Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017

Posted by Donna on 9th June, 2017
Filed under: From the Street

Satka Street Art Festival just wrapped up its first year, bringing five street art murals into the residential neighbourhood of Satka, Russia, curated by Fund Sobranie Moscow.

The Festival invited Nevercrew ,Petro and Slak of Aesthetics Group, Solo and Diamond. The murals were inspired by Russian culture, its creative influences and even the history of humanity.

Nevercrew duo painted “Baring machine”. The first part of the mural was painted in the city of Satka, in the Oblast’ of Celjabinsk, a city founded as an iron mining factory and now built around a giant magnesite quarry positioned in the middle of hills and forests of the Ural Mountains. This is a place that represent the relation between mankind and nature well, the proportion between them and especially a connection based on the use of resources, on which are built the local life and structures.

NeverCrew, Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017. Photo Credit NeverCrew

“As subject we choose the brown bear because we know that’s very diffuse in the russian territory (the russian bear population is one of the biggest in the world). It’s not risking extinction, but it could be seen as a clear reference to nature, something to connect with. The red is for us a colour that recalls an alert, but also a damage, a signal of awareness for a possible danger. We made a composition that plays with the verticality of the wall, adding the human presence in the very top.” Nevercrew

The second part of the mural was painted in front of the hill of the Ural Mountains, created with the leftovers coming from the digging activities in the quarry.

NeverCrew, Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017. Photo Credit NeverCrew

Solo paints an astronaut, lay horizontal and ready to take off. Words in his helmet reads “Don’t change your planet, change your world ” inviting the viewer to change their point of view, the message also gives a message of peace, harmony, health and good future prospects.

“I choose an astronaut, a tribute to the important Russian space story, I don’t need to say that the first man on the space was Russian … in a special way Satka has a special connection with space”. Solo

The artist also paints his dog, of 13 years Akira, who recently passed away, on the astronaut’s helmet …

“AKIRA is the name of my female dog, we lived together for 13 years sharing everything. She died one week ago … a lot of pain for me and my family. I decided to remember her in all of my work, put her name in my sketches all over the world, for me is a lovely and important thing to do.” Solo

Solo, Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017. Photo Credit Satka Street Art Festival / Fund Sobranie

Diamond’s mural depicts a beautiful woman surrounded by flying swans. The title of the work is “Diamonds in the soul”; a metaphor for the ‘gifts’ one receives after rediscovering oneself or overcoming a personal journey. The woman is adorned with a crown of roses on her head, creating a fairy tail and romantic feel.

“Italian TV years ago broadcast wonderful Russian animation films that I loved very much , so I wanted to inspire my painting to the fairy tale of “wild swans” Diamond

Diamond, Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017. Photo Credit Satka Street Art Festival / Fund Sobranie

Diamond and Solo are good friends and their murals flow with each other, both works represent the journey of a hero and encourage the viewer to reflect upon humanity, respect towards nature and the mystery of the cosmos.

Diamond and Solo, Satka Street Art Festival, Russia 2017. Photo Credit Satka Street Art Festival / Fund Sobranie

Aesthetics group is a Moscow-based duo of street wave artists that has existed since 2004, during this time the participants and the concept have constantly changed. At the moment Aesthetics is Petro (Petr Gerasimenko) and Slak (Blinov Ilya), in the aesthetic and ideological plans the team has gone from classical graffiti to a mixture of abstract geometric graphics and graffiti (also post graffiti).

“In our project, we disclose the industrial theme and its harmonious fusion with nature. Visually this is expressed by the contrast of architectural replicas and coarse geometric forms with pastel-natural tones. The works are completely abstract and do not attach themselves to any concrete objects, plots and images, the goal we pursued is the very pictorial essence, at a deep level (internal character), the phenomenon that we see in Satka.”