Last week, Shoreditch saw a unique street art collaboration, a live art battle that lasted for 100 minutes, part of the ‘100 Pieces of Havana’ event sponsored by Havana Club. A mixture of creative egos, a 16ft by 70ft white wall, plenty of rum and, in the end, lots of paint saw things get decidedly messy but also particularly creative in the process. A collaboration between Nathan Gale of Intercity and Secret Wars, an art collective who produce free art battle-offs in derelict spaces/bars all around the world, ‘100 Minutes of Havana’ saw the two teams of artists come together to compete within the time limit to throw up the best wall mural with the inspiration being Cuba and Havana Club.

Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100
Havana 100

Featuring 10 acclaimed artists, including Ian Stevenson, Austin from NEW, Andy Forshaw, Andrew Rae, ALFA, Teck 1, Jimi Crayon, Mr K and Stika, ‘100 Minutes of Havana’ saw the art being created using only coloured acrylics and Edding pens on the 16ft high by 70ft wide white wall.  The freestyle masterpiece was created without the help of sketches or pencils meaning that no one could predict what the final piece would look like, keeping the pressure and crowd anticipation high. In the end the Secret Wars team got the public vote and won the battle leaving the wall full of wierd and wonderful characters, things eventually got decidedly messy when paint bombs were hurled at the finished work.