!RESIST! - Touring European Art Exhibition
Part Two
Greg one of the organisers of !Resist! and the man behind OrgasmikDesign, tells me a bit more about the collective Unchi and all about the forthcoming !Resist! exhibition.
Resist2_Bfree : copyright Bfree, contribution to the second !RESIST! exhibition
A: Tell me all about Unchi, including how many people are involved and who started it?
Greg: I met Seb (from Superdeux – www.superdeux.com), the founder of Unchi, through OrgasmikDesign when I featured France. We stayed in close contact and a couple years later when he actually founded the collective he asked me to join and I jumped in! Unchi Leisure Center (www.unchi.net) is a label that promotes and supports individual and collective artistic projects through all sorts of cultural events, exhibitions, concerts… The label is compound by around 18 individuals who are graphic designers, DJs, musicians, fashion designers.
Some of the Unchi’s projects include Panos (www.bopano.net) an outdoor exhibition of 105 fake roadsigns designed by 45 worldwide artists in the city of Lyon (France) in 2004, Auto (www.auto-music.net) an electro band, Stereotype (stereotype.superdeux.com) a toy and product line in collaboration with Red Magic, IloveYourT-shirt (www.iloveyourtshirt.com) a website and online TV that centralize and collect relevant informations closely linked to the t-shirt world, and the!RESIST! project.
A: Explain to us about !Resist! whose idea was it? How long has it been going?
G: RESIST! started in 2005 as an online graphic contest. For the relaunch of the OrgasmikDesign project I decided to create an event to make some buzz around it. So in partnership with Unchi and Wudge (a street fashion label) we organized a contest where participants had to give their vision of the theme RESIST ! A jury selected the best artworks and then we decided to go a step further after the contest by presenting those winning artworks alongside invited renowned international artists in an exhibition.
Resist2_DanF : copyright Dan Funderburgh, contribution to the second !RESIST! exhibition
The first edition of the !RESIST! exhibition has been presented during the Who’s Next international fashion show in Paris (www.whosnext.com) in February 2006 with artworks by Rolito, Musa Collective, Tado, Mario Hugo, Noah Butkus, Doma… I had great feedback after the show so I decided to make a new edition of the exhibition with new artists that will go on a tour starting at the end of this year whereas the first edition was a one time only exhibition.
A: When is the next show?
G: The next show will take place in north of France, in a cultural place called La Condition Publique in Roubaix from November 29th to december 21st . We’re curently planning other dates around Europe for 2008 so make sure to check the !RESIST! blog for more informations.
A: How do people submit their work?
G: The participation is not open to anyone anymore. I mean all the participants to this second edition of the project have been invited and have kindly accepted to get involved in the project.
Here’s the list of the participants to the show : A1one (Iran), Bfree (Netherlands), DipDipDow (France), Fake (France), Danny Funderburgh (USA), Maura Gatti (Italy), Ilk (France), Luke Insect (UK), Jeremyville (Australia), Knapfla (France), Emil Kozak (Danmark/Spain), Jesse Ledoux (USA), Masa (Venezuela), Mademoiselle Bulle (France), Play’o (France), Raza Uno Venezueal/USA), Scien&Klors/123KLAN (France), Seby (France), Skooly DK (France), Travis Stearns (USA), Superdeux (France), Alex Trochut&Superexpresso (Spain), Swedengraphics (Sweden) and Unstru (France). You can have all the links to their website on the resist blog (resist.oragsmikdesign.com).
However if people want to send me their portfolio or links to their website I’ll be glad to take a look at it (resist@orgasmikdesign.com), we’re always looking for talented people at Unchi to include in our different projects.
Resist1_DorisHemar : copyright Doris Hemar, winning artwork of the 2005 !RESIST! contest
A: What sort of work do you usually looking for?
I’m not looking for any particular type of work. I want to be surprised being by the use of images, iconography, color scheme… I give total freedom to the artists, I know why I’ve contacted them and I’m thankfull that they’ve accepted to be part of the project, from there it’s their imagination/style/influences that takes control.
A: What makes a successful piece of artwork to you?
G: Hum that’s a hard question… as said before I would say a successful piece surprises you. When you look at it you say to yourself “I would never have thought about it that way”. I also think what makes a great artwork is when there are several level to “read” it. For example you could look at a piece really quick and say “wow it’s great ! Colorful, great style, I love it” and then have a look at it some other time and you would watch it closely, taking your time, looking for all the details and say “yeah, it’s not only nice, it has some great meaning !”.
The Final part coming shortly
For further information click on the following link
