IRELAND: The Icon Factory & The Icon Walk – Artist Aga Szot

This wonderful story is really one of the “greatest stories ever strolled”, as it is already written in the headline on the website of the Icon Factory in Dublin. This article will take this beautiful story further out into the world, with a readable artist conversation on the making and there is also an interesting podcast waiting for you to listen to. This is the story of the Icon Factory and the Icon Walk told by team member and visual artist Aga Szot in an interview.

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GREECE: The COLORS Hotel Thessaloniki – Modern style in historic walls

While staying in Thessaloniki we spend a lot of time on going out, having delicious meals and enjoying the vibrant nightlife. During one of these evenings I met Christina Drakopoulou and asked her, if she knows any graffiti artists or recommendable places for streetart. And yes, she knew. Her place: The Colors Hotel. Actually there are three of them. The Colors Hotels are old remodeled buildings with artworks of local sprayers. Again a magic meeting, it could have been fate or it just happened by accident, but of course we made an appointment for a visit. A few days later I met Christina at the building in 13 Tzimski Street, she showed me the place and we recorded an informative interview, as well we made a little movie about the place and some of the artistic rooms.

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CAMBODIA: JJ’s Playground – Beach Rave in Sihanoukville

Between the cultural treasures in the Cambodian inner country and the heaps of paradiseful islands by the sea there is Sihanoukville located on the Southern Coast of the Thailand Gulf. It´s headquarters for planing and starting a wonderful relaxing time on one island or do a hopping over several ones. Depening on the time you have, but for sure, you don´t want to leave. For the party people there is as well a cool nightlife provided including super nice sea side places with DJs and nightlong dancing on the beach till sunrise. One of those places with good cocktails, fine music and awesome partys is JJ’s Playground. We spoke with manager Jose and team members Justin and Dave in an interview about the place and the party at JJ’s, as well we did a short walkaround video during daylight.

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NETHERLANDS: Streetart Museum Amsterdam – Gabriele Romagnoli from GRTalk preserves artworks in Virtual Reality

For the past seven years, in collaboration with renown artists worldwide the Street Art Museum Amsterdam – or just SAMA – has built a collection of over 300 pieces that lightens up the walls of one of the most degraded neighborhoods of the city. Many of them are still present in the collection, but around 70% have been removed, demolished or painted over. By the end of this year renovation of the area will start and, even though it is part of the evolution of the urban landscape, the second monumental piece will turn to rubbles. To preserve the artwork long after it will be gone, SAMA together with GRTalk embarked on a project that uses photogrammetry, virtual reality animation and 360° videos to create an experience that merges realities and tell the story of the mural “Fatherhood” from the artist STINKFISH and the already gone artwork “Safety”.

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LITHUANIA: WSUP – Graffiti Shop Vilnius and SPRAY WAY CREW

Paint and colors, graffiti and graphics, these guys know everything about the perfect marker, the best spray cans and where are the wall spots in Vilnius. Actually they are selling all the equipment in their creative shop, as well they are familiar with the streets because they frequently paint themselves wonderful pieces and huge murals around the city and make their surrounding more colorful. They are convinced of what they sell; surely they are using the cans and markers themselves and know what they are talking about. This article is about the fabulous WSUP graffiti shop in Vilnius and the SPRAY WAY CREW.

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LITHUANIA: Sprayer Marla Singer and streetart restaurant Keulė Rūkė

Delicious burgers and fantastic graffiti diversity next to the table. When you go to Vilnius you should definitely visit the unconventional artist and alternative dinner place Keulė Rūkė in the Pylimo street 66 near the train station. The whole restaurant, the walls outside and inside, the garden area in the backyard and even the roof and the floor, just everything is painted and bombed. It´s a wonderfully loaded color clash you wouldn´t expect in this street close to the tracks.

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ESTONIA: KaKu Gallery & Mextonia Murals

We visited this fantastic artful place even twice and each time there was something completely new about it. First there is the long streetart mural of course which you can see while just passing by. It was made during the Mextonia Festival organized by the Mexican private platform Nueve Arte Urbano and the Estonian private company Todoes uno Eesti in 2017. Artists collaborated and left some awesome graffitis and color on the town walls. We did as well an interview with the Andres Mesner, the ownder of the inside existing art gallery called “Kalaranna Kultuurikuur” or in short form just „KaKu“.

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GERMANY: Creative Hub Chausseehaus – Kreativnomade

The Kreativnomade is settling down. At least spatially, the inspiration remains free. Sam Khayari is truly called the painter, photographer and visual artist, but many in the Rhine-Main region are more familiar with his stage name and his works or the events he organizes. The wandering has but now an end. Sam has found the ideal building and a new home for art, culture and music in Rüsselsheim. He calls it creative Hub himself. In a restaurant that has been vacant for 20 years from 1887, after a long and loving work, the creative center of the Kreativnomaden has now opened, the Chausseehaus.

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SOUTH AFRICA: The Wisdom-Poop-Walk through Balule

We went to a wonderful morning hike through the bush, had a safari in the afternoon and went even for a night drive. The two days at Andy´s Camp in the Balule Nature Reserve during our Safari through the northeast of South Africa have been just a fascinating experience. If you want to get some insights to the other parts of the tour, check the country page with the map. This article here is about the quite interesting bush walk we did with Ranger Joe Maiapane and Jika Tibana where they educated us about the surrounding nature, the wildlife and gave us special knowledge about the animal dung.

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GERMANY: Curator Leander Rubrecht – RubrechtContemporary and Kaiser & Cream

Curator and gallery owner Leander Rubrecht has a flair for the special, unconventional and out-of-frame. He seeks and finds the changes in art and society, pursues them and offers such artists a platform. At the same time, the common criticism of the non-changing of the existing and the other is viewed with constantly new facets from ever-changing perspectives. He leads the art plattform RubrechtContemporary and the creative project space Kaiser & Cream.

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