Street Art in Poland: Blu's Murals

• Warsaw, Łódź, and Kraków are competing to be Poland's street art capital.

Blu's Artistic Evolution

• Blu is famous for outdoor murals, video works, and animations online.
• He started as an illegal graffiti artist in Bologna in the late 1990s.
• Blu transitioned from spray paint to a roller on a telescopic stick to develop his unique style.
• His murals feature large human figures with details conveying messages tied to the painting's location or context.
• Enlarging the scale of his work and obtaining consent from building owners helped Blu legalize his art.

The Ephemeral Nature of Murals

• Murals are often considered temporary, subject to being painted over or deteriorating.
• They're frequently created on buildings with uncertain futures.
• Some murals become symbolic, leading to community protests when removal is attempted.
• Conservation of outdoor paintings is controversial; artistic circles don't always see the need or possibility of restoration.
• Building owners, often city authorities, desire aesthetic control over their property.

Instances of Censorship

• The first instance of a Blu mural being erased occurred in 2008 at the Deitch Gallery in New York due to its political content.
• Jeffrey Deitch, once an advocate for graffiti art, had the mural erased one day after completion, because it depicted coffins covered with dollar bills instead of American flags.
• Blu's most famous work, a two-part mural on Cuvrystraße in Berlin, was erased because it no longer matched the gentrified image of Kreuzberg.
• The Berlin murals were located near a former East-West Germany border checkpoint.
• One painting depicted a man with gold watch handcuffs, and the other showed two men tearing off masks to reveal "E" and "W" for East and West.
• Following a petition and consultation with Blu, Berliners held a symbolic funeral for the mural, painting it black to protest privatization policies that were displacing artists.
• Prior to this, another of Blu's murals in Berlin depicting an hourglass as a metaphor for global warming, was replaced by an advertisement.

The Warsaw Mural

• In 2010, Blu participated in the Updates festival in Warsaw.
• He created a mural on the Kamienica pod Żaglowcem featuring seven marionette-soldier figures with currency symbols adorning their helmets and uniforms.
• The mural represented Warsaw's history, as the building was one of the few not destroyed during the war, and highlighted war as a tool of those in power.
• It also marked one of Blu's first uses of color, with pale green uniforms.
• Blu was invited by the Vlep[v]net Foundation, and the Updates festival was curated by Mateusz Ściechowski (Miesto).
• Blu painted the mural over four days in July amid high temperatures, minimizing his breaks and remaining on the scaffolding.

Controversy and Defense

• Five years later, the wall's 1200 square meters were slated for a mural by Jakub Woynarowski, who represented Poland at the 14th Biennale of Architecture in Venice.
• The Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute in Warsaw initiated the project to celebrate 250 years of public theatre in Poland.
• The Institute, after requesting wall space with Wojciech Wagner, wanted to commission murals centered around the theme "Przeżyjemy w teatrze" ("We Will Survive in the Theatre").
• Woynarowski's project was to depict a giant eye gazing from a theatre stage, inspired by Claude Nicolas Ledoux and René Magritte.
• The announcement stirred an uproar, with a Facebook boycott gaining over four thousand participants.
• The Theatre Institute released videos defending Woynarowski and the ephemeral nature of murals, which was criticised by the public and the Outer Art Foundation.
• The Theatre Institute released an official statement saying they contacted Fundacja Vlep[v]net and would document Blu's mural.
• Fundacja Vlep[v]net declared they were against the decision, appealed to preserve the mural, but could not administer the wall.

Resolution

• Public protest led the Theatre Institute to withdraw the project, keeping Blu's mural intact.
• Woynarowski's project was transferred to the public domain for other cities to bid on, with the Theatre Institute relinquishing the copyright.
• Critics viewed Woynarowski's proposed painting as an advertisement due to the inclusion of logos from the organizers, which was seen as inappropriate for the wall.
• Some saw the accusations of Woynarowski being a sell-out as misguided.
• The head of the city's Cultural Bureau expressed concern that the controversy would prevent future murals from being painted and that street artworks are not meant to function forever.
• Street and urban artists were unconcerned about Blu's mural ageing, and the mural was made with diluted paint to create this impression from the start.
• The Vlep[v]net Foundation viewed the addition of graffiti as a sign of a living street and community.

Reflections on Street Art in Warsaw

• Warsaw citizens demonstrated their identification with the city by defending Blu's work.
• The incident highlighted the need for dialogue between public institutions and the street and urban art community.
• Warsaw aims to foster a variety of creativity, including street art.
• The city of Warsaw acknowledged the need to develop standard procedures for street art initiatives to avoid conflict.