The Underbelly Project is not your typical street art project. First of all, it is not accessible to the public. The first episode of this project took place in 2010, in an abandoned subway station in New York City: a couple of graffiti artists were escorted there during the night and left to their own devices to create art. The second installment of the project took place in Paris in 2012, in another hidden metro station and, as the one in New York, it is only available to few fortunate people. However, what is left for the rest of us, unable to go down in the underbelly of these cities, are videos of the graffiti artwork and take some time to think about this: do we tend to value more art that is not publicly, freely and readily available to us? The Underbelly Project plays with this perception that we unconsciously have of the arts and the hidden meaning might be that we should think more highly of street arts, due to their availability and proximity to us.
Enjoy the video!
The Underbelly Project Paris from marine longuet on Vimeo.