EAST REFRESHING: Street Art and Home Museums in Romania
Andra Matzal in dialogue with Nuclear Fairy, IRLO, and Omar

Imagine making art in a country where pop culture, the new hippies, and grafitti artists are only 19 years old. A country where culture jamming is not studied in art school, but practiced every five meters. Where commercial centers still savor their communist odors and the famous brands look exactly like the bootleg faux brands. This continuous clash strongly influences new generations of Romanian artists who, with their manifestos, fill in the blanks of cities still under construction.

Such is the case with Nuclear Fairy, IRLO, and Omar, who prefer a sort of "spontaneous art" to any formal context--using walls and packs of cigarettes for canvas. These artists make up a new sort of commando: the perverted innocent fairy, the space-invader street artist and the "rethrashing" on-duty shaman. They live and work in a continuously open space, as if translating a vivid open source attitude. Given that even Microsoft admits humans have a natural tendency to share information and we've all been into pirating "sneakernet" at least once, the copyleft thinking is getting very popular in post-communist Romania.

This talk is part of a series of events related to the 'Freedom for Lazy People!' exhibition.