Titel: ‘Wasteland Social Kids’

Curator: Yves Landheer / @yves.paintkillers

Artists: Monos Sotos, George Bekris, Nikos Komiotis

Duration exhibition: 23 maart 2025 – 31 augustus 2025

Locations: Murals Inc. Piekstraat 31 en Art Rotterdam / AHOY Rotterdam

Wasteland Social Kids

A story about freedom and social change

Wasteland Social Kids is a story about freedom and social change. Due to globalization, the production of goods is rapidly moving out of Europe to cheaper parts of the world, leaving empty factories all over Europe. Monos, Silver and Nikos have transformed one such empty industrial space into a studio. Factory walls that become galleries depicting the alienating effect of globalization, hyper capitalism and the social unrest it creates. The neglected, urbane environment becomes a public space. These painters create oversized murals in black and white. They often paint political characters from the past, or classical objects from everyday life in Greece. Then these usually normal figures are twisted and distorted to ultimately create an eerie, bleak and uncomfortable feeling, hinting at state violence or nationalist hatred. Sometimes it is hard to tell if these characters are good or bad, or if they even had a choice in how they became. In addition to artistically strong images, the artists touch on various metropolitan social and political themes. Main theme is social inequality and a changing society The subject matter is recognizable to all but subtle, without being decidedly thick on the theme. The images are very direct and immediately provoke thought. And that is exactly the intention.

The project consists of two parts on two different locations but together they form one whole: a regular mural exhibition at Murals Inc. where the three artists each make a painting on one of the monumental walls of our podium. In addition, the three artists make one work together on location Art Rotterdam. This painting is a visual conclusion to the three paintings in Murals Inc.

Parties involved

Curator

Yves Landheer / yves.paintkillers (1970) lives and works in Amsterdam. He has built up the @yves.paintkillers profile on Instagram (currently 22.8K followers) in which he offers a platform to emerging and mid-career graffiti artists. Thus, in recent years he has provided a podium to over 600-700 arties- ten who have all developed a unique style, taking this genre to the next level. He is interested in a broad and diverse palette of art forms, fascinated by subcultures and a passionate collector of graffiti related artist monographs.

Artists

Monos Sotos / monos.cwtos.studio based in Athens, began as a street artist and evolved after his academic training into an artist who expresses political and social critique through his insistent black and white murals. His works, a mix of political and personal narratives, blur the line between public and private. The large-scale paintings bring out individuals from society and illustrate poignant scenes. Sotos revives human interaction and community spirit, which he believes threaten to fade in contemporary society, and uses art as a means to highlight the lost essence of these connections.

George Bekris / silver.formz graduate of the School of Infrastructure and Restoration Works and the studios of the Athens School of Fine Arts. The artist is a political being who simply lives his life while being aware of the catastrophic, dramatic or joyous events in the world and is shaped by these facts. How is it possible to be indifferent to other people and separate yourself from the life that is offered to you? Painting was not invented to decorate apartments. On the contrary, it is a weapon in a conflict in which the highest values of civilization are at stake.

Nikos Komiotis / nikos.komi, visual artist from Athens focuses mainly on the deformation of human features in his work. His figures seem to fluctuate between an inanimate and animal state, inspired by fragmentary memories of familiar places. His creative process involves successive frames in which features merge, strand and disappear for a fraction of a second. Komiotis highlights representations of everyday life, in which moments of absolute presence are lost in automated routines. The central feature of his work is the distortion of human facial features, balancing his images between the real and the uncanny, with an animalistic interpretation of existence.

Outer Space Kids (OSK) graffiti crew to which these artists belong, is a collective of graffiti writers that has been around since 2001. Because they work in abandoned buildings (wastelands), such as disused factories, they have had years of artistic freedom and plenty of opportunity to experiment and develop. As a result, they have developed a completely unique style that is unique and recognizable to the OSK crew.

Monos Sotos, George Bekris, Nikos Komiotis are street painters and have been able to develop as such. Murals Inc. regularly offers a podium to street painters and graffiti writers. We are keenly aware of the contrasts between our spatial context and the dynamics of metropolitan or urbex décor where many of these artists have their roots. This field of tension, which seemingly imposes restrictions, actually turns out to be a source of inspiration. Artists who have formed their practice on the streets often feel both the challenge and the attraction of presenting their work in a more established, isolated context. We believe that, if realized by carefully selected artists, this context enhances the impact of their work. Without the distractions of the urban environment, the power of the image is fully focused on the viewer. The isolated setting forces confrontation and makes the experience of the art more intense and penetrating, where the image does not offer escape but rather reveals the core of the message.

The Wasteland Social Kids project strengthens the relationship between cultural heritage, visual art and the public in a variety of ways by bringing these elements together in an accessible and impactful context. It uses the rich narrative of abandoned industrial spaces and the power of wall paintings to make and reinterpret historical, social and cultural connections.

Wasteland Social Kids is a sequel to Wasteland Tunnel Rats which took place at Murals Inc. from June 9 to the end of October 2024.

Motivation Yves Landheer / @yves.paintkillers regarding both exhibitions.

Over the past 50 years, graffiti has become a global phenomenon. Not only is graffiti widespread, it has penetrated the capillaries of different (sub)cultures. The genre is so large that all sorts of new derivative movements have now emerged (such as minimalist graffiti, abstract graffiti or so-called antistyle, to name but a few). Artists who started out as graffi- ti- writers have continued to evolve in their own style that can no longer necessarily be described as graffiti- lized.

In Wasteland Tunnel Rats, the letter as a starting point was sometimes still recognizable. Or at least the newly found forms could still be understood as language, writing or symbol. The painters of Wasteland So- cial Kids developed differently; they abandoned graffiti and sought figuration in order to increase their power of expression.

To better understand the wide variety of styles, I try to classify them in time (from which generation is the writer and in which period is he/she active) and space (where does the writer come from, where is he/she active and with whom does he/she collaborate). Seeing several painters from the same geographical subculture together, such as Wasteland Tunnel Rats from Marseilles and Wasteland Social Kids from Patras and Athens, provides a broader picture of the development of that particular subculture. Sometimes this gives new insights and connections, a context emerges, and sometimes it raises new questions. But as is the case with good art, each painter (fortunately) has his or her own uniquely recognizable style that surprises and stays with us.

The Wasteland Social Kids exhibition fits seamlessly with the artistic vision of Murals Inc. which aims to promote murals as a powerful and socially engaged medium. Murals Inc. sees murals not as decoration but, among other things, as a way to explore socio-political themes and transform public spaces into places of reflection and dialogue. The exhibition's focus on abandoned industrial spaces trans- formed by artists reflects Murals Inc.'s belief that art should be accessible and can play a central role in urban and social change. By emphasizing socially relevant themes such as globalization, social inequality and national identity, the exhibition embodies the goal of positioning art as a catalyst for discussion and awareness. Moreover, the visual language of Wasteland Social Kids - big, direct and confrontational - matches the core values of Murals Inc.: murals that not only fill physical space, but also impact viewers mentally and emotionally. Emphasizing subtle but recognizable social themes ensures that the message comes across powerfully, which perfectly aligns with Murals Inc.'s mission to support artistically relevant and socially engaged art.

The relevance, cause and urgency of the Wasteland Social Kids project are driven by current social and urban developments that are felt both locally and globally. This project offers a visually powerful and intellectually challenging response to these challenges and responds to pressing questions about social change, urban spaces and artistic expression.