"The Bridges of Graffiti” exhibition will debut in Venice on the occasion of the 56th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia.

“The Bridges of Graffiti” project positions itself 30 years after “Arte di Frontiera. New York Graffiti”, the exhibition curated by Francesca Alinovi that in 1984 brought the New York graffiti writers artistic scene in Italy. Traditional spray-painted graffiti artworks were born at the geographic edges of Manhattan, a frontier in itself, and also “an intermediate space between culture and nature, mass and elite, black and white, aggressiveness and irony, trash and exquisite refinement”.

The ten artists involved - Boris Tellegen, Doze Green, Eron, Futura, Mode2, SKKI ©, Jayone, Todd James, Teach, Zero-T - will work together for the very first time, bringing to life a single cohesive Hall of Fame piece within the Arterminal walls, together with some site specific works conceived especially for the exhibition.

“The Bridges of Graffiti” will settle in a proper frontier, the San Basilio Terminal, building bridges so that past generations' major contributions to the graffiti writing culture can finally be acknowledged and put into context. It’s an ideal bridge but also a tangible one, chronicling the influence and cross-pollination of Artists and Artworks that crossed the Ocean; the exhibition is about graffiti Artists who either already had or later on developed a figurative style as well, and have been evolving and reinventing themselves, staying ahead or outside the curve.

The name Arterminal (Terminal of Art) has been specifically chosen to evoke the relevance of the harbor for the city of Venice, strengthening its international relevance and facilitating the exchange and the encounter between different cultures and different forms of art, as a result. As in the past the relationship between the Serenissima and the East has brought to Venice the Byzantine art, so today the openness to art and culture of the Venetian water front guaranties the emerging of all those expressions related to travel and trade.

This is the reason why, since the beginning of the Arterminal project, the Venice Port Authority has committed to realize this project, further requalifying the port area, already open to the city, and the Venezia Terminal Passeggeri, the dealer of the Terminal, has contributed to the architectural set-up.

Therefore Arterminal is a perfect metaphor to tell the story of this first exhibition and its unconventional form of art, that is put in relation with the great tradition of la Biennale di Venezia.

These dialogues will be expressed though a dual-installation approach with San Basilio as a white canvas for figurative expressions and a documentation of this multifaceted art form at its beginning by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper, opposite to those artists whose works have landed in museums worldwide and avidly embraced by corporate sponsors skyrocketing their values into the mainstream culture and Art world.

The space will also host a cafeteria and BookShelves to display a selection of books and fanzines about the history of graffiiti; these spaces have been designed by Boris Tellegen, artist that has constantly been experimenting with 3D and architectural shapes, also thanks to his studies of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft.

Artirts

Boris Tellegen, aka Delta, is an artist currently living and working in Amsterdam, where he was born in 1968. Tellegen originated as a graffiti artist in the 1980’s, working towards breaking the dimensionality of the flat surface he was painting on. The artist then learned how to push the depth of his work while studying Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft until 1994. The knowledge that Tellegen acquired while studying architecture and design led him to break the plain with sculpturally driven works, rather than tags. Recently, Tellegen has continued creating mixed media sculptures through commissions in his native Netherlands.

Doze Green was born in 1964 in New York City. In 1976, he began painting subway cars and became one of the original b-boy members of the Rock Steady Crew. Soon after, he transitioned from graffiti to studio work and mural commissions. In 2010, audio of an interview with Green discussing his work along with a slideshow of his images was featured in The New York Times. Recent projects include a large-scale mural during São Paulo fashion week in Brazil, as well as Crossroads of Humanity,a public mural located at CityCenter in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Eron (Rimini, 1973) was awarded best Italian street artist by the specialized magazine “AL Magazine” at the end of the 90s. He has been continuing, since then, to experiment and to improve his spray painting technique to achieve a unique and recognized pictorial result. Famous at international level for his figurative research in the field of street art and contemporary painting, Eron has been invited to display his works in several personal and collective exhibitions all over the world, among which: Chelsea Art Museum of New York, Horizon One Gallery – Museum of Modern Art - El Cairo, Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma, Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo della Permanente di Milano, PAC - Padiglione Arte Contemporanea di Milano, Civic Centre Ozumba of Lagos – Nigeria, MACRO - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Italian Cultural Institute in New York. For the first time in history, with the work “Forever and ever... Nei secoli dei secoli...” painted by Eron in 2010, street art entered the place where Art has been transcending time for centuries: the church. The "consecration" of an art that up until the present day has been subject to a “universal prejudgement”... In 2012, the MMOMA magazine, official magazine of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, wrote an exhaustive paper about Eron for the original character and poetics of his figurative style which combines drawing and reality by mixing up their boundaries. Eron creates his works on the streets and on canvas, always taking into account the surrounding environment. The works that Eron creates on urban walls often concern social issues, whereas when he uses spray paint on canvas in his studio, his figurative research goes beyond the mere representation of a subject.

Futura is a living legend. A contemporary of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Futura 2000 (as he was known at the time) was one of the first New York City graffiti artists to make the transition to the gallery world. His 1982 exhibition at the Fun Gallery on New York's Lower East Side was a major event in art circles and launched a flurry of exhibitions including solo shows at the Agnès B. Galerie du Jour in Paris. Futura later shunned the art world establishment at the zenith of the art boom of the 1980s. In the 1990s he reinvented himself and a new generation was introduced to his work through the album cover art he created for the London-based music label MoWax. It was through this association that Futura became a cult figure again. Recently, he has been exploring work in animation, photography, multimedia, and film projects.

Mode2 is considered to be one of the forerunners of the British graffiti and street art movement. He started dabbling in graffiti in the 80s when street art was still an underground word of mouth movement. Working alongside some of the integral founders of Central London’s hip-hop scene manifesting itself in Covent Garden, Mode2 joined graffiti group The Chrome Angelz. He was of the first British graffiti writers to bring street art to the masses and make a real impact on public consciousness. Mode2’s work is free of pretension and the want of approval, instead speaking out honestly about personal issues, ranging from love, lust, pregnancy and relationships to hip-hop culture and the environment. Whether his work is making a political statement or expressing his views on religion, all Mode2s work is supported by his idiosyncratic style and draughtsmanship. For their “Film of Innocence” project, a companion to the album “Songs of Innocence”, U2 asked Mode2 to create the video for the “Song for Someone” track.

SKKI © started has a street artist in 1983, he was then one of the first French graffiti artist and also one of the few European to practice spray can art in Europe. Today SKKI© is a multidisciplinary artist who work in a wide range of different medias and aesthetics with diverse range of influences and themes including graffiti, psychology, austerity, recycling, ready made, hip-hop, culture, punk graphic, public art, globalization, waste and consumption, spirituality and capitalism, humor and despair, abstraction and narration.

Born in Guadeloupe in 1976 Jay “One” Ramier from Paris better known as “Black Picasso” stands for the first generation of european Graffiti writer from the early 80′s that transformed the New York influence to something new with an old world sensibility. Selected in 1994 by the Rolling Stones for the traveling exhibition "Mystery Voodoo Lounge" his works are now on display in Tokyo and at the Grand Palais in Paris. Like the great masters of the classical era, Jay One is one of the great figures of the urban culture of the recent years.

Todd James is an internationally recognized artist who began his career as a child in the New York City subway system. He is a co-creator of the seminal Street Market exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York, which was selected for the Venice Biennale in 2001. James' work has also been shown at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Tate Museum in Liverpool, the Parco gallery in Tokyo, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Colette in Paris, Lopez galleria in Madrid, Lazarides gallery in London, Todd James is represented by Gering Lopez Gallery in New York City and V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. For their “Film of Innocence” project, a companion to the album “Songs of Innocence”, U2 asked James to create the video for the “The Troubles” song. Todd James lives and works in New York City.

Teach, born 1976 in London, started a career in graffiti at the age of 15. Inspired by early graffiti writers, he became one of the few Kings of the 'London Underground' by the mid 1990's. He studied product design from 1996 to 1999 at Central Saint Martins. He then moved to Munich where he worked as an apprentice in a metal-workshop. In 2001 Teach wins the Blueprint Competition organized by the Vitra Design Museum during his studies at the Royal College of Art. After graduating in 2003 his tableware collection 'incognito' was produced by Porzellan-Manufaktur Nymphenburg and launched in 2005. He lives in London and Munich and is an associate of Kram/Weisshaar. Recent exhibitions include Design Museum, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Messe Frankfurt.

Paolo “ZeroT” Capezzuoli (Poggibonsi, 1968) started drawing at an early age, this passion led him studying graphic design in Florenze during the late 80’s. In 1989 with Nicola “Deemo” (“Dayaki” at the time) Peressoni founded “Color Melodies Combo”, a jazz-like duo ensemble of writers that rapidly became the most talented and revered graffiti crew in Italy. In 1994 in New York ZeroT met the legendary Rock Steady Crew, becoming one of its members after representing the Writer’s Chapter together with Mr. Wiggles and Devious “Doze” Green. Nowadays a sought-after consultant in the fashion industry he is artistic director of Slam Jam, one of the main distributors of street wear at international level. In 2014 he had his long awaited first personal exhibition, at 1 Opera Gallery in Naples, curated by Pietro Tatafiore and Giuseppe Ruffo.

For further info visit www.thebridgesofgraffiti.com