What does the future look like?
But what ideas and visions of the future do young people actually have? Do they dream of a better world, do they anticipate a technological epochal change or do their expectations tilt towards the dystopian? In order to explore these questions and find out what motivates kids today, project developers Leonhard Gruber and Mario Friedwagner started a co-operation with MS Ebensee. In several workshops, six different classes worked on sketches, pictures and slogans that depict the pupils’ visions of the future.
The pupils will be given a direct and practical insight into the world of street art and graffiti at the end of April. For this, 25 kids visit the Mural Harbor open-air gallery in Linz harbour, one of the largest spots for graffiti and street art in Europe. Under the professional guidance of Michael Url from Mural Harbor GmbH, the pupils receive a practical introduction to different techniques and varieties of this urban art form. They work on spray stencils, get to know the special linguistic codes of the scene and become graffiti writers themselves by throwing their sketches, which they have worked on at school, onto the wall with a spray can.
Integrative murals
The visible results of this workshop process are in turn passed on to “Nychos” and “Yubia”, two internationally renowned and respected street art artists. For their part, they will attempt to integrate the content and subjects of the young people into two large murals during two working visits to Ebensee. Styrian-born “Nychos”, who now runs a studio in LA and also lives there, will be painting a wall at the weaving mill in Ebensee as early as mid-May. And “Yubia” from Barcelona will artistically design a wall at the former girls’ primary school in the historic centre of Ebensee at the end of June/beginning of July.
In both cases, there will be an exchange between the young people and the artists. At this meet & greet, the students will have the opportunity to conduct interviews with the artists for social media and the school’s own video club, ask questions or even answer questions themselves. To document the entire course of the project, all of the resulting works – sketches and sketches, graffiti and murals, videos and photos – will be brought together at MS Ebensee. The specific format of the presentation is still being negotiated.
Sustainable result
The two artistic works, large-scale murals in public spaces, will ensure a sustainable and long-lasting visible result of Future Is Now! far beyond the Capital of Culture year due to the good location on the Salzkammergut railway and Langbathsee road.
