Urban Ibiza 2010: Urban Art in the Countryside

Banksy may have brought street art into the public consciousness, but in August Atzaro unleashed urban art in the Ibiza countryside.

IT was a strange symmetry seeing (predominantly UK-produced) street art in the lavish, landscaped gardens of the outer Sant Joan orange groves. The idyllic surroundings of Atzaro hotel’s rural oasis are more often associated with spas, sun loungers and sushi than street art: a form more familiar to the back streets of Bristol than the Balearic Islands.

But urban art has progressed far beyond tags on trains and the unsanctioned abolishment of public property to become a valued creative phenomenon thanks to Banksy and his contemporaries, many of whom exhibited at this year’s Urban in Ibiza including Goldie, K-Guy, Dan Baldwin, Fin Dac and Shoe.

Uniting art, music and fashion, Urban in Ibiza celebrated its second successful year with live music by west London duo Dogz or Godz and catwalk shows by Ibiza designer Sasha Moon and sassy underwear line Dirty Pretty Things, debuted by Dee Murren and Claire Merry.

‘We love Ibiza. It’s a really special thing for us to actually do the show in Ibiza,’ Murren said. ‘The collection is really quite suited to here,’ added Merry. ‘There are a lot of strong colours, a lot of the stuff you could wear on the beach.’

Award-winning urban artist Tom ‘Inkie’ Bingle, curator of the event and a significant innovator of the street art movement, hand-picked each of the artists alongside promoter Paul Dizzi Saunders and performed a live spray of his own work on the night. ‘Atzaro’s an amazing venue,’ he said. ’It’s stunning to be here. It’s the perfect environment.’

Urban in Ibiza has definitely raised the bar this year and succeeded phenomenally in bringing street culture to an island famed for its clubs and coastline. We can’t wait to see what urban antics they have in store for this pastoral estate in 2011.

First published in Ibiza Style Magazine, Ibiza, September 2010.
© Abbey Stirling