The fourth edition of FestiWall, the international festival of public art held every year in Ragusa, will host a Clemens Behr’s site-specific exhibition.

Behr is a German street artist who comes from the world of graffiti but has always been passionate about Futurism and Dadaism. He is known for his installations made of cardboard pieces, plastic bags, and scotch from packages, which come to life in both public and private places. His works always manage to enter into dialogue with the environment that surrounds them and start from the selection of waste material that he tries to find directly in the places that will then host the final work.

For the FestiWall, Clemens will create an installation with the materials found inside the Lanificio, the ex-textile factory that will host the exhibition.

This is what he told us about his work.

“It was very great to find such a big number of potential materials for my works, at first it was even a bit too much material to choose from as our plan was that I’ll just see what to do after my arrival.

But I saw the air ventilation panels already in some photos before and so I worked mainly with them, as the platform in the middle of the garden was reserved for my work, I had to come up with something rather big or similar size, so it was a good bet.

The work itself grew natural through its practical determinations by the material itself as it was kind of a system to screw the parts together I tried to do this in my manner and just tried to build/paint with the steel tubes, creating a complex volume. While working it always reminded me a bit of a dazzle-ship but I tried to keep its shape as abstract as possible. As the material is quite reflective for light and sound I decided to record some sounds and put some fluorescent lights with it. I wanted to create a very industrial feel as I have witnessed by driving by some power plants on various tracksides. In the end the sculpture was painted with black shapes to break down the shapes of it as the color was good to mime its own shadow play.

The other work outside was made more or less spontaneous. as the ground is kind of an unused area (which I find mostly attracting) it was a perfect place to place another work and try out some more of the material yards potential.

It is quite obvious, that the work corresponds to the building block behind and plays with its colors and shapes. It is to be seen as an abstract painting overall though.

I was very pleased to have such a warm welcome and a lot of helping hands and especially being able to freely choose and work within the area and its mess and chaos of forgotten materials.”