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BEast, B.East, Be East seems to be in the air these days. Our guess is that it’s the financial meltdown that has given the East an added impetus. With the West tethering on the abyss, those on the decks of its Titanic are battering down the hatches, while on the lookout for a lifeboat from the recession. The savvy ones are looking East through their portholes, to Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Dubai and elsewhere, whose economies are still relatively unscathed compared to the USA & the UK.

Well, for those stuck in Manhattan over the holidays, and pining for the East, there’s always the BEast lounge, with its tomato martinis with curried green-tomato garnish to chase away the blues.

In our Red Issue (B EAST 9), we wrote about the struggle of the people of St. Petersburg against plans to erect a giant phallic-shaped skyscraper that would devastate the iconic city’s skyline.

The powerful Kremlin-controlled energy company Gazprom was forging ahead with plans to construct its new headquarters, Gazprom City (later changed to Ohkta City) on the banks of the Neva River. The design was a hideous twisting tower nearly 400 meters high, defying the city’s building code which for centuries had forbidden any construction taller than The Hermitage.

As our St. Petersburg beast Valeria Gold wrote, the tower showed “the worst elements of both Russian business practices and the global corporation mentality.” The plan inspired a rare showing of anti-government sentiment, with around 400 protesters taking to the streets in a march to voice their opinions in September 2007. “We don’t know if our weak attempts to struggle can help. But if the victim is still squirming, perhaps it will be a little harder for the rapist to orgasm?” Gold wrote.

Now it looks as if the global financial crisis might put an end to the corporate rape of St. Petersburg. Gazprom has suffered from the crisis, with its stock price falling by about 70 per cent since May. It defaulted on promises to build a stadium for St. Petersburg, and as a result the city government has decided to delay its hefty financial contribution to the Gazprom City project.

The delay hasn’t officially killed off the tower, but it seems more and more unlikely that the project will ever be constructed.

Read more here: International Herald Tribune repot

By Joel Alas, B EAST editor

His artwork is as impressive as it is large – complex murals that reach up the sides of city buildings. He doesn’t reveal his real name, and when he works in public he shrouds his head under a rag.

So why does the Italian painter known only as Blu chose to remain anonymous? B EAST tracked down the mysterious Blu at a street art exhibition in Wrocław, Poland.

“Today, the artist is sometimes more important than the art. The focus should be on the message,” he told us, relaxing after completing a huge mural of a man sleeping on a pillow of money, and another of a woman wearing a giant dress of locks and bolts.

There are other more legal and less moral reasons Blu hides his identity. “Some of my work is illegal. I am wanted by police in some cities for my work,” he said.

Blu’s murals decorate buildings across Europe, from the Tate Modern in London to Berlin’s Schlesisches Strasse district.

He recently visited Wrocław to take part in “Out of Sth”, a street art exhibition hosted by the edgy Awangarda Gallery.

The exhibition was a major coup for the gallery and its hard working (and hard partying) staff, and helped to further Wrocław’s reputation as one of the funkiest little cities in the east. They managed to attract some of the biggest names in street art, and helped inject a splash of colour into the greyer areas of the city.

As well as Blu, “Out of Sth” featured work by the French artist Remed (who also demonstrated his rapping skills at the opening party when he hijacked the microphone). Aurelien Arbet, 108, 2SH, Beefree, Galeria Rusz, Flying Fortress, Jeremie Egry, Jan Danebod, Joe83, Mike Swaney, Mcity, PMH, Olaf Brezeski, Samul Francois, Stefan Marx, Truth, Zbiok and Wojciech Gilewicz also contributed murals and installations.

But by far the most controversial work of the exhibition was Peter Fuss’s giant poster predicting the death of a US presidential candidate. The poster, which screamed “Who killed Barack Obama?”, attracted plenty of curious passers-by into the gallery. One concerned American couple raced inside to check if they had missed a news bulletin.