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Slaven Kosanovic, better known as Lunar, is a Croatian graphic and street artist, philosopher and interdisciplinary person; coming to both music and art as a child, Lunar entered what would become a career as an artist in 1989 when he first picked up a spray paint can. Thirty years later, he is a unique living witness and participant in graffiti’s evolution since then as both a subculture and an art form, and the transformations of graffiti, hip hop, and electronic music subcultures in supporting one another towards their current mainstream popularity.
Lunar has always been pushed by curiosity, discovery, and creativity. Around the time he realized he probably couldn’t make it as a paleontologist or natural scientist, a la David Attenborough — his childhood dream — Lunar was also fascinated by graffiti, hip hop culture, and discovering and collecting every possible form of music that he could find. Entering the world of graffiti was a way for Lunar to assert the other, non-scientific side, of his identity as an interdisciplinary artist, to make sense of the world and find a place in it. As he began painting and establishing his network throughout Croatia, he was inspired by painters and musicians from other cities and countries who were building their lives in pursuit of the most idealistic dreams; by the early 1990’s Lunar was painting with them and friends throughout Europe, while offering them insider knowledge of where and how to paint in Croatia, and places to stay when others came to Eastern Europe.
Lunar describes street cats as confident, cheeky, independent, and symbolic of the streets; he also pulled his first artistic inspiration from his cat, Jinx. His artistic career, built largely around continual reinvention of his Catso character, has also been much like that of a street cat: charting his own path, making his own rules, and constantly pushing his boundaries of creativity. Thus, by the mid-1990’s, in seeking to expand beyond graffiti and nomadism, and to push the limits of his own creativity, Lunar entered a career in graphic design (while continuing graffiti); recently, he has also started hosting his own national-level radio show in Zagreb and DJing, both as a way of sharing his passion and excitement for hip hop and electronic music that has always inspired and propelled him as an artist.
Lunar’s constant search to discover and learn from other peoples’ experience, perspectives, and creative methodologies has led him to create art on every continent, and to be included in global graffiti publications including Graffiti world-Street art from 5 continents, 100 European graffiti writers,World Piecebook, Street art & Graffiti Europe, Street Art Graffiti Guide Paris, Graffiti Planet, Style is a Message, Painted Walls Havana, Munich Walls, Street Art Amsterdam, Street Art Zagreb, 400ml, The Book of Tags, and Cinco — 5 Years of Calle Libre. Beyond the world of graffiti, Lunar’s work and ability to independently turn creativity into a successful career have also earned him features in Playboy, Forbes, Backspin, DJ Mag, Stylefile, Graphotism, Xplicit Grafx, Bomber, Urban Roots, and Code Red, and invitations to speak at TEDx Zagreb 2015 and CreArt Encounter 2019 in Aveiro, Portugal.
Lunar’s new book “From Zagreb with Love” is hotly anticipated as one of the first histories written of graffiti as a clandestine, global, multidisciplinary art movement in Eastern Europe, which also maps its parallel development with rap and electronic music, written from the inside by one of its first practitioners. “From Zagreb with Love” will be launched at QRU in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in collaboration with Street Art Museum Amsterdam, on 16 August 2019.
[…] Slaven Kosanović, who is more commonly recognized as Lunar, is a Croatian artist involved in graphic and street art. Besides being a philosopher with a wide range of interests, he developed a passion for music and art from a young age. In 1989, he embarked on his artistic journey when he started using spray paint. Over the course of three decades, Lunar has played a remarkable role in the evolution of graffiti, which has transformed from a subculture to a recognized art form. Additionally, he has witnessed and actively participated in the interwoven developments of graffiti, hip hop, and electronic music subcultures, contributing to their eventual widespread acceptance in mainstream culture. (https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/slaven-lunar-kosanovic/) […]
[…] Slaven Lunar Kosanovic spoke to us from Zagreb, Croatia just before Christmas 2020. At the time, Lunar felt that the pandemic was still picking up speed and had resigned himself to patiently wait it out. Lunar is a large part of the Croatian graffiti scene, something which he has been able to continue during the pandemic as the artform is done outdoors. That said, much of his work has been done from home throughout this time. He has been working with recycled materials quite a lot, something he is quite devoted to. Lunar enjoys taking objects and material that have already had a life and breathing in new life and new value. Lunar has also spent a great deal of time reading while in lockdown and even published his own book recently. To hear about his work in more detail, listen to the complete interview. […]
[…] Slaven Lunar Kosanovic spoke to us from Zagreb, Croatia just before Christmas 2020. At the time, Lunar felt that the pandemic was still picking up speed and had resigned himself to patiently wait it out. Lunar is a large part of the Croatian graffiti scene, something which he has been able to continue during the pandemic as the artform is done outdoors. That said, much of his work has been done from home throughout this time. He has been working with recycled materials quite a lot, something he is quite devoted to. Lunar enjoys taking objects and material that have already had a life and breathing in new life and new value. Lunar has also spent a great deal of time reading while in lockdown and even published his own book recently. To hear about his work in more detail, listen to the complete interview. […]