca hemos tenido que cerrar nuestras puertas, y hace aproximadamente 15 años que no recibimos apoyo del gobierno. Tenemos un programa de becas que se esta reactivando nuevamente. El programa va dirigido a estudiantes que poseen el talento y son de escasos recursos. Llevamos tres años ya realizando una actividad pro-fondo en la cual artistas donan obras de arte, y las mismas son rifadas dentro del público que nos visita. Siempre ha sido un pilar dentro de la iniciativa de la Liga el hecho que podamos becar a estudiantes y poder romper con la idea de que el arte es para un grupo en particular. La liga es una escuela para todos.
Con relación a Wallpeople, este es el tercer año consecutivo que se realiza la iniciativa traída desde el exterior por Juan Negroni. Para nosotros es un orgullo y nos gusta participar, porque la Liga esta abierta a otras manifestaciones artísticas. El proyecto de Wallpeople es genial porque busca fomentar la comunicación entre el publico de una manera tradicional.
No es solamente el arte tradicional, incluso la galería de la Liga siempre se ha caracterizado por darle paso a los artistas noveles que usualmente las galerías tradicionales no los auspician.
Photography by collaborators Jonathan Delgado and Rebecca Díaz-Atienza
This year's theme was 'Music'.
If you took pictures of your artwork at the wall send them over (mariana@iamsatos.com) and we'll publish them here.
As Juan Negroni had anticipated, the event became artwork through the work of individuals that came together at the wall. The urban wall became the medium of collective expression, the mediator of conversations and the motive to be proud of.
If you took pictures of yourself at the wall send them over (mariana@iamsatos.com) and we'll publish them here.
Article by Mariana Ortiz-Reyes in collaboration with Fortunato Velázquez
Wallpeople has important purposes not only for art but also for the cities its artwork is developed in. As the project statement says Wallpeople aims to "return the arts to the streets and claim public space as a medium for expression." For Negroni, what is valuable about Wallpeople in San Juan is not so much giving back to art the urban context, but actually the effort of introducing art to the city. Negroni's role with Wallpeople has been to collaborate with the efforts of taking art out to the streets in Puerto Rico.
The idea of public space for citizens to express themselves is important and can be presented in many forms. During Wallpeople participants are invited to take an active role in this expression by temporarily adding a medium to an urban wall. Efforts like this one demonstrate the potential of public space for art, yet Negroni's insight about Puerto Rico is that in order to claim this there has to be an understanding from people about the space.
"Puerto Rico is already a public space. To be able to say that public space in Puerto Rico is ours for expression, we have to achieve that people understand the potential of public spaces in respect of the place and role they occupy or should occupy in them."
Wallpeople San Juan 2012. Photo taken from Wallpeople.org
Wallpeople San Juan 2012. Photo taken from Wallpeople.org
Article by Mariana Ortiz-Reyes in collaboration with Fortunato Velázquez
Wallpeople is collaborative project based in Barcelona that invites people around the world to express themselves in their urban context. Participants bring in their individual art or make their own in situ to hang on a determined urban wall of their city for sharing with others. Negroni explains: ”although each person presents their own work, when we see the end result what we see is a work on a greater format created by all participants.”
While this is going on spectators stop, people meet, exchange ideas, collaborate. Every wall created at these events is unique and unexpected since it is the reflection not only of the assigned theme but of the interactions of people and the moment in time. This is what Negroni identifies as an artwork in itself.
“Aside from getting there and presenting or creating an artwork, talking to people and meeting new people to exchange impressions and even exchange the work at the end, is an artwork itself”.
For Negroni the process of coordinating the event is an artwork. The artwork, like conceptual art, consists of a process from ideation to problem-solving for solutions and execution of these, and finally the interactions of people on the medium. Wallpeople as an artwork was started in Barcelona but it is continued by the coordinators of each city, the people who collaborate with their art and even those who stop for a look.
The urban wall acquires great value since it is the medium for public expression but it is also a tool for people to take on their city. Negroni is more convinced about the urban aspect of the event´s proposal because it’s out there, it’s accessible. Most important to Negroni is what people can get out of it: a sense of belonging for the event.
More about our conversation with Negroni tomorrow.
In preparation for the event, we are dressing up our website with Wallpeople colors!
Joins us June 1st at San Juan! More:
