As Nuart Festival kicks off its 19th edition, they once again bring a host of international artists to the city of Stavanger to help us make sense of the world we inhabit and how we can better navigate it. Through the creation of public artworks, Nuart aims to challenge existing narratives, generate new ideas, and push the boundaries of what constitutes public and private space. This year, Nuart focus on the evocative intersection of memory and the city, and the role of art on the streets in unravelling and reworking not only the city’s collective memories, but also the cultures. New takes on old forms, graffiti merging with street art, classicism with vandalism, the advertising of subvertising, gentrification, rights to the city and in the case of one artist, rights to life itself.
This year’s stellar artist line up includes 1UP (DE), Paul Harfleet (UK), Dr. D (UK), Dotmaster (UK), Edwin (UK), Jad El Khoury (LB), Jofre Oliveras (ES), Julio Anaya Cabanding (ES), OX (FR), Nuno Viegas (PT), Hyuro (AR).
Stavanger has provided a rich bedrock on which Nuart has built up artworks by some of the greatest names in street art and this year, they welcome the return of pivotal artist Dotmaster, whose early works can still be spotted on the side streets of the city. The ghosts of these works (and indeed the numerous other pieces which have fallen prey to developers in the region) still linger in the local consciousness and on the street art blogs who captured their creation.
Nuart look forward to welcoming Jad El Khoury (Beirut) recipient of the first Nuart Residency to the streets of Stavanger. His work heals his own city’s memories and imagines new futures.
This year the back lanes, underpasses, and city thoroughfares will have their own stories to share, and Nuart look forward to working with this year’s artists as they explore Stavanger and create new works for 2019.
A key feature of the festival is Nuart Plus, comprising of a multifaceted series of talks, presentations, workshops, panel debates, film screenings and more with world leading academics and industry professionals.
Nuart’s 2019 indoor exhibition is finally back and gives the international artists freedom to transform each of the seven old beer halls at Tou into their own artistic universe.
Nuart Festival is also honored to announce the Scandinavian premiere of Martha: A Picture Story, a documentary by Selina Miles. New York photographer Martha Cooper captured some of the first images of graffiti in the 1970s, when the city had declared war against it. Three decades after publishing her book, Subway Art, photographer Martha Cooper age 75, discovers she’s become an unexpected icon of one of the biggest art movements in history.
