Messages: A wall in Islington with a work by street artist BambiPABritish street artists need to get more political to have a future, according to the director of a new film about the scene in South Africa.
Writer and filmmaker King Adz is part of the trio behind the documentary, Street Art Stories: Jo’burg, released online today.
He said he first visited South Africa in the Nineties and was impressed by what he saw, adding: “It felt like a really creative, young country. It was after the fall of apartheid and it was like the whole place had been reset.”
The film, commissioned by Nando’s and shot in and around Johannesburg, shows how anti-apartheid campaigning continued into the current art scene using posters, flyers and pamphlets.
Adz, who quit his job in advertising to document the street art scene, said it barely lasted five years in the UK before becoming commercialised. He added: “There is no real street art in the UK any more. People are doing it because they have seen Banksy do it and make money... people need to look to something they believe in.” Watch the film at nandos.co.uk/streetartjoburg