See Videos:

TV Globo

Folha de S. Paulo

MTV – Scrap

Video Documentary by Carol Thomé

Photo by Elena Pérez

I was very impressed by the work of the team that put it all together under Alexis calm but watchful eye. Walking down this street during 3 days of projections was unbelievable, everyone’s face’s were turned upwards instead of glaring or oogling. I sat at a small bar on the street and got talking to some local’s who told me that they’d seen projections on building before but that this time they could see the difference in quality never mind the sheer scale of the project. It took over 4 or 5 blocks and each building had a new form, from architectural mapping with motion graphics, video art, performance, still images and live drawing.

I projected images that for me represent human movement, using long exposure on a camera or video camera and recording the movement. I also spent some time using Alchemy to draw abstract shapes and audio reactive forms on a building. This was my favorite part especially after being there and soaking up the rhythm of the city and being so close to the street on the balcony of the hotel. A beautiful moment came when I offered the pen to those around me and let them doodle, one guy scratched his number up and wrote “call me.” Shortly he received a call to comic effect. I loved how this highlighted our human need to communicate and in the simple and often executed fashion more usually found in a public toilet.

What I noticed after the event was the change in atmosphere of the Rua Augusta – it was business as usual I presume, and we saw bouncers or pimps beating a guy up and kids trying to steal from and damage the hotel we were staying in.  This really brought home to me how the event changed the mind set of the locals, even if only for 3 days, their sights were literally lifted upwards rather than looking for trouble.  I truly understood the mission of Video Guerrilha after witness those events.

Photo by Rosa Menkman

Thanks to initiatives like Video Guerrilla, Rua Augusta, one of the most famous streets in São Paulo, became a gallery in open air during three nights, from 11 to 13 of November, from 8 pm to 4 am.

Video guerrilla is a mega collective intervention where a variety of artists from Brazil and other countries like the Netherlands work on different projection sites pointing over 8 different building facades, and therefore directly intervening in the public space.

This is not the first time that urban intervention with video take place in the city of São Paulo, in fact Visualfarm, the creative collective organizing this event, has already made many projections in the last 8 years, but any of them of this scale, we could say this is their most ambitious project. This first edition of Video Guerrilla has taken place in one of the most attractive and vibrant night live scenes of the city, between bares and prostitute clubs.

This neighborhood, before only devoted to prostitution, is becoming one of the most important spots for entertainment in the city of São Paulo. And for 3 nights it turned into a node for urban art and culture.

During this event more than 80 national and international VJs, graffiti and artists, plus 4 local creative collectives has contributed to the programme with their visual creations.

During 24 hours of images split over 3 days, different projections techniques were explored. People could see live digital graffiti, mapping, augmented reality and large format reflections like the ones at R. Augusta 541, where the installation ‘Agingantador de pessoas’ allowed people to interact with the camera and see themselves reflected on the facade at large scale. This last installation was especially successful, had great acceptance and served as a temporary platform for spontaneous public creativity.

The main goal of Video Guerrilla is to make a number of loud interventions in urban space that have an impact on the way people think or experience the city and where different visual languages meet. The festival also fostered debates and lectures relates to street art, urban culture and social ecology in different Universities of São Paulo during the previous months to the start of the night events at Rua Augusta.

Video Guerrilha is an opportunity for people to know the work by artists from Brazil and other countries. An event to experience the city differently and perceive places that otherwise will not draw your attention at all.

In this festival the street is understood as a public and collective space that demands more cultural content. This format presents art and culture as an inherent element of the city, standing as an accessible alternative to exclusive and formal art galleries and museums.

It responds to the need of getting out of the white box in all senses, which also implies getting out of the canvas. Needless to say that thanks to initiatives like this the VJ and visual culture in brazil is starting to receive larger financial support.

“Culture needs to be accessible to people and closer to people”, emphasized Alexis Anastasiou, founder of the festival.

“There is no better place for expression than the streets…free and open to the general public”, added Bruno Caramori, one of the artists involved.

This kind of urban intervention, also interactive, are important because they invite passers-by to break with their routines in their day a day, dream with other realities and connect to the urban space in many different ways, these new emotions will forever change their memories and perceptions about the urban space.

Following up the conceptual line of TIME_ FRAME 2010 and ‘the Media City’ Workshop held in Amsterdam in March 2010, the VJ and director of Visualfram Alexis Anastasiou (participant of the Media City) invited TIME_FRAME to participate in the Video Guerrilha project in São Paulo 11-13 November 2010.

TIME_FRAME  contributed to the festival with a visual art program delivered by     3 international who showcased new artistic concepts on the facades arranged by Visualfarm in Rua Augusta, one of the main streets of the city of São Paulo.

+ Participating artists are:

Eavan Aiken (IE/NL), visual artist, VJ and teacher

Rosa Menkman (NL), visual artist and researcher

with the special collaboration of César Meneghetti (BR/IT),  visual artist and filmmaker.

+ TIME_FRAME  staff:

Miguel Petchovsky (AN/NL), TIME_FRAME – curator.

Elena Pérez Hernández (ES/NL), TIME_FRAME – coordination and documentation.