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Here is your daily dose of good times and decades of stencils, brought to you from the following Eurozones:

• KZ Kazakhstan
• LV Latvia
• ME Montenegro
• MK Macedonia (just one!)
• NL Netherlands
• NO Norway

"Great street artists have their own style and personality." 
Intrview with Blek Le Rat, father of stencil art
by Federico Giannini (Instagram: @federicogiannini1), published on 24/05/2020
Original interview, in other languages, at Finestre sull'Arte

Blek Le Rat [his Stencil Archive] is one of the world's greatest street artists whose career is about to turn 40 years old. We interviewed him and got an insight into his art.

Street artist Blek Le Rat (Xavier Prou; Paris, 1951) is one of the pioneers of international street art and the father and initiator of stencil graffiti, the same technique that would be used and made famous by Banksy, who can be considered an epigone of the French artist. His career began in 1981, when he began painting on the streets of Paris after being fascinated by the graffiti he met in New York on a trip in the 1970s. Blek Le Rat is thus about to turn 40 years old: we caught up with him for an interview about his art and his latest works. The interview is curated by Federico Giannini, editor in chief of Finestre Sull’Arte.

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FG. To begin with, I would like to talk about your latest work, M.U.R. (Mobulable, Urbain et Réactif), made in Rennes in September 2019. Can you tell us about this work, how it was made, how the idea came about?

BLR. I am not used to working on modular walls: it was the first time I intervened in this mode. I had been invited by Patrick Daniello, president of the association Le mur de Rennes, and it seemed to me a beautiful thing, also because under these conditions, that is, when you work on an “authorized” wall, you do not work in urgency, and with the fear of being arrested by the police. Therefore, one can continue to think about the image while working, one can build in multiple times because mishaps do not arise due to the extreme urgency of having to quickly finish an image made illegally. Regarding this modular work in Rennes, a friend, Thierry Gauthé, known as Bergu, had arrived in the morning to see me paint. The fortuitousness of this encounter led us to agree that it would be wonderful if Thierry intervened on the image as he did on my stencils in the 1980s, adding his famous bats. It was a magical moment, I really enjoyed this work in Rennes, and looking back at the image today I still cannot help but see in it a relation to the Covid-19 epidemic.

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Why are we starting this European country update with the letter "H" you ask? While looking over what was left to revise over on that continent, it began there. That simple. We will give out short lists of links to countries over there, or on the edge of there, in the coming days. For now, we begin with...

• HR Croatia
• HU Hungary (one of the first ever Stencil Archive pics was snapped here in 1995)
• IE Ireland (updated a while ago)
• IS Iceland
• IT Italy (also updated earlier this year)
• KV Kosovo

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Thanks to: Amanda, BeneRegoef, Louniki

Argentina
Chile
cartoonneros
Toxicómano Callejero

Austria
Switzerland
France
Italy
Poland
Stefan Winterle

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Great timing for completing our USA A-Z updated archive posts: Stencil Archive visited Seattle, WA last weekend and managed to catch an array of styles and placement, some ads, and some utilitarian. KEXP studio had Jonathan Fischer stencils all over their space. 

While going back through and updating the archives, the 2008 Seattle visit during the Stencil Nation book tour included a fun collab wall project. Here is our tour mate Chris Carlsson, who was also presenting a book, cutting out a stencil for the wall.

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Here are the other updated archives:

• Virginia
• Vermont (one new one, from 2004)
• Washington, DC
• Borf's archive got updated after moving an image in there from DC.
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

OK, on to updating more archives soon...

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Woah. Serious rain and flooding here in HQ San Francisco. Remember to hold your loved ones close, watch those pools of water with wary eyes, and keep your local drains clear of debris. We are continuing our USA A-Zed links for all the updated Stencil Archives. This round also includes our USA Random folder, where stencil images with no state given go to live. We do not accept images without location information, but sometimes....

• PA: Pennsylvania 
• PR: Puerto Rico
• Random USA
• RI: Rhode Island
• SC: South Carolina (updated in Aug/Sep)
• TN: Tennessee (updated in April)
• TX: Texas
• UT: Utah

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Here we go again with another round of our maddest updates, in somewhat alphabetical order by postal initials.

• NJ: New Jersey
• NM: New Mexico
• NV: Nevada (and Black Rock City)
• NY/NYC: New York, New York
• OH: birthplace of DEVO
• OK: Oklahoma
• OR: Oregon

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All the USA archives are updated (artists archives coming soon)! We'll spend most of the week posting direct links for easy access. Had a totally fun time looking through all these photos. Portland, ME and NH visits happened while on an activist gig. Minnesota snaps went down while in the state doing another activist gig. Snapped some Baltimore, MD and Detroit, MI pics while on the Stencil Nation tour. Was just in St. Louis, MO after the recent solar eclipse. Memories!

Spinning: KGLW Live at the Fabulous Fox, ATL

MD: Maryland
ME: Maine
MI: Michigan
MN: Minnesota
MO: Missouri
NC: North Carolina
NE: Nebraska
NH: New Hampshire

Thanks to: Brooklyn Street Art

Spinning: Queen, Beatles, KGLW

Just updated the archives for Maine and Maryland. New images for:

• East Bay
• fnnch
• more LOST in media
• Lapiz
• NYC
• SF: The Mission
• SF: Haight St.
• Snik
• United Kingdom
• Yon