‘BE Graffiti’

True to its interest in urban culture, BOZAR will be hosting La Belle Hip Hop, a festival organised by Souterrain Productions that pays homage to the role of women in hip-hop culture. Starting oninternational women's rights day on 8 March 2017, it will be showcasing the best female artists of the genre over 8 days and 8 locations. Throughout the festival, you can also visit the exhibition Be Graffiti, Special Ladies at the Council Room of the Centre for Fine Arts and admire a selection of works that enabled urban arts to renew with the tradition of the fresco.

MADAME LA BELGE
Originally from Charleroi, Madame La Belge has been evolving in the Brussels art scene over the past 10 years. Her works fluctuate between moments of life and her vivid imagination. People are mainly familiar with her work due to the creation of frescos in Belgium and abroad.

MISS VENENO
Miss Veneno covers all objects which are representative of the hip-hop movement in crochet and uses all manner of disciplines to pay homage to it.
She has been a big fan of the hip-hop milieu for several years and a graffiti artist since 2006, her work naturally focuses on this domain. Ghetto Blaster, turntables, spray paint, marker pens, B-Girl or B-Boy shoes, mix tapes, vinyl... Everything has its place!  The objects are entirely covered in wool. A way for the artist to give a second life to them whilst paying homage to hip-hop culture.

ZOUWI
“I am an undisciplined multi-artist or else a multidisciplinary artist”, often by depicting the paradox between a childlike and chaotic vision of the world. All of it is constantly attracted by different techniques of expression, in which I continually try to evolve.

MAKOTO
Makoto Calligraffiti, the Brussels "Writer", adapts the delicate art of Arabic calligraphy to our age through a subtle mix of tradition and contemporary urban art.  
The inspiration for Makoto's series of BLACK STAR canvases is the eponymous work by the rapper Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def.
 
BLAST
Ten years ago, Blast was a regular at the capital's MC battles, in search of magical moments. Each one of her photos is a reflection of life that she sees as an adventure. Self-taught and with an insatiable curiosity, she has refined her technique in contact with diverse environments: life, faces, punk and techno circles, the night, an abandoned spot or a meeting with the 'man in the street' are all worlds in which, through her lens,  everyday life and inspiration meet. Her penchant for portraits is part of her search for an at times raw authenticity that she seeks to highlight by playing on the sublimated representations of that which either moves us or leaves us indifferent. Street art is a bottomless pit in which Blast captures light. 
While the everyday shapes us, it is no more than legitimate defence to seek to capture it so as better to apprehend it. She seeks to bring these instants to our attention free of any judgment and if we ourselves no longer take the time to seize the poetry inherent in our everyday lives, then Blast has stopped to capture it for us.   
 
COCO DE CHAMAL
Sarah Amezian, alias Coco de Chamal, is a young Belgian-Moroccan artist born in Brussels. From a young age she was immersed in artistic circles by virtue of her family environment.  A jack of all trades, photography is her favoured field. A support through which to retranscribe her expertise in areas such as embroidery, calligraphy or the creation of accessories. Her influences are Western as well as Berber and Arabo-Andalusian. Sarah likes to mix her different cultures to define the identity she adopts. 
 
Coco de Chamal is a blog born of her passion for photography and for art in general. A place to share her work, her projects, her moods and her discoveries. The platform through which her projects take shape and evolve over the months.