UR1, the music and art festival hitting Bayfront Park during Art Basel, is hosting a slew of big celebrities: Lenny Kravitz, Kanye West, Santigold, Animal Collective.
But the biggest name to appear at UR1 is undoubtedly Andy Warhol.
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The pop artist, famous for colorfully reimagining iconic cultural images like Campbell's Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe's portrait, earned a cult following that hasn't waned in the years since his death. If anything, Warhol's art has increased in popularity in recent years. (If you attended Second Saturday Art Walks this summer, you almost certainly encountered at least one of his works.)
In December, UR1 will take advantage of that popularity by pairing Warhol's films with a modern soundtrack -- and expose thousands of festival-goers to Warhol's lesser-known works in the process.
In a partnership with The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, UR1 will present a selection of Warhol's black-and-white silent film portraits titled "13 Most Beautiful...Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests." The films will play with newly commissioned soundtracks by indie pop duo Dean and Britta. Because each film runs about four minutes long, the work blends the world of art and music to create one hell of a cultured music video series.
The project was developed by The Warhol Museum and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in 2008, and has toured internationally in the years since.
"13 Most Beautiful" isn't the only Warhol connection at UR1, either. Ultra Violet, who'll shoot a giant, multicolored laser beam across Biscayne Bay from the festival during Basel, was a former Warhol "superstar," or a member of the artist's inner circle during the '60s and '70s. William John Kennedy's Warhol-inspired works will also be on display at UR1. And let's not forget the giant banana being created by Books IIII that, well, owes a lot to the late pop artist:
Think of it as proof that pop music and pop art can go hand in hand.
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