Olliemoonsta is an art duo from Spain with a background in Fine Arts and Graphic Design. They came together in 2009 to form Studio Po (an illustration, graphic and web design studio), but around 2012 their actions gradually shifted towards art and illustration, so they decided to take matters from another perspective by forming Olliemoonsta.
Over the years they have created a series of artworks focusing on the folklore, mysticism and spirituality of traditional cultures from around the world. They are also interested in urban tribes related to graffiti and skateboarding and put a special emphasis on typography. Their work has been seen in numerous exhibitions around Europe and Canada, and in July 2011 they were invited to the International Percussion Festival of Montreal, Canada, where Juan Rico was performing improvised paintings to the rhythm of the music. Those paintings were part of a traveling exhibition in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. In 2012 they participated in the artists’ residence Beyond Time, in Poland, where in addition to their work at the BWA Bielsko Galery in Bielsko-Biala and Targowo, they participated in several festivals to paint murals. In October 2012 they were working as artists in residence at Pedra Sina Residence, in Madeira, Portugal. They currently live and work in Madrid, Spain.
DIFFERENT STATES OF MIND – a word from the artists
From the beginning of time, human beings have felt the need to organize in order to survive and evolve, creating a series of rituals and routines that over the years have been changing from one culture to another.
Our planet is a host to several customs from different tribes who have lived in perfect harmony with nature, excluded from new technologies and the passing of time. They have been loyal to their customs, clothing, myths and rituals, which have passed as a heritage from parents to children and above all which have stayed indifferent to Western life. Across cultures, we paint our faces, dress up, decorate our skin and celebrate rituals. This is our way of creating our personality and social identity. Rituals in traditional cultures are different from the urban ones, but with quite a few things in common.
According to us, modern societies define themselves by their quickness; everything goes too fast and we have forgotten how to enjoy our time and how to understand that competing is not everything. Moreover, technologies disconnect us from our deeper being. We are asleep and have stopped using our most ancestral abilities, the ones we all carry inside and we do not know or ignore them. It is not an isolated fact that when we are in nature we feel more intuitive and awake. Folklore, mysticism, shamanism and spirituality are constantly mixed in our work, together with different concepts taken from urban tribes such as graffiti. This is just the thing that puts a special emphasis on typography art.