VULKANO, image: facebook.com/vulkanotheband

For Vulkano, it’s really all about their live show, a power unto itself. If they could, they’d have steaming hot bombastic shows containing choreography, costumes, magic tricks and light displays, creating a world where everything is possible. But, for the time being, we present their debut single ‘Vision Tricks’, which they self-release on July 29th.
 

 
Taking inspiration from Pink Floyd (especially the live clips from Pompeii *watch below), Siouxie & the Banshees, Bo Hansson, Velvet Underground and films such as Lucifer Rising, Barbarella, Holy Mountain and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Vulkano want to explore the realms of art, music, film, fashion and performance. They want to amaze, make people react and interact and they want to abuse their art school roots.
 

 
Back in Stockholm they have their own Vulkano club night, have directed videos including a recent one for Swedish DJ collective Mash Up International and are currently working on their own psychedelic short film. The real focus is their gutsy, potent punk full of hooks, chaos and straight-up boundless energy.
 
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image: Cornelia Birgersdotter Blom – at Kulturhuset Studion

image: Tony Hultqvist

source: c/o Stereo Sanctity
image: Tony Hultqvist, Cornelia Birgersdotter Blom, facebook.com/vulkanotheband

The idea of collaboration between a hip-hop legend and fashion is hardly a new idea, but when it looks as good as the WeSC x RZA line, scheduled for Oct 2011, it’s hard not to get excited.

RZA is among the most respected hip hop producers of all time without even mentioning the groundbreaking work he has done in pretty much all mediums of entertainment. Now bringing his overwhelming presence into the realm of fashion, RZA is ready to blow your mind in collaboration with Sweden’s arguably most popular alternative clothing line, WeSC.

Not much is known about the Chambers clothing line presently, but the website includes a countdown which begs you to stare with bated breath as we draw closer to it’s unveiling. We are the Superlative Conspiracy is no stranger to partnering with talented musicians on clothing lines, but when the juggernaut RZA is involved you can be sure that this collaboration is going to produce something incredibly powerful and unique.

Rikus Ferreira puts the week behind him and logs onto Skype to chat to the two New Yorkers.

Where are you originally from?
We’re originally from France. Koralie was born in Montpellier and I was born in the ghettos of Paris. We’d been travelling for a while around Europe, Asia and the US when we decided three years ago to move to Brooklyn, NY.


Why do you like to paint on walls?
It’s about feeling free. There’s no commercial obligation. The contact with the city, the people, the wall and its texture… it’s exciting. Its ephemeral quality is also seductive. There’s poetry to the act.


It’s interesting how walls have history, layers and layers of paint applied over the years. So why is your work so detailed?

Our paintings on canvas are more detailed than the walls on the street. And on a wall, even if we know that our work is likely to be short-lived, we expect every time that it will last as long as possible.



It’s amazing how one can get a sense of a city just by looking at the street art. Which city in the world would you say is the most inspiring?

New York is so far our favourite city in the world. The way things move so fast, the energy in the streets and the amazing views. Architecture, fashion, signs on the street, people, culture, music… the movement doesn’t stop. In New York you can take random pictures and the result will almost always be beautiful!

You travel a lot too.
Yes! We are conscious that we live on a planet and NYC is a concentrate of the world. It’s great to be based here but that is not enough, so we need to travel as much as possible. We love Asia so much but all our travels around the world are necessary for our inspiration. The best part of our ‘artist life’ is an invitation to paint in a country we’ve never been to. We’ll meet a new culture, new people and live a new experience. We take and we give. We feed ourselves with this.


How does this relate to your work?

I guess our paintings are getting bigger and bigger after each trip.

The countries we visit inspire us… so we take. And we leave a part of us there… so we give. It’s all about love.

How do you feel about your paintings being open to the public?

Every situation is possible on the street. Most people are respectful but there are still people with a bad attitude that get jealous or just want to destroy something beautiful and paint over your work. For us, it doesn’t make sense to spend time even talking about these people.

How do you feel about taking your street art into a traditional gallery?
Ok, let’s use the wall in the video as an example. The museum commissioned us to paint that wall to recreate the streets of Tokyo by night for an exhibition of the fusion of traditional and contemporary Japanese art. So we did that wall inside the museum. The show lasted for eight months and then they took apart the wall to archive it. We feel lucky about that obviously. It’s great to have a piece of art in this form kept in a museum… and it’s the Museum of World Culture. That sounds good, doesn’t it?


Your last wall painting was in an antique toy museum on Mexico?
The thing that we like in Mexico is the ambition of its people. Art and popular art in Mexico is everywhere, but the cartels make people pay for everything. And this makes it no longer accessible to the people. We were asked to paint for the people. Now the wall is going to move to different places in Mexico to spread and share art for free. We love that.

The video almost becomes a performance. Do you prefer to work without anyone watching you?

Good question. It’s not easy to work with someone looking over your shoulder, but the director Damien Vignaux (aka Elroy) was just great. He’s a good friend and the entire process was so natural. We never played it out like a scene, Damien was simply a witness.

I’m not sure we were even aware of his presence. I guess that’s when magic happens.

We didn’t expect millions of hits. Unbelievable.



And once it was completed?
Throughout the four days we spent painting, Damien filmed during the day and edited at night. Then we Skyped images to our friend DLiD and asked him to lay some tracks over them. He sent us four songs, we chose one (‘Leonizer’) and the video was done the following day. It was so fast.



Where’s the craziest place you still want to paint?
Koralie would love to do the wall on Houston Street, NY (where the Guggenheim Museum is located), and I want to paint a giant piece on the Grand Canyon.

And your next wall?
Our next wall will be in Paris in the office of a famous website. They want to make their office life more cool and asked us to do a big mural.

Are there any other projects or interests that you guys are into at the moment?

I’m finishing my book and Koralie just received new samples of our new collection with Metroplastique. I start work on a solo show at Galerie LJ in Paris in October and have a few collaborations in the pipeline. Sorry, we can’t tell you more now. And in a few days we’re going to France for a well-deserved holiday!

One more question: what are you drinking this morning?
Bloody Marys.

Read the rest of issue 23:

Click here to view our #FlashBack selection for October.

Click here to view all our #Flashbacks.

In response to rising real estate prices, a range of mini-hotels have been created world wide, maximising on what little space is available. Not for the claustrophobic this new breed of hotel optimizes on space, packing in the patrons as tightly as sardines. One such hotel is Dasparkhotel in Austria where rooms are constructed out of concrete drain pipes. These mini rooms are then scattered across the hotel grounds. Each miniature room is equipped with electricity, a double bed and a skylight window to ease living in what is essentially a sewerage pipe. The hotel’s main building is just a short stroll away and houses all other amenities, including bathrooms and a restaurant.

Another option for those who want the sleep-and-go experience is the Qbic Hotel in Amsterdam. This little project carries a strong resemblance to Japan’s ‘pod hotels’ where guests rent out tiny incubator like cubes which are sufficient for sleep alone. The experience is pretty much plug-and-play – your credit card acts as your room key and any amenities you require are dispensed from a vending machine in the lobby, removing the need for hotel staff completely. These small, prefab rooms are created to fit into any pre-existing architecture and measure just under seven square metres. Each room is fully equipped with high speed internet, flat screen TVs and luxurious Swedish beds. The rooms can be customised at the touch of an LCD screen turning a tranquil blue room into a vibrant red space without the hassle of paint and wallpaper.

From the small to the bizarre, for those who desire a more fulfilling travel experience there are several wacky options. In SA’s Mother City there’s the Daddy Long Legs hotel which boasts superbly designed apartments as well as the zany rooftop Airstream Caravan Park – an innovative platform to house the hotel’s penthouse suites. Each room has been carefully designed and styled by commissioned artists, making each room a truly unique experience.

For the hot and thirsty, there’s the well known Ice Hotel in Sweden. But now there’s a home for the snackish with a selective pallet. In the South-Western corner of Bolivia a hotel has been constructed entirely out of salt. The Hotel de Sal Playa is constructed from salt bricks and salt mortar and absolutely all structures, from the floors to chairs, are made from salt. A tad bizarre, if nothing else, at least you know you’ll never run short of your favourite seasoning.

At the Propeller Island Hotel, kids’ rooms come complete with electric coloured walls while miniature golf courses surround the beds.For adults with a longing to experience life underground or behind bars, the Propeller Island hotel can provide just that. Complete with harsh overhead lighting and mildly uncomfortable beds this room truly offers a once-in-a-lifetime experience.