When Nuart Aberdeen arrives in the Granite City this April, it will be at warp speed with phasers set to stunning.
That’s because event curator Martyn Reed is boldly going where no one has gone before - creating the world’s first poetry and text-based street art festival.
And he is especially thrilled after having some “eureka” moments after several days scouting for city centre walls to be transformed by world-class artists.
“I’d just like to say thank you to the people of Aberdeen for the continued trust and privilege. To paraphrase Scotty from Star Trek - another ‘old Aberdonian pub crawler’ - ‘I've giv'n her all she's got, captain’,” said Martyn, who has curated every Nuart Aberdeen since it launched in 2017.
With its theme of Poetry Is In The Streets, the next outing of Nuart Aberdeen - delivered by Aberdeen Inspired in partnership with Aberdeen City Council and produced by Reed Projects – will be a break from the “pretty predictable format” of large-scale colourful murals of previous festivals, said Martyn.
“Nothing wrong with that, of course,” he said. “But I’d envisage fewer large-scale works and far more smaller, more human scale, pieces scattered through the city.
“I think it’s more about appreciating that ‘Poetry is in the streets’ already, that Aberdeen is filled with a rich and fascinating history whether we have murals or not. This year is focussed more on what we already have than what we don’t, something that’s easy to forget in our day to day.”
Martyn at the text-based Robert Montgomery mural at Jopps Lane created for the first Nuart Aberdeen in 2017
But one thing that won’t feature in Nuart Aberdeen is any AI generated mural, such as the one proposed for a Glasgow building which drew fierce criticism.
Martyn said: “Having recently seen the proposal for an awful AI-generated mural in Glasgow, of which we’re no doubt going to be seeing a lot more of, I’d say we’re on the right track by trying something new, Aberdeen style!"
Martyn added that he wanted the challenge of changing the conversation to a more democratic form of producing work that might encourage people to maybe “have a go” at exploring their own artistic side.
He has already had some “eureka” moments during his mission to find brave new walls for the groundbreaking theme of Nuart Aberdeen, which will run from April 23 to 24.
“I can be mid-conversation with someone in the street or in a meeting in the boardroom and through the window I'll spot a wall off in the distance hovering like a floating canvas. ‘Excuse me a minute, can I just grab a photo of that wall’ isn’t an uncommon interruption,” said Martyn
The artist and curator who is based in Stavanger, where he started the world’s first Nuart festival in 2001 before launching Nuart Aberdeen in 2017, said being on the ground in Aberdeen last week helped him envisage what the poetry and text-based event will look like.
“To be honest this theme and form is a lot more difficult than spotting a huge clean rendered wall and thinking which muralist is best suited to tackle it,” said Martyn.
“Words have a different power and this type of work perhaps demands a little more thought, which is something of a challenge when you just have a few seconds to capture the attention of a busy public, many with far more practical issues and concerns than pondering the meaning of life on the way to Tesco.
“But I like a challenge so ...”
Part of the strength of Nuart Aberdeen – named as one of the six ‘musts see’ street art festivals in the world - is the way the people of the city have rallied round to enjoy and support it, said Martyn.
“Well even though my address isn’t here, I’ve been made so welcome that it feels like a home from home,” he said.
“I’ll never underestimate the responsibility and the privilege that the people, businesses and partners have entrusted and granted me as the curator in trying to make the environment more interesting.
“I was warned years ago about Aberdonians reputation for ‘moaning’, but I’ve always thought a healthy scepticism of power was a positive, I think the community recognised years ago that we had this in common and have embraced Nuart in a way that they maybe don’t for more established institution.
“That makes us feel like, ‘you’re one of us’, as some old boy in Denburn told me the other day. We’ll never underestimate this support.”
Martyn believes that support stems from the little bit of respite Nuart Aberdeen offers from the daily barrage of doom and gloom in our turbulent times.
“It’s not all firework displays and flashing. We’re not trying to distract people with entertainment but encouraging them to explore and take pride in the city and culture that they’ve built and are part of.”
You can find out more about Nuart Aberdeen here