B EAST Magazine website

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.