A new festival will begin this week in St. Petersburg titled GraFFFest, or Graffiti-2011 Art Forum. The festival is a fusion of graffiti with photography, film, animation, and digital material. In order to dispel the image of graffiti as vandalism one of the festival’s performances is titled ‘Street Art against vandalism.’
The main events of the festival will be held at Krasnoye Znamya (Red Banner) cultural center located at 24 Bolshaya Raznochinnaya Ulitsa. Starting on August 17, 14 international and Russian graffiti artists will create a unique vision of the ideal world titled “A Picture of the New World” Near the Krasnoye Znamya center on a 120 meter-high fence at 53 Pionerskaya Ulitsa.
The Krasnoye Znamya center will host classes and lectures from U.S. artist Evan Roth in order to create a music video which will be projected onto Place Bridge on Friday night after the bridge is raised. Also on Friday night there will be a series of short films titled “Street Art Jam” which aims to show the synthesis of street art and digital art form, based on the topic “How can art change the urban environment?”
“Street Art Jam” will also showcase the winners of an open competition held recently for the best animated film regarding graffiti and street art. The final will be from 1:00 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the films also being projected onto Palace Bridge and the walls of nearby buildings.
Also at Palace brigde there will be several concerts of Russian hip-hop artists in support of street art. The festival is free of charge. For more information, see www.grafffest.ru