Hasta La Ideas

Regular readers of CR may recall we showcased a selection of art pieces created for the 100 Pieces of Havana project curated by design studio Intercity (co-founded by ex-CR art director, Nathan Gale) in our August issue last year. Now Intercity has worked again with rum brand Havana Club on the next iteration of the project: 100 Minutes of Havana – a live, one-off art battle set to take place next Wednesday 4 March at East London’s railway arch venue, Village Underground. A selection of the artists due to take part in the art-off next week met up at the venue earlier this week to have a practice session, customising one of the four underground train carriages that sit atop the venue…

Shown in these photos are artists Austin from NEW, Ian Stevenson, Andrew Rae, ALFA, Teck 1, Jimi Crayon, Mr K, Teck 1 and Stika – all practicing their various styles…

Whilst a whole range of pens, paints and spray cans were used here, the rules of the forthcoming battle state that the artists will only be able to use coloured acrylics and Edding pens on the 16ft high, 40ft wide white battle wall. The freestyle masterpieces created in battle will be created without the aid of sketches or pencils…

Going head to head in battle are two teams, one selected by Intercity from the artists that took part in last years 100 Pieces of Havana, the other put together by Monorex who organise the regular Secret Wars battle events. On the Intercity side of things are Ian Stevenson, Andrew Rae, Robbie Wilkinson, Andy Forshaw and Austin from NEW. And on the Monorex-selected team are the considerably more street sounding ALFA, Teck 1, Jimi Crayon, Mr K and Stika. The two teams will have 100 minutes to do their art thing – the work will then be judged by a Havana Club and Monorex representative as well as an all-important crowd vote, which will be decided using a decibel reader.

A cleverly animated projection of Intercity’s 100 Minutes of Havana logo (above)will serve as a clock as Intercity’s Nathan Gale explains: “The original 100 Pieces logo was made from circles, representing 100 bottles – so for the 100 Minutes event we turned the circles into timers, each representing one minute. This also gives the logo a stencil-like aesthetic, making it perfect for the event. The art battle will be timed and a projection of the logo will animate the 100 minute countdown.”

100 Minutes of Havana, curated by Intercity and Monorex will be open to the public from 5-8 March at Village Underground, Shoreditch, London EC1.

The live art battle will take place on Wednesday 4 March. For more information and to get on the guest list for the event, please contact Emma Buxton on havana@balancepr.com