Swiss street art duo Nevercrew have continued to elaborate upon their passionate exploration of nature and humanity with their latest work, titled “Tide.” The pair completed their newest mural earlier this month for the third edition of the Points Du Vue street art festival in Bayonne, France. They were the only representatives among the event’s impressive lineup to represent Switzerland.
In a press release for their previous mural titled “Celsius,” completed in June, Nevercrew wrote that the piece was “Part of a project on which we’re working [for] years, in the search for artworks that could react directly to reality, to human action and to human influence, with a direct focus on environmental changes.”
“Tide” incorporates several visual elements utilized by their previous work. The newer mural features whales, like its predecessor, once again bunched together in a mass. However, the whales’ arrangement varies widely between the two murals, lending each a distinct tone and message.
The artists’ statement for “Tide” explains, “Here, on a first level, we want then to recall the human act of compressing nature through exploitation, pollution and physical appropriation of space. The seven whales, at the same time swimming in their element and laying on human ground, are shown in a moment of balance between sinking and floating, between collapsing and moving, between depths and surface, between attraction and repulsion, between dirt and clean, in a delicate and specific instant that shows the emergency, but could still permit to choose the direction.”
Their animal subject of choice relates to the location that “Tide” calls home. Their release also states, “For this work, that faces the Adour river and it’s at one of the sides of Pont Saint-Esprit, in connection with the past relation that Basques had with whales we worked on the idea of shifting, of transformation, evolution and movement.”
The Points Du Vue, or ‘Points of View’ street art festival took place Wednesday October 16th to Sunday October 20th. The festival’s website writes that it was “organized by the Spacejunk art center, supported by the City of Bayonne, and whose growing success makes it shine throughout the world.” The event imported thirteen international artists “to once again color the walls of the city.”
Ponts Du Vue is a holistic street art effort, featuring works that incorporate various “Projects, techniques, [and] different colors” in an effort “to democratize a little more this street art appreciated by young and old alike.”
The event featured murals, workshops, and even a photo contest that paid tribute to the place’s Basque heritage. The contest, called, ” Under the Basque light … when the Street Art illuminates Bayonne “, ran from October 16th to November 6th and invited “participants to produce one to three images maximum, in vertical or horizontal format” depicting the murals, with the goal to “highlight the fact that a fresco of street art allows to sublimate the building / urban planning while playing with the effects of lights … the obscure clear.”
Street art is a study in interactions between people and places, between art and the elements. With “Tide,” Nevercrew distill this notion of relationships into their street art itself, contemplating the interactions between nature and human society. The longer you look, the more that theme can be extrapolated to every area of human life.
Nevercrew: website | facebook | instagram
Points De Vue: website | facebook | twitter
