THE UPV PRESENTS POLINIZA 2013, THE 8TH UPV URBAN ART FESTIVAL

From Monday, May 13, to Friday, May 17, at the UPV, 37 painting artists from 5 nations (Russia, France, Poland, Italy and Spain) will intervene on 700 m2 divided into 18 walls, while the University goes about its normal life. The exhibition "Poliniza in vitro", Dani León's skateboarding show, a BMX Jam and lectures by Fernando Figueroa will complete the programme of a festival that is enjoyed every year by more than 20,000 people

The Universitat Politècnica de València, through the Office of the Vice-Rector for Students and Culture's Cultural Management Office, presents POLINIZA 2013, the eighth edition of the UPV Urban Art Festival, curated by Juan Canales, which will take place from Monday, May 13, to Friday, May 17, 2013, at the UPV Vera Campus.

POLINIZA was born in April 2006 with the aim of symbiotically bringing together two worlds that were apart: university and urban art. Soon it became a benchmark festival because of the features that characterize it: its originality, its authenticity (artists intervene on real walls, no false walls -to be put away on completion of the event- are used; thus the works remain on the walls of the UPV buildings until the following year's festival, and in this way the ephemeral nature of graffiti is respected), its internationalism (159 artists from 14 countries -Italy, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, France, Colombia, Cuba, Ukraine, Poland, Chile, Belgium, Argentina, Russia and Spain will have participated in the festival at the end of this year's edition) and its media impact.

This year, 13 painting artists (11 individual artists and a crew, all of which have been selected through the 7th Mural Painting Intervention Contest -in the first edition of POLINIZA the choice was made without a contest) and 24 students of the subject Painting and Environment at the UPV Faculty of Fine Arts will take part in this event. The chosen artists are: ALEXEY LUCHKO (Moscow, Russia), NELIA (Lyon, France), the GRAFITÓWKI crew (Gdańsk, Poland), TELLAS (Decimoputzu, Italy), CAPIFLEX (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), XUAN ALYFE (Avilés) PEJAC (Santander), GR170 (Granollers), DADI DREUCOL (Málaga), DIOM (Benetússer), DEIH (València) and VINZ FEEL FREE (València).

That makes 37 painting artists in total in this year's edition of POLINIZA, in which 18 walls of the UPV (3 at the UPV Agora, 11 at the UPV Faculty of Fine Arts and 1 at the Rector's Office building, at the Student Recreation Centre and at the UPV School of Building Engineering) will be intervened: 700 square meters on which the artists will begin to work next Monday at 4:00 PM, until Friday, May 17, at 5:00 PM.

The festival's programme, which has the support of Montana, Red Bull, Art i Clar, Pinturas José Antonio García and Alternative Sports Events, will be completed by a skateboarding show by Dani León (who is a professional Red Bull rider), a BMX JAM (Tuesday, May 14, 2:00 PM, at the UPV Agora), the lecture "The 20th century signature graffiti: local graffiti and hip-hop graffiti. Against a bipolar view of this phenomenon" by Dr. Fernando Figueroa (Tuesday, May 14, 6:00 PM, at room B06 of the UPV Faculty of Fine Arts), the round table "Graffiti in the panoptic society: the city as a prison for human expression" (Wednesday, May 15, 6:00 PM, at room B06 of the UPV Faculty of Fine Arts), and the exhibition "POLINIZA IN VITRO", containing graphic work and personalized objects made by the artists who participate in the festival ¿the exhibition¿s opening will take place on Thursday, May 16, at 1:30 PM at Espai [en Vitrina], located at the UPV Faculty of Fine Arts.