About WALLSTREET

When neighbors and artists create places of significance. The most interesting festival for modern public art in Europe.

About

WALLSTREET – The City of Art – is a global concept for art exhibitions in our outdoor public urban spaces. Through the creation of works of art with a diversity of expressions, WALLSTREET contributes to the attractiveness of places. WALLSTREET put light on the importance of places, art and culture in a changing urban environment, and thus contributes to a positive urban development and a better community.

To WALLSTREET, the spirit and significance of places is important. The local anchoring and contact with those who live and work on a site is central to sustainable development. WALLSTREET is all about neighborhoods that together with professional artists and creators give new life to their own places, while at the same time contribute to a better world. This applies to the spirit of a place as well as to the physical environment.

WALLSTREET is created to be applied in different places around the world.

When
neighbours and
artists creates places of significance

Participation and art get people together, create and give a sense of belonging and understandable context. When we can deeply see ourselves in a place, we feel at home and care about it. We care for and are careful about the local environment when we ourselves have been involved in creating. What we touch often touches us.

Public space and places have great significance and impact. Art and architecture are powerful communication. Those who live and work in a place knows it the best, and live their lives in the stories that characterize the place. The opportunity to influence one’s immediate environment is linked to well-being and health.

Some areas are also pointed out by the outside world as “exposed” or “unsafe”. That stamp may have been added without the residents in the area having been allowed to give their views on the matter, and they might have a contrary view of their own area. How can art take advantage of their stories and highlight it? How can art, and the dialogue about places and areas, make more people feel involved and create better relationships between residents, businesses and associations?

Another issue is the climate change, where the need for human behavior change is crucial. Simply relating intellectually to a global crisis usually does not change our established habits until the crisis comes right to our own neighborhood. Art is about emotional intelligence, and can help us understand and feel the global challenges on a deeper level and more quickly come to an insight willing to change.

Art binds people together, and when we see ourselves in a context as a collective, the will to change our behavior can increase. When we see that we are all connected, the will to do what is good for everyone increases. What we do to each other, we also do to ourselves.

Our history

In the autumn of 2019, Nacka municipality held the first WALLSTREET festival for public art in the Stockholm region - WALLSTREET Nacka. In total the project amounted to 20 new works of art, which included 17 murals and three interactive sculptures. Apart from collaborating with Nacka Municipality, WALLSTREET Nacka worked with 18 co-financed partners. Half of the participating artists came from Sweden, the other half from 10 other countries worldwide. The distribution between women and men was 50/50.

FILM / WALLSTREET Nacka - before and after.

During the time that Wall Street Nacka 2019 was taking place, there were occurrences of media portraying the festival from a critical eye, concluding that Nacka Municipality were working with, or rather “governing” our artists in a way that did not honour the principle of artistic freedom. These reports have been misleading.

Nacka Municipality, who then were organising the festival early in the process brought forward governing documents in order to further plan the festival. These governing documents were internal to the municipality and were included in the decision basis when the operational project management was still yet to be attained. Media decided to portray these governing documents as if it were an instruction to the artists. These reports are incorrect.

Our artists were never governed, neither by code, politics or other officials. Our artists confirm this themselves, as well as our operational project management team.

Wall Street Stockholm 2022 carries with it all that we’ve learnt from Wall Street 2019, most importantly the significance of allocating enough resources towards clear communication and guaranteeing the principle of artistic freedom. This communication makes up for a significant part of the work that is financed through the participatory fee, or the so called “Ticket”

Sources
  • SVT Stockholm 10 Sept 2019 where the artist Nelson Cekis who participated in Wall Street Nacka said ”No, no one told me what to do.” SVT recorded Nelson at the venue where he was painting.
  • A study made through email where our collaborating artists answered questions. The majority of artists rated the festival at a 8-10 points out of 10, and express themselves as content. This is documented in emails from the artists, as well as reported in the official project report written by Nackas project manager.
  • Feedback recieved from art consults/operative project managers who managed all contact with the artists (Kollektivet Livet)
  • Ocular observation/inspection: The works of art which the artists made in Wall Street Nacka are completely in line with their earlier productions, that is that they did not do anything different or change their artistic expression for Wall Street Nacka.