Currently lives and works in: Colli del Tronto – Italy
Practice: street art, muralism, illustration, 2D animation
My name is Urka, I’m a street artist and an illustrator.
Urka in italian means something like “wow”, I have chosen it as an artistic name, because I love the surprise effect the street art has on the urban context and on the viewer. It is important to me that my works speak, that they have a dialogue with the viewer. I like drawing since I’ve been a child. I like also hiking in the mountains, abandoned buildings, dogs without leash and beaches without chalets. I like friends, live music and backpacker trips. I like tannic wine and very peaty whiskey.
Areas of interest: Urban art, hip hop culture, comics, animation
Why are you a part of MagiC Carpets: I met Latitudo through their project “The Hive”, in which I took part with an interview on the social role of art. I’ve done several art workshops with different realities and cooperatives involved in social issues so when they asked me to take part in this project, I’ve accepted immediately. I find it really inspiring and I’m really grateful to be part in this.
Past projects
Muri a Perdere
Street Art
After the earthquake that hit the center of Italy in October 2016, lots of small towns have been forgotten and isolated. In 2018, with the help of other artists and the cooperation of Arte Pubblica, a local association that promotes street art, we tried to bring back the spotlight to those beautiful places with some street art interventions, placed on damaged buildings or hidden towns in the earthquake area. It was really nice to see the warm welcome of the artists and their works by the local communities. They used to bring us coffee, cheese and fruit while we were working, happily coming for a talk.
You can see more on the project on www.arte-pubblica.org and here.
AMAFestival
Street Art
AmaAquilone, a social cooperative who deals with addictions rehabilitation, has called me asking to paint some murals at their headquarter in collaboration with their guests, for the recurring of the summer festival they plan every year.
The subject is the rebirth, we can see a sprout emerging from the wreckage, after that, a farmer takes care of the growing vineyard. Finally, we can see the bunches and the plant maturation in the center of the building.
It has been so nice to see how interested the guests were in helping me with colors and brushes.
Furthermore, some of these guys have started to draw again by themselves after watching at, or helping in the realization of the murals. I think this is the best goal achieved by this project.
What inspires you as an artist? I find inspiration in everyday contradictions of the human behaviour. We are often torn between needs and feelings and this may cause injustices that I feel very acutely. I also try to express myself about my ideals and politics regarding the respect towards the environment, human and animal rights defence, antiracism and tolerance, the spiritual research and the personal evolution.
What do you think is the purpose of art? Animals can communicate and plants can think, lizards can rebuild their tails and cuttlefish can change their skin colour to hypnotize their prey. We are not so special. I think that art is between the few things that makes us unique. Art is a universal language and can help us pass through hard times, wars and governments. I think that artists have to testify their time, leaving traces about beautiful things, as well as the awful ones they live and feel during their life. Doing that, we could build some kind of collective consciousness made out of artistic witness aimed to continuously improve ourselves.
Contacts
Email: [email protected] | Instagram | Facebook | ilblogdiurka.blogspot.com