The latest film from quirky Danish director Lars Von Trier, “Melancholia” tells the tale of two sisters as they come to grips with the impending end of days.

Unlike most disaster movies, the film starts off with a bang, showing the explosion bits right at the beginning. Since you are not wondering if the characters are going to make it or not I found myself focusing on their more subtle points. But these are by no means subtle characters. Kirsten Dunst’s character “Justine” is chronically depressed, due to wed her Fiancé, played by Alexander Skarsgård. She sabotages her own wedding and eventually comes to live with her sister Claire, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, and her amateur astronomer husband and young boy.

Split into two overlapping parts, the film’s slow moving pace draws the viewer into the castle where it is set. Lots of slow beautiful shots highlight both the serenity and loneliness of the place while the tension between the characters brings a sense of hopeless foreboding to the events that are about to happen.
A film that it both sci-fi and drama it is one that will linger in your mind long after you have left the cinema.

After a chance encounter with his cousin, Invader (known for his mosaic recreations of space invader video game characters which can be seen all over the world, including Prague), Thierry makes it his almost obsessional mission to follow and capture some of the world’s major street artists in action. Featuring such heavyweights as Shepard Fairy, Monsieur Andre, Swoon and Neckface, this documentary tracks them around the world as they paint, while looking at the impact of the boom in popularity this movement has recently experienced.

Having shot most of the biggest names Thierry had one major player missing, the elusive and faceless Banksy who’s work has become famous the world over for his political, often tongue-in-cheek stencil graffiti. Once they meet Thierry offers his services as cameraman, assistant and sight locator. It soon becomes clear that with all the hours of footage shot and with little creative direction, this documentary project is going nowhere. So, given directorial rights and with Thierry out creating his own graffiti alter-ego: “Mr Brainwash”. Banksy decides to re-cut the footage, but with the focus not on the artists but on Thierry.

With interesting insights into the world of celebrity and anonymity, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fun and light hearted romp through a dynamic and sometimes chaotic world in which the boundary between art and advertising is often blurred. Whether or not you like street art and its controversial place amongst our city walls, this documentary covers some important moments in the art form’s evolution and takes its place at the top of a myriad of other street art documentaries.

Exit Through the Gift Shop is now playing at various cinemas, so choose yours.

The role of a celebrity is a strange one in our society. You see someone often enough, regardless of the context, and your mind gives them this celebrity role. Often I have been walking along some street or standing in line at a supermarket when I see one of the actors from the porn movies. For a moment I rack my brain, trying to figure out where I have seen them before. Are they a famous singer, actor or television personality? No, I don’t own a T.V. and couldn’t name one famous contemporary Czech singer. Is he some guy I met at the club or bar some weeks previous? It can’t be, he looks too well dressed and the places I usually frequent are somewhat lacking in dress code. Then I realize that his face is only part of a quivering memory, that if stripped down to his bare essentials in front of all these happy shoppers or pedestrians, then I would surely recognize him, looking as he did when we met, wanking away in front of the camera’s lens, making a sexy face and earning his keep as a gay porn actor.

Now, I am not gay, neither is my immediate boss nor most of the editors or webmasters. The same applies for these actors. Whether it is a role assumed to fulfill a niche market of “straight guys, gone gay” or if they are actually heterosexual and looking for excitement, cash or a chance to meet new people, who knows. I do however see these actors arm in arm with girlfriends, bickering playfully and doing all the things someone would do when in love.

In front of the camera however, things can go any way. Some actors relish the straight-guy persona, showing their discomfort and wincing through sets. While others transform, changing their mannerisms their smile and a whole host of other small details allowing them to play the part of a gay lover, if only for 40 minutes.

Porn is a strange and complex world. There are fetishes out there that I didn’t even know existed. I mean, I know rule 34 of the internet says: If it exists, there is porn of it. No exceptions. And we have all heard of the strange shit lurking behind every pop-up advertisement or blinking banner ad, but some of the things I have been told to write about, never even entered into consideration as mildly sexual. One evening while creating bizarre made up fantasies my friend named K. came up with “rape ghost” a man under a sheet who comes into a dimly lit room to find and fondle a sleeping man like an incubus. The next week I came to the office to see “Ambush Massage” not a man in a sheet going “oooooooooh” but a masseuse who convinces his client to receive a whole manner of things between his bottom during a massage. One fetish I can never seem to get my head around is foot porn. Feet are things purely utilitarian and void of sex to me, yet to others become the object of desire. The foot guy at my work occasionally gives me tips on what to write about in the text for his site. While I am struggling trying to describe the high arches or button like toes, he comes in and asks me to mention the crusty toenails or the whispy hair sprouting from beneath each one, things which I would usually find unsexy. But as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, successful porn lies in giving the people what they want and so I write of stinking, grotty feet, so close you can almost taste them.

Some aspects of the porn industry can get surreal. One time I was invited to a barbeque in the courtyard behind the studio. There amongst the producers and various other guests were some Slovak cameramen; former actors who still used their stage names when dealing with any part of their job. Today their role was waiter, stripped to the waist with stick on bow ties fastened to their oiled up chests, they served hors’d'oeuvres and had their bums pinched by these guests. Yet, come the next Monday were fully dressed and back to their position behind the camera. Nothing was said of this character they played that day and none was thought less of them for doing it. It seems that in an ever changing industry all you can do is keep up or fuck off, and these two were just doing what was asked. Occasionally when I think about that day I wonder how people can change their personality without hesitation. It may be empowering, a beating of fear or something else completely. Like an improve comedian battling against stage fright or a motorcross rider swallowing his fear being squashed under the growling motor of his bike as he flips around to land, these actors / cameramen must find some liberation in the shedding of old masks day in and day out.

And so, as I sit at my desk writing the conclusion to this diary I think about all the things I have seen and done during my time here. I don’t regret a thing, though I still won’t tell my mum what I do. There is something to be said about an industry that is resilient, wide spread and accepted into culture, but still lurks along its fringes, misunderstood by most and ignored by some.

author: Mailmen Itched

In most of the world they don’t even bother to try and dub each and every foreign language movie that has ever been shot. Strangely enough, there is a small country, in the heart of Europe, where people are believed to have the best dubbing on the whole planet. It might make sense if the language was spoken by a reasonable number of people. But Czech?

Czechs envy other nation’s language skills and most of all the ability to speak and understand English with little difficulty. Listening to the sound of the language helps the learning process a lot, of course. Watching movies is one of the best ways of getting used to the natural sound of the language if one cannot go and spend some time where the language is actually spoken.

Thus, ironically, being the best in dubbing goes hand in hand with losing the opportunity to be able to listen to a foreign language, not only English. The last time I got angry about this was about a Harry Potter movie. Even in the cinemas it was almost impossible to find an original version. I understand the film aims at youngsters who may not have mastered the English language so well yet, however, I want to hear Alan Rickman’s voice while watching his face! I am sure it is not just me.

Wikipedia says: “Typography is the art and technique of arranging type, type design, and modifying type glyphs. Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety of illustration techniques. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).”

Until the digital age typography was a specialized occupation, even royalty had special font designers to work on their brand. Digitization opened up this art to new generations of visual designers and lay users. By breaking fonts down to a few basic elements designers have been able to take simple fonts and customize them to suit their needs. Some web sites offer users customizable fonts, made by taking a photo, via webcam, of a printed out sheet, filled out in the users own handwriting: http://www.fontifier.com/. While other websites can determine through a selection process, which font best describes your personality: http://www.pentagram.com/what-type-are-you/.

Some different font attributes
- Bold – Thicker lines usually used in headlines or emphasizing a particular word
- Italic – slanted version of the font used to denote sarcasm, creative titles and prefixes.
- Sherifs – The little tails on letters.
- CAPSLOCK – I AM YELLING BECAUSE I AM ANGRY OR DON’T KNOW HOW TO WORK A KEYBOARD!!!

A brief look at some popular fonts?
Impact – A very popular font around speaking cats on the internet. It is known to decrease grammatical accuracy.

Bradley Hand ITC – A good font for showing your lightheartedness around the office. Just popped out for lunch? Let your employees know by leaving them a message in this casual font.

Helvetica – The superior designer’s font. Looks like Arial but it isn’t, ok. It’s stylish and, um, um, it’s not Arial!

Courier New – Use this font if you want people to think you are serious when you hand them your new script, or if you want them to think you own a typewriter.

Wingdings – An ancient text with inexplicable origins, first discovered by Microsoft Windows 3.1, it has continued to puzzle linguists to this day.

Times New Roman – The font of serious, sensible discourse, made by someone who has yet to discover the “change font” function.

Jokerman – You see, church newsletters can be fun!

Comic Sans – THERE IS NEVER A REASON TO USE THIS FONT!!!

It’s better to look at the fonts to our magazine. You can find it at the nearest bar or club.

It is with a solemn tone that we regret to inform our readership that during a recent trip Rudyard was found dead and will no longer be contributing to this column.

We are now printing the haunting memoir of a man who’s blind dedication proved to be his final downfall, in a piece we are naming.

Sitting behind this large block of cement I can hear gunshots ringing overhead, I am bleeding a lot and the smell is mixing with my expensive cologne, forming an overwhelming musk, quite unpleasant and foul. Luckily however my blue blood is proving a sturdy ink as I pen this final note on some scraps of paper I happened to catch flying by. How I ended up in such a predicament is beyond me. Packing a bag and flying off to an exhibition named “Invaze fest” I momentarily paused to give thought yet had no idea a military invasion what I would ultimately meet. What vile methods of trickery have been employed by the gods that would lead its’ people to reenact atrocities of war in such a realistic and brutal manner?

Upon landing I sallied forth, inquiring at the local tourist bureau as to the whereabouts of the exhibition space. Finding the first lady most bearded, even, unfriendly and want to be unhelpful, I journeyed off through the rubble in pursuit of my goal. Rounding a corner I was suddenly confronted with the show – a performance piece, highlighting, through reenactment worldwide political struggles between militarized government and guerrilla armies. Immersing my self in the spectacle I began documenting the event. Snapping pictures and scribbling notes, as is my want I was then struck by a sharp pain in my abdomen, and struck more so by admiration for the artist who insisted real bullets should be used in her show. Reeling back in a mixture of reverence and hemorrhagic shock I lay ensconced in the shadow this cement brick and began writing these last fading words. So as your eye flits across this sentence, past that comma, know that I, like many more before me, died doing what I love, that is, reporting contemporary art. I regret nothing and wish to send my congratulations to the curators of this splendid event. In closing I wish to impart some words to my only son Kevin. To you I pass the flame of knowledge and class. Go out, meet people and explore this world as best you can. The future is in your hands.

Eternally,
Rudyard

The 20–22nd of August saw the Trafačka and Chemistry galleries (Trafačka – Kurta Konráda 1, Praha 9 and The Chemistry Gallery – U Kanálky 4, Praha 3) play host to the Invaze Festival.

Brainchild of Darina Alister, the festival brought together artists, musicians and curators alike for three days of concerts, workshops, performances and exhibitions.

The First night saw a duel event, with American artist “Chase” exhibiting his latest works at Chemistry. A large crowd turned up and despite a couple of visits from the local constabulary, the event went off without a hitch. Meanwhile over at Trafacka, Michal Škapa aka “Tron” gave a talk on the history of Czech graffiti and DJ Steevie Weenie spun tunes all night long. Both events lasted well into the morning, a promising start to a great weekend.

The next day things began slowly but the bright sun soon burned off the morning haze. Another packed line up was scheduled with live spray painting demonstrations by some of Prague’s finest coinciding with the “Invasive Identity” exhibition, which included finalists of the recent AMU class. This exhibition really showed off the diversity of contemporary art with paintings, objects, video art, performance art and interactive audiovisual installations combining, in the area of two large warehouse spaces, to address the theme of invasion.

For its inaugural year Invasion fest came off with flying colors. I don’t know if there will be another one next year, or even if the building itself will still be standing, but I hope it will. I look forward to its’ future.

What the hell is Sealand? It’s a platform sunk into a sandbar situated 6 miles off the Suffolk coast of England. Built to guard the British river system during WWII it was abandoned by the army in 1956, along with dozens of others along the coastline and left to rot.

Enter Major Paddy Roy Bates
Now referred to by himself and other Sealanders as “Prince Roy”, with his family he squatted on the platform in 1968 hoping to broadcast pirate radio and succeed the platform from the British Commonwealth. The Principality of Sealand now prints its own currency, passports, has its own constitution, national anthem, flag, and claims to be a fully functioning “nation” boasting a citizenship of 27. The country claims also to excel in a variety of sports including: soccer, mini golf and pole dancing (True.)

Over the years Roy and his 27 fellow Sealanders defended their adopted home in vicious battles against British, Dutch and German invaders. But did this burst Prince Roy’s bubble? No-sir-ee. When the British expanded their international waters from 2, to 10 kilometers The Prince expanded Sealand’s zone too. Subsequently Sealand has claimed several square kilometers of England’s south east coast in a lengthy legal battle.

Despite the obvious perks of being an inhabitant of this flourishing nation it is currently up for sale. That’s right, you too can be the prince, the head honcho, the chief or the owner of your very own off-shore principality. Forget pacific islands that will only sink under the rising seas, for the princely sum of 750 000 000 Euro the illustrious principality can be yours today! But let the buyer beware. Like the Hutts in West Australia, Rainbow creek in Victoria or the politically charged gay Coral Sea Islands in Queensland (check out “Micronations” on Wikipedia.org), Sealand, the nation, is struggling; desperately in search of recognition and an accepted place in the world.

For more information you can check out http://www.sealandgov.org

Recently the South African band and Youtube sensation, Die Antwoord (“The Answer” in Afrikaans) played to a packed audience 7th July at Lucerna Music bar. The self proclaimed “Zef” masters put on a late yet energetic live show playing material from their debut album “$o$”.

Zef, a slang term from their home region describes a style unique to South Africa which is both modern and trashy at the same time, glorifying past trends while creating something new in the process. The three piece consists of: Ninja, the lanky tattooed leader of the group, the pint sized mother of his baby: Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJHi-Tek whos’ ownership of a PC cemented his spot behind the decks. The show was short, fast and loud, offering various styles with a tongue in cheek attitude that had the crowd loving it.

A typically tight set by DJ Tviks rounded off the night with many staying on well past their Thursday night bed time to enjoy what was honestly a seminal event.

Some airports are bigger than others but the decor, the ubiquitous plastic chairs, the prices are mostly interchangeable. There are “Wi-Fi” Hotspots and “No Signal” dead spots. Airport taxis are all similar big name brands and in London or Prague it seems their steering wheels are all confusingly misplaced.

The truth is that it is more difficult to feel like a foreigner than it used to be. British or Czech by nationality, basically you are European. Another brand or another bicycle, it is getting harder to tell us apart. The social environments are not so different now, aside, of course from the architecture.

But there are some important differences. In Prague I can still relax with a glass of wine in the corner of a quiet restaurant and have everyone ignore me completely. Some would find that annoying but personally I find it a relief. When I am in London and I forget an English phrase or idiom people usually assume I am French and simply don’t want to speak English, which is annoying. In Prague people assume I am German and can’t speak Czech, which is frustrating.

As I travel more I notice how sounds are important. In London I notice that people talk loudly in restaurants to drown out the sound of other people talking loudly. They seem to carry this habit out into the street proclaiming their political, religious and sexual preferences at the tops of their voices and generally they are not as interesting as they would like to believe. In London the sound of a bicycle bell ringing aggressively somewhere behind me makes me feel annoyed and I want to stand firmly in its way. In Prague this would have tragic results. I often wonder why Prague trams use what sound like bicycle bells instead of something more efficient, like cattle prods. Is that the Slavic sense of humour?

There is another tiny cultural detail I find bewildering. ČSA play gentle music to sooth passengers after landing. On arriving at Ruzyne it is always Smetana’s “Vltava”, which makes me think of tranquil forests, lakes and rivers.

On the other hand, after arriving at Heathrow, they play the theme music from the film of “Watership Down”, an epic odyssey of bitterly persecuted rabbits in search of a new homeland. If anyone from ČSA can explain I would love to know why.

author: The Penguin Bridge

After a temporary stay in the jail following my last attempt to cover a local event, I had entertained the thought of abandoning any critical exploits. It is however the dedication to a cause that one strives for as the prime motive in any professional endeavor and so thus, I dusted off my cravat, perched my floppy hat, high on my coffered quiff and set about rejoining the art world.

This week I would be covering the upcoming show by acclaimed artist Aidan Hughes, to be held at The Napa Gallery. Finding my self a little disorientated after so long locked up with the lower castes of our society, I felt my natural compass was somewhat askew. Oh, what conspiracy exists between cartographers and the mental heath experts when one is forced to embark on such a schizophrenic excursion as exists in the lesser district? Walking up endless labyrinthine alleys and round corners of reflex angle I was stuck by the greatest surprise to find myself sauntering through the automatic doors of the “Happy land” travel agency.

Once inside I found several pamphlets outlining the stylistic changes Aidan has traversed though out his career. From his Egyptian landscapes he focus’ on capturing known icons in a new and interesting light through their perception as travel destinations, To his groundbreaking series on south east Asia, featuring an in depth profile of this region’s commercial perception and every day reality.

Sitting down with the curator I was able to peer into the mind capable of putting together a show of such magnitude, and found that she had embraced a trait that so many in their position do; total emersion. So much was her distinct belief that she was in fact the employee of an actual travel agency that she even preformed a typical booking and purchase procedure, providing me with charmingly authentic looking boarding passes and itinerary.

So here I sit on a pebbly beech in Croatia, raining my typical thunderous wisdom in praise of the whole experience offered by Aidan Hughes and his soon to be hit new exhibition “Happy land”.

Editors note: Rudyard Sneem has been missing since faxing this document last month. Local police have been alerted and we appreciate any information on his whereabouts to be forwarded to the magazine offices. Aidan Hughes’ actual work can bee seen at the new Napa Gallery, Prokopská 8, Malá Strana as well as on his website www.bruteprop.com.

Whether it’s down the road or around the globe, getting there is unavoidable. While we do not condone some of these methods and will not bail you out of goal if you are caught; scamming a free ride is something of an art. Here are some of the best ways to get around on the cheap.

Hitchhiking
Stick out your thumb and wait for someone to pick you up. Hitchhiking can lead to lifelong friendships or road side bloody rape scenes. Be careful to always keep your wits about you and carry something sharp in the need of an emergency. Usually though in Czech Republic you will have no problems and meet some bloody cool people as you thumb around. Travel tips: wash, make a sign and be friendly and agreeable. It helps when someone directs a 4 hour long pro diatribe at you to learn to nod and smile while sleeping.

Work on ship – cruise – container
While this one technically isn’t free since you are working as you go, it is still a pretty good way to get from A to B and with a little bit of cash in your pocket once you get there. Usually ships require you to have some kind of training or experience which in Czech Republic means goofing around in a massive swimming pool for two months before. But of course there are some less scrupulous captains that will let any peg legged, eye patched bozo on board, avoid!

Theft
One sure fire way to avoid having to deal with ticket collectors, hiding in toilets or shipping containers is stealing. Hot wire that Škoda and hoon off into the sunset as the trail of police sirens follows like a bridal gown. Once at your destination be sure to destroy the evidence. The last thing you want after a long journey is some nosey parker coming asking questions, if they do, shoot’em.

Box-car
Back in the day when you mentioned free travel, chances are some hobo would spit on the ground grumble about prohibition and point his bindle in the direction of the train lines. Riding the rails was the standard for free travel back then, but still, fraught with danger – do expect rape, drugging, folk music, and possibly murder.

Crying
When I was going over this list my friend told me I was missing one very important method in the art of free travel. Bursting into a hopeless mess of tears will apparently get you far if you’re a cute little Danish girl. For the rest of you non-prescription glasses wearing, unshaven folk out there maybe there is more chance of tying your nutsack to a kite in a violent storm.

And so, you cheap skates “on the lamb” I wish you bon voyage as you set across this land of possibility in search of whatever the hell you guys search for. There are possibilities galore to those who don’t need to be anywhere soon and these are by no means the limit of how you can get there, but do be sure to remember that along with all the romantic ideals of burning across the countryside with the wind in your hair and a song in our heart there is also the pointless hours standing freezing in the rain waiting for that opportunity to show itself.

You cannot talk about fetish without at least mentioning planet earth’s number one leader on the subject. Japan has it all when it comes to this stuff. When you hear about the suppressed fart sniffing Brits or the pain junky Germans they pale in comparison to the fetish capital of the world.
We have all seen the baby doll culture, the people who marry body pillows and the guys who get together for a game of soggy human. But it is the extreme stuff that keeps Japan at the forefront of the fetish game.
We talked with some of Japan’s weirdest fetishists to try and peer through those epicanthic folds and see what makes them tick. Yakumi Muramasa runs a brothel and production studio in the Yoshiwara district if Tokyo. Moto Watanabe is the doorman / barman / go-to-guy and is the first guy you talk to when you come in. When we arrive he tells us to sit and that Yakumi will be with us shortly. He makes us drinks and shows us a yellowed laminated folder showing all the highlights of the club. Somewhere between the extra large “gaijin” sized beds and something that looked liked someone ordering from a deli in a sauna we asked him about some of the things people ask for when they came to a place like this.

M: We get all kinds, mostly businessmen come to us, but occasionally comes one guy who wants to be treated like a baby. He wears the nappy, sucks the thumb and even poops himself. He has to pay excess to have it cleaned up.

Why are the Japanese so uninhibited with their fetishes?
M: I don’t know. Maybe it has something to do in our history. We have always been warrior culture. The idea of role play and hierarchy is inbuilt to our everyday life. When a man comes to here he doesn’t want to be the boring guy on the subway he is everyday, he wants to be something special, a modification of the mask perhaps.

And the women, how do they deal with always being on call to a guy’s every wish?
M: They like it. You see, in Japan the girls are supposed to be very servile. When a man comes in here the girls know that sex will be something different, maybe she will be in leadership, perhaps she will even do what she wants, but that rarely happens with the pigs we get in here.

That is a bit harsh. They really have no say over what they like to do?
M: Hey! Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t the girls who sit quietly with you at home, the girls we have love sex. If not, they wouldn’t be here.

At this time Yakumi comes over, swiftly tells Moto to fuck off, fills our glasses and asks us what we think of his establishment.

It’s a classy place. How many girls do you have working here?
Y: Between 10 and 15 on any night. For special weekends and holidays we have more girls. It depend when those arseholes have time to spend.

Yeah? You think these people are pretty low, huh?
Y: You should see some of the pigs we get in here, “kusu”. Sexual spastics who can’t get it up unless it is tied up and charged with 1000 volts. We try and keep those men out and stick to the main fetish, like baby doll, bukkake and bondage, but some of these freaks really want some strange things to them. Did Moto tell you about baby man?

Yes.
Y: Well there are more, this one guy who came in every other month and would spend a full weekend tied up. Nobody was allowed to touch or feed him; he would just hang there in the corner all day and night. He would pay a lot of money to do it too.

How much would something like that cost?
Y: Let me tell you, I have this business for 22 years and not once have I had to worry about paying rent or staff. Fetish market is something that will survive the worst of recessions. When people are down they want cheap thrills and this is where they come to escape their shitty worlds. I believe this game is one of the first and will be one of the last.

Do you ever think people go too far with what they want?
Y: We had to turn away one guy recently who wanted to cut himself and bleed on one of the girls, simply for health reasons. She was ok with it but we run a clean business and can’t have the risk of disease any more than we need too. That said, all of our girls are guaranteed clean and the best you will find anywhere in the city.

Following directions is not the strongest card in my deck; a mind so naturally gifted in special relations can easily be confused by the rudimentary scrawling of simple minded cartographers. Nevertheless I found myself more or less on the right track when I arrived at the exhibition, interestingly named Zoo World. Once inside this zeitgeist of the avant-guard I was greeted by what must have been the galleries’ curator; splendidly in character as a pet shop owner. It seems the artist has leaned away from her former work of paints and brushes and such and turned her hand to animatronics, with very realistic results.

Incredible lifelike showings
Scattered around the gallery were cages and tanks containing these new works, moving and sounding so realistic one could be forgiven for thinking this was an actual pet shop. A few flaws are expected in an artist’s first few showings and so it was the case here. Removing my pince nez to thoughtfully inspect the puppy, I removed its’ outer casing and was surprised to find the inside too, had been lovingly represented as lifelike as possible. Unfortunately some of the burgundy colored hydraulic fluid stained the front of my cravat and I was forced to clean it on the shirt front of a passing waiter. None of the usual pleasantries were provided like the complementary wine and crackers, nor did I catch sight of the artist herself. But in a true subversion of the dominant paradigm she had created a “full immersion” experience; a benchmark for others to follow.

Editors note: Rudyard Sneem actually missed the real exhibition by Léna Virgler and instead went to a pet store by mistake. Charges are pending over the mutilation of the puppy and the assault on a local resident. We all wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Léna Virgler is a real firecracker of a personality and it shows throughout her work. Morose scenes mixed with bright pink deer are a reoccurring theme, as is the ghostly self-portrait. When she paints she goes wild, throwing stuff around like a woman possessed, yet on the canvas she has a very delicate stroke, looking almost calculated in design.

I first met Léna at the start of winter at her flat in Prague. She cooked and showed me her paintings. We sat on the couch and she told me about a dream she had a couple of nights before. For about 45 minutes she kept on this surreal tirade mixing in deer stuck in walls, magic shoes a fanatical hotel. It was exhausting but strangely compelling, and in the end when I skipped down the stairs on my way out my mind was swimming, reeling from the first taste of this girl’s unique world.
Recently she held a show at the Cirkus bar in Vrsovice and it was there that I caught up with her about her new work. Continuing from her previous themes she has expanded her medium to include magic markers and coffee. I asked her what the futures of her characters were likely to be.

What’s with the deer?
L: My father built our family house near the forest. We moved there and I spent lot of time in the forest. There were lot of deers, foxes and other animals. And because of this I’ve got really huge inspiration, often I dream about these animals. So they are a part of my childhood, nostalgic.

Will we ever see something of the dog?
L: Yes, I’m going to illustrate a book for kids about Artur (Léna’s dog). I’m really excited about this theme. It will be a short story about his life.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
L: Its not the Czech Republic… Maybe space, a forest or another story. It’s in the future where I live now, what will be in 5 years is in the stars… too far away to tell.

Check out Léna’s website: www.lenavirgler.com to see more of her work and find future shows around town. She is also buying a tattoo gun and will start working with that in a month so roll up your sleeves for that one.

Léna Virgler
Cirkus bar
Krymská 18, Praha 10
until 3. 5. 2010

Graffiti can vary from your crude bathroom stall scribble, for a good time contact the intern dept. to the revolutionary scrawling of a young Chairman Mao, look it up, I shit you not. It is everywhere we look in this city and has kind of grown to become a part of it as it snakes its way around the corners and up the signposts into our hearts. Its authors are the disenchanted youth, the fame whore, political activist and the drunken lout and yet it remains one of the simplest and readily available art forms available to us as the general public.
If we have missed any styles or wrongly described any of these sections, please forward your complaints to your nearest blank wall.

Tagging
This is probably the most familiar style you will see. Varying in complexity from some colorful and amazingly detailed designs to the almost illegible scribble whose sole purpose it seems is to cover as much surface as possible. It is the most accessible of graffiti methods as it doesn’t need any extra equipment to do. To see some of the best Prague has to offer go to Tesnov tram stop and check out the legal wall, or head down under Barrandov Most and along the river bank to see how it can be done.

Stenciling
These babies went through a boom in the last 10 years thanks mainly to the British artist, Banksy. But it is really in the late sixties when they first reared their two toned heads. John Fekner is credited with some of the first works in and around New York and later French artist Blek le rat covered Paris in rats showing how one simple cut-out can lead to a movement. Wikipedia says: Stencil graffiti makes use of a paper, cardboard, or other media to create an image or text that is easily reproducible. The desired design is cut out of the selected medium and then the image is transferred to a surface through the use of spray paint or roll-on paint… Fair enough.

Wheatpaste / stickers
Wheatpaste is glue made from flour or some other starchy material. It is cheap durable and easy to apply. Wheatpasting is exactly what you think it is, using this stuff to glue posters to the wall. Famous artists like Sheppard Fairey have used this technique to bomb cities with his mass produced “obey giant” posters and recently his “obama, hope” posters played an unspoken role in that Presidents election. The sticker culture is, like stencils, going through a boom right now. Need I describe them or just tell you to look at the back of any street sign to see what I’m talking about?

Foamies
Foamies are those painted bits of polystyrene stuck to the sides of buildings. Made by carving shapes out of packing foam and covering in a non-corrosive paint, these are light weight, transportable, quick to put up and are fast gaining in popularity. These can sometimes be used in pieces to create more 3D architectural tag designs or characters, while are other times just used as a protruding surface for simpler 2D designs to be painted onto.

Markers
These used to be homemade bits of carpet rolled up in a pipe and filled with ink but have quickly turned into the scourge of every transit official in the world. Since these fuckers got mass produced with their fat tips and indelible ink it seems every Jirka, Lukas and Lubomir is leaving their mark on the city. Recently these were made with a large range of colors but yet I am to see someone use them to their full potential. Keep at it.

Rollers
Ever wondered how someone was able to draw that massive dong 4m off the ground with not a drainpipe of ledge in sight to climb up? Get a long-nap rolling sleeve and an extension pole and wonder no more. The Police on the other hand might not share your same enthusiasm and you might spend a night down on Konviktska ul. with the boys but hey, that roller pole has more than one use.

Scribeing
This is simply when you get some nail, key, knife or any hard object and scratch into glass. Seen here mostly on the windows of metro cars, it is also one of those styles in need of a serious re-vamp before it gets any serious attention from someone other than the local constabulary.

Woodblock
Artwork painted on a small portion of plywood or similar inexpensive material and attached to street sign posts with bolts. Often the bolts are bent at the back to prevent removal, popular in Australia although I haven’t seen that much of it around Prague.

And so… can in hand and with a steaming head of aerosol we wish you illegitimate scribes of our time, with all your infighting and battles on the fore-font of legality, all the best in your quest for territory control or whatever you do. Just keep making us smile on our way to our shitty jobs every morning.

Damien Mitchell is a young Australian artist living in Prague. We met in the club 2. patro where he came with his dog Franta whom he found a couple of years ago. You might have seen his stencils around the city but he also exhibits in galleries. Some of his works have caught my eye before. But the main thing he is known for is the concept of Guerilla Gallery in which he takes over damaged and unused window boxes and transforms them into free spaces for anyone to contribute to. He is also a freelance writer and runs a DIY project for young designers to promote and sell their works, designpoint.weebly.com.

Firstly I would like to ask some questions about you. How long do you live in Prague? What do you do for living besides art?
I’ve been in Prague since 2005. I came here from a town called Wagga Wagga in Australia. I do some writing for an Australian magazine called Pedestrian.But the painting stuff is the main thing, I´ve been doing it for seven years now.

Have there been any problems with the police in Austalia with painting? Are they strict in this area?
I’ve never really had problems in Australia. Here, I’ve had a couple problems with the police, but they’re actually pretty normal people most of the time. Generally understanding that what you are doing is stupid but not really causing any major problems, you know what I mean? Here the city police aren’t animals, you can joke with them.

Tell me about the guerilla gallery thing…
It all started about a year ago when I was living over in Žižkov with my friend Steve. We saw this window box that hadn’t been used for years and years. It was destroyed, full of broken glass and garbage so we went and cleaned it up one day and thought „Let’s make a gallery“. We wanted to make a free place where artists could come and exhibit publicly with all the natural reactions that go with it, I mean if someone liked it they could tear it down and take it home. If somone hated it they could paint over it, no problem. We put up a false cardboard wall and wrote an opening date. When we came back there were some people around and we had a little street party.

Is it still there?
No, after it was realized as a valuable space it got glassed over. Now there’s some ad for a real estate agency i think. They had an open submission for the space and one guy was even going to finance it for us, with The Chemistry Gallery doing the official stuff. They have always been good in supporting this kind of thing. Anyway, in the end our application was denied in favor of another real esate agency, or florist or something.

Do you have some place now to put your things on? Plans for another gallery?
Yeah. There is now a wall next to my current flat which I’m filling out slowly, but at the same time the Guerrilla Gallery idea is something that anyone can do anywhere. There are more and more starting up around the world and I am working with them on various projects. I like to go to places where other people can do their thing too.There are some other spaces I am thinking about in Prague but I am open to ideas and collaboration.

You also had exhibitons indoors. I know you had one in NoD with the vinyls, one in the Chemistry Gallery but you were also on the 4th Prague Biennale! How did you get it there?
I just walked in and put it up on the wall! It supprised me how long it lasted. I even had my personal phone number written there but nobody called or said anything.

How about the topics of your stencils – how do you think of what to do? I’ve seen some political ones – the British queen with a guitar or Obama… Is there a political message or protest?
This series was a play on contemporary icons. I’ve been trying different stencil styles and the black and white single layer is the typified stencil look that I thought would work best. I have made wrist numbing twenty layer stencils and have tried them with dots instead of lines or using negative space. The politcal theme, I suppose is a light form of protest but to me they are just dumb jokes… school boy humour…

When you put your pieces into galleries do you still think it’s street art?
No. The name street art means it is on the street. The style is popular at the momentand I think galleries like to banter the name around. The name „Gallery art“ just doesn’t have the same ring to it I suppose.

What do you think about Czech guys around street art, are you in touch with them?
I never got involved with any crew. I do it by myself. But there is a good scene here and I have seen some really talented artists come up. The festivals are a good breeding ground and a good place to swap ideas. I would like to see an annual Names fest start up.

Is it ok to sell street art pieces?
Well, thats the beauty of it, they can’t be sold if they’re painted on someone’s wall. If its allowed then it isn’t really graffiti, is it? The great thing about stencils though, is you can produce thousands of the same image and put them in a multitude of contexts. In a small town with one stencil and a can of paint you can become famous over night.

Damien’s website: 
http://www.damienmitchell.blogspot.com/

There´s still a place on the other side of the world where nature looks the same as it did a thousand years ago. However, there have been more different factors that  have affected the New Zealand culture.

Main Cultural Trends in New Zealand

The culture of the islands stands on a variety of traditions that have combined together to build up today‘s cultural environment. The first one, embedded in history, is the indigenous Maori culture. Althought the Maoris are not the original inhabitants as many people think. They are said to have come to New Zealand in 14th century most probably from the Pacific Islands. Despite the fact they had to overcome bloody fights against the Europeans in the 19th century, they have kept their culture alive. Nowadays there are many sites where people can experience Maori culture, of course without any fees – it is an important part of the education. The Maoris themselves have traditionally gathered in so called „maraes“, wooden-curved buildings which serve as cultural centres. They use only natural materials such as wood (curved sculptures), stone (mainly the greenstone or jade), bones and shells (shiny blue paua shell is unique for the Maoris).

The other cultural influence which has affected the culture of New Zealand today comes from the Pacific Islands and is comparable to the Maori one. Thanks to the massive immigration from Asia numerous Asian communities, mainly in the bigger towns on the North Island, have developed, and they still preserve their own culture.

Roots of the Independent Art Scene

The Europeans, mainly the British, came to New Zealand in the second half of the 19th century and brought their habits and customs with them. However, they didn´t have the means to create professional arts and the artists weren´t able to make a living from their work. So they had to find other ways. They were influenced by the nature around them and of course by the Maori culture. And they started to reflect it in the style of their work.

Globalisation reached New Zealand in a massive wave in the 1960´s. The hippie style came from Australia and US and started a brand new lifestyle. Farmers left their homesteads, hopped in vans and busses and travelled around the country. They cultivated hand crafts and shared their products on flea markets. This tradition is still very much living even today. People sell their hand made products for minimum prizes or trade them. There are big hippie communities which not only share food, work or houses, but also open their galleries for free to whoever wants to come. Although some New Zealanders might seem conservative or even prudish but the hippie style with all its atributes is still seen strongly in the society.

How is the Government Involved?

The government treats these varied culture as the heritage of mankind and donates big financial support to the cultural sphere. Entry to all the important galleries and museums (including the national museum Te Papa in the capital, Wellington) is free of charge and a lot of concerts and festivals are government sponsored. To put it frankly, there have also been some problems, expecially alcohol. Because of the „drinking problem“ alcohol (even beer or wine) is usually prohibited on all the events, together with smoking (ironically some natural drugs are allowed). Therefore young people arrange a lot of „free parties“ in natural surroundings.

As religion and charitable sentiment is deeply rooted in the nature of New Zealanders, people give books and magazines for free to those who appreciate them.  Needless to say public libraries with access to the internet are open to everyone. There are some free magazines as well but because of the liberal press law the quality may vary considerably and may range between from art reviews to radical and even anti-domocratic subcultural sheets.