"Street art is political" - Thierry Noir

The first street artist to paint on the Berlin Wall is in the UK for a one-off collaboration with East London artist Stik. Thierry Noir has become famous for designs featuring over-sized human heads painted in bright primary colours. VoR's Juliet Spare went to meet him in Shoreditch.

The Berlin Wall as canvas

Anyone approaching the Berlin Wall when the city was divided risked being arrested – painting on the Wall was definitely high risk. But in 1984, a French artist living in Berlin decided to transform the Wall into a canvas and cover it in bright vivid colours.

Theirry Noir was the first artist to paint continuously, albeit illegally, on the Wall from 1984 until it came down in 1989.

Noir was a forerunner of the modern street art movement, painting on a wall which became the most famous graffiti art canvas in the world.

24 years on from the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Noir is in the UK to collaborate with London street artist Stik, introducing his big round heads and big lips to the walls in East London.

"Street art is political"

Juliet Spare went to meet Thierry Noir in Shoreditch where he’s painting on The Village Underground Wall which has become the concrete canvas of choice for street artists.

“I used to live very close to the Berlin Wall and that’s why I stared to paint… this Berlin Wall came down in 1989 but this painting is stronger and survived the Berlin Wall,” Thierry tells us.

"Those big faces and big noses and big mouths and eyes, are like the cousin of little Red Riding Hood and now those heads are symbolic of the new freedom of Europe.“

I think street art is political even if you don’t want to as it's outside, everyone can look at it and this is good; even if you write your name on the wall it is political.”

Thierry's art has also featured on an album cover for the rock group U2.

Graffiti, street art and freedom of expression

Richard Howard Griffin is from Street Art London, an independent arts organisation which aims to build bridges between arts institutions, the public and street artists.

"We very much look at our role as bridging the gaps though these institutions and artists, the way I like to look at it, old and new, new school kids like Stik are really exciting.

"It’s especially great to have someone like Thierry here as he was so important in that era in Berlin."

When Thierry was painting, the very act of going out onto the street was a strongly charged political statement and to an extent street art still bears that in East London.

So the freedom of expression in Shoreditch is great.

“Graffiti never became street art – but street art has just kept on growing and becoming something really great around East London.”

The collaboration between Stik and Noir tells us a lot about the origins and the future of street art.

voiceofrussia.com