"Why..." "Do I have to paint in the Streets?" "..." "Ha!" "That´s a good question." "Why in the street?" "I have to think about that question." "It´s my throw-up, my graffiti..." "You can call this traditional graffiti, done with spray paint in the American tradition." "ZEVS is the name I borrowed from the RER train, that almost crushed me in 1992..." "In memory of that, I use this name in my work." "As a tag, and as an artist name." "The Z right here." "Here´s the E, like this." "Here´s the S, here." "And here´s the V, or the U if you want, the V is the Greco-Roman U..." "It´s a symbiosis, the 4 letters of ZEVS form the cloud with the lightning." "Voila." "What is KRINK?" "I mean, KRINK is really..." "You know..." "A style." "Just experimentation, really." "At the time, I was writing a lot of graffiti and I wanted..." "To have a certain style on the streets." "I experimented with many different things, until I came up with KRINK." "I´m from New York, and when I grew up the trains where bombed." "Bombed with markers." "Most of the markers and inks were homemade." "A lot of those tags were very drippy." "Fat juicy tags on the insides." "And I always enjoyed that look..." "No, it´s too crowded." "It´s too..." "Wait..." "Not even..." "This is too hectic." "They will arrest you for almost anything." "And then youll be scared." "Let´s do this real quick." "Oh look!" "There´s KR..." "So nice!" "I just like those drips, they are beautiful." "I think they´re really elegant." "They have that hard graf-edge, at the same time it´s totally elegant and abstract." "It´s really nice!" "Thank you." "I love the delicacy of the lace-like thing." "I love the way it pours over the brick." "I think it´s beautiful." "A lot of people say," ""Hey, I missed the bus and had to walk down the street, and now I´m glad I missed the bus, because I saw you making this. "" "And that feels good." "It´s like, "Okay, I can make your day a little better. "" "Music get´s me through my day in a way, that I don´t know visual art ever could." "So when people tell me, something I do helps them get through their day," "I feel like its a reason to do it." "There´s a cop car over there, I´m waiting for them to leave..." "It´ll be okay." "I don´t have a studio." "I have kind of a studio, but it´s empty..." "It´s empty, because I work in the city." "Out there..." "Why do you do that?" "It´s about advertising images." "Huge images." "The enterprises rent billboards to put up their image and sell their product." "Which means theres a force, the force of the photograph." "And the idea of the Visual Attacks was, like in Aikido, to turn this force around." "Voila." "With a minimal action." "It´s a way to kill the body on the photo." "If you want to kill someone, it shouldn´t be the chicks on the photos..." "Weve found most of it, all around the Central Station." "I think it´s like a rule we´ve made." " Yeah, it´s a method." "Theres a DSB guy over there..." "This house proves it´s possible to build a house in central Copenhagen." "That a homeless person, or any kind of person, can do it..." "Like a statement." "That you can set up a home right in the face of the state." "To me, it´s a political statement not to consume." "It´s an ideology to work with things you find." "And refine those things." "And not to be an active consumer." "Instead, you work with what you have and what you can find." "You know very well that painting graffiti in the streets is illegal!" "How can you do that?" "With the authorization from the mayor of Paris..." "Genius!" "What kind of material is that?" "An, it´s an invisible paint!" "With ultra-violet light..." "Tomorrow you wont be able to see it..." "That´s true." "Have a good evening." " Same to you." "These are lightnings." "I transform cracks into lightnings..." "Ahh, see what we can do!" "My name is Ron English, and I´m a culture jammer." "I do illegal art in advertising spaces." "My specialty is liberating billboards, or stealing billboards." "This is the real thing." "This is free speech." "This is what it looks like." "The concept of culture jamming is to be mistaken as advertisement." "I did my first billboard in 1982." "My first year, I did like 120." "I know I´ve done over 1000, but after that I quit counting." "First thing the landlord said, "That billboard is off-limits... "" "Were doing the transition from soccer-dad to billboard liberator." "So we have to reconfigure the car." "I´m two different people." "The downtown artist." "And the billboard liberator." "People that know me for being a painter, don´t know I do the billboards, and people that know I do the billboards, have no idea, that my actual job is being a fine art painter." "Over the years I´ve gone to the billboard companies and said," ""I´d like to rent some billboards. "" "They say, "Show us what you have. " And then they say, "No way in hell, you can´t criticize any corporation that takes out ads on our billboards!"" "One said:" "Support Divorce - the great heterosexual institution." "The billboard company said, "No way were putting that up!" "Do one that says Support Marriage." "Well do that!"" "People don´t realize that these are Republican companies, they´ll only let you say Support Our Troops, and not Oppose the War." "They have a political agenda." "Everyone thinks it´s about money." "But that´s not true." "Lets do it as fast as we can." "What´s Pedro doing?" " Filming." "He has to vacate the scene, he can´t linger around." "Sometimes the cops will drive around the block and see us do it, they´ll think we´re supposed to do it, and he´ll say something to his partner, and his partner will say, "Oh shit, that´s probably that guy, Ron English!"" ""Lets go back and get him!" You know what I mean?" "By the time they come back, were long gone, except for Pedro, who´s lingering around, doing whatever the fuck..." "I just wish, during making this movie, he would get arrested once, to understand why I´m in a hurry, why I want to get out of there." "Once you´re in the system, you´re fucked." "It´s so hard to get out of there." "I just consider it paper and paste." "To me, it´s like dollar bills." "Each one of these is like a dollar." "If they´re paying for it to be put up, and our company okays it, I´ll put it up." "I´m sure there has been things that they refused, but..." "To me it´s just a job, it´s not art." "You know, it´s advertisement." "It´s a big thing around here." "People just like to look at billboards." "It´s like a tourist attraction." "It´s better than graffiti, right?" "Why?" "There´s nothing here, but look at graffiti and this, what would you rather see?" "Somebody´s bullshit name all over the place?" "Or that bullshit name all over the place?" "Oh nice!" "Look who got up there, I love you." "It´s always nice to see those pristine billboards getting unwanted attention." "That´s a real ad, I love you is added on." "Somebody writes that around the city." "The images we´re bombarded with, all this advertising and shit, it´s all like, these ideals of humans, that are more perfect, but less human, than we all really are." "I want to go below that, below the billboards, and create images of us that I feel are real." "That people can connect to." "It´s life-affirming, in the way advertising is life-denying." "It gives you a false reality you´re supposed to live up to." "But you´re not going to." "I want to create portraits that feel really real and human to me, and that try to go against all those images." "Not really go against them, but create alternatives." "Just like change the landscape..." "Do you want to watch a film about the Visual Kidnapping?" "Berlin Alexanderplatz, 5:37 in the morning." "Armed with my scalpel, I´ve climbed the building with the Lavazza billboard." "I start the kidnapping, aided by a camera and a few helpers." "For two hours, I cut out the body of the woman, which I took and put in this big bag." "VISUAL KIDNAPPING" "PAY NOW!" "The idea came to me following the Visual Attacks." "The Visual Attacks was something I did using a spray can with red paint, which allowed me to turn the advertising campaign around completely." "So afterwards, I got this idea of stealing the body." "The location of the hostage remains a secret..." "So in Berlin they saw a billboard, but without the body..." "A bit like when the Mona Lisa was stolen from Louvre." "People came to see the absence of the missing painting." "There was this feeling of absence, that worked pretty well in Berlin." "I send the hostage´s finger to Lavazza´s headquarters." "I demanded a ransom from the brand." "A symbolic ransom." "It was 500 000 Euros." "Approximately the campaign budget for a brand like Lavazza." "The idea was to make the enterprise, Lavazza, pay for art." "In fact, they accepted to play the game and act as sponsors." "So, the check that was written out for the liberation of this Visual Hostage, was donated to Palais de Tokyo." "I have the pleasure and honor of handing over to Monsieur André, this check for 500 000 Euros, with congratulations from Lavazza." "I think it´s interesting when advertising starts to work with artists." "But there´s a balance to be found in the way of doing this..." "This is the cool-guy Adidas soccer tournament." "A corporation attempt to be in touch with the downtown community." "It´s awesome, they bring money, let us do what we want," "And they have booze!" "Get out of the way!" "That guy just threw a punch at him!" "Now youre gone!" "What?" "Shut up!" "?" "Fuck that!" "I´m just getting my bag." "It´s just a soccer game." "What is Rivington?" "That´s where we hold it down in New York." "I live on this block." "We hold down Rivington Street." "The Lower East Side." "Come see me!" "That´s my block." "I own all of that." "ALIFE, IRAK style." "Mostly IRAK style." "IRAK style!" "They´re all going to see me writing graffiti, and be like," ""Aha!" "We knew he was black!"" "I manage a sneaker store, right." "Welcome to ALIFE Rivington Club on the Lower East Side." "I represent them for the RTFT shoeline." "And the ALIFE sneakers, I represent that for them." "I´m just on the streets for them..." "You know, you need that guy, that keeps you cool." "You ever find yourself needing to be cool, come see me." "I´ll hook you up..." "Oh man!" "Not to be like up your ass about this, but when can I schedule my next appointment?" "Why do I write graffiti?" "Because I´m bad!" "You´re not supposed to." "You want to keep your name up, you dont want people to be like, "Oh, he fell off. "" "I want everybody to be my friend, or else I get pissed off." "When people tell me they see me up, I want to make them more happy..." "So I write more graffiti." "Give me a call Tuesday." " Okay, I´ll get your number." "Why I do this?" "Well, tomorrow they will come to clean off the graffiti." "The idea is..." "I´ve written THE VISIBLE IS EPHEMERAL, because it´s going to disappear." "All the tags will disappear, because they´re seen by the cleaning team, and tomorrow, that´s what´s going to happen, they will clean them off." "I´ll do one on the ground." "Voila..." "It´s enough." "They´ll be puzzled that it´s written all over." "But since it´s in English, they won´t understand it..." "Good morning!" "How are you doing?" "How are you kids?" "We´re going to clean out the tags, erase the graffiti." "It´s signatures of people, groups, youngsters, who´re taking over the surfaces, to express their life style, dissatisfaction, or maybe even their joy, but who knows what they want to say." "What does this mean?" "..." "Because it´s in English, right?" "No, I don´t know..." "Honestly, I don´t have a clue." "It´s the first time we have any graffiti in English." "The first time..." "A little war, yeah, but not really cruel or anything..." "From the moment we enter their territory, marked by their tags, they don´t like it and they come back, tagging behind our backs." "We don´t care how you label it, graffiti or art..." "The only thing we care for is the need of showing our thoughts." "We leave it up to other people to classify it." "Sometimes it´s people we see." "Sometimes it´s people we imagine, and sometimes the people are ourselves." "Sometimes it´s ourselves, looking for ourselves." "Life is an art school." "Just the fact that you´re living, means that you´re learning." "Sleeping or awake, you´re always in school." "You dream when you sleep." "When you wake up, you remember what you dreamt." "You don´t need to go to art school." "Graffiti creates a bulletin board on the bottom strata of the city streets, for the thoughts and feelings of people." "I think having open channels of communication is really important." "If that´s the bottom quarter of the spaces we walk around in, then it´s a good thing." "Doesn´t have to be the bottom quarter, they can fucking hang off the rooftops!" "I write PIGMEUS." "I´m just doing this like an extreme sport." "Like urban mountain-climbing, you know?" "..." "You get the adrenalin kick, climbing to the top, going through hell, but you leave your name, your mark." "Your mark..." " You get satisfaction." "Put more space between the letters!" "More space!" "Pixacao is the poor cousin of graffiti!" "If you want to write in darkness, you´ll have to come with us!" "Our ancestors used to paint the caves." "Now there are no more caves, only the concrete jungle." "I always say, "Protect the natural jungle, destroy the concrete jungle... "" "Pixacao started around ´87, maybe ´86." "The pixadores didn´t know what was going on with graffiti outside of Brazil." "So they created an original style, that you don´t see anywhere else in the world." "The straight style of the letters." "This was born in Sao Paulo." "It´s not what everyone is doing, it´s something different." "In my hood, the thieves are crazy about us, they want to enter the same buildings as us to steal everything there." "If we were thieves, we would be the best in Sao Paulo!" "He was like Spider-Man!" "Something to talk about!" " Spide-Man, yeah..." "You can never tell what will happen to you." "Like us, luckily, nothing happened to us, thanks to God." "But were lucky!" "Excuse me, let me tell you why nothing happened!" "We had positive vibes, really good thoughts..." "We knew exactly what our goal was." "What time is it?" "Four o´clock." " Damn, it´s already morning!" "We built a house, one year before this one." "In Finland." "We tried to catch a freight train, but they were all going to Moscow." "Then the weather was so fucked up, we just needed a roof over our heads." "So we just started building." "The greatest motivation was when we went back." "To see if it was still there." "We got off the ferry early in the morning, we saw smoke coming from the chimney, and footprints in the snow leading up to the house." "It was Esko, who had moved in." "It was minus 10 degrees." " Yeah, it was freezing." "He had insulated the house with Frigolit and matresses." "So insipiring!" "That something you´ve built outdoors has a function." "That it leads a life after you´ve left it." "That it continues to evolve as an object." "It´s a nice habit, building houses..." "Once a year..." "Or as often as we get the chance." "Now I´m going to paint with a laser." " With a laser!" "?" "Is it a new technique?" " Completely." "I invented it." "Someone painted with a lamp before me." "Picasso, he painted with a torch light." "I will do it on that iron gate." " On the iron gate!" "?" "And ehhhh, is it possible to take it off?" "I´ll make this graffiti on your house, but it´ll not be there tomorrow, only on the photo." "Let me make a little test." "This is my brush." " You´re going to make a drawing like that?" "We don´t see anything!" " But you see the little dot." "Yes, the little dot, we see it!" "Try and remember what I´m doing now." "It´s a mountain!" "It´s a letter!" "It´s the letter A!" "Yes." "And now it´s another letter..." "Z!" "Z!" " Yes it´s the Z." "The photo-camera will do the same, except the image will last on the film." "The Z and the A will be on the photo." " That´s bizarre." "It´s Laser Graffiti." "The artists up there on Montmatre, work on canvasses, in a classical manner..." " And more definitive." "And definitive, yes." "My medium is the urban space." "It´s ephemeral!" " Yes." "So we can call it ephemeral painting!" " Yes, exactly!" "..." "Okay, thanks a lot, goodnight." "I´m selling a marker, what you do with it is your choice." "There´s nothing illegal about this." "If someone buys a can of spray paint, they can paint their bike, or they can paint on your door." "It´s up to them..." "This guys a cop!" "Was that shady enough?" "Wait, wait, wait, I can do better..." "I got it!" "I did write my mom an e-mail this morning," ""If I´m not there when you get off the plane," "I´m not dead, I just went out postering." "If I got arrested, don´t worry about me!"" "Hello?" "Yeah!" "Oh, shit!" "I´m about to go do some billboards." "Out in Jersey, but sometimes I get caught and go to jail for a few days." "You can´t do this shit, and not plan on going to jail." "You can´t do this, and have something super-important happening right after, and act like you can still be doing it." "Youll be in jail too, Pedro." "They keep you for 24 hours." "I´m Steve Mona, the commanding officer of the Citywide Vandals Task Force." "Known in the street as the Vandal Squad." "Let me just..." "I´m sorry..." "I´m in the middle of an interview, and you keep calling me!" "They see a black Crown Victoria or Impala, they know it´s a police car." "But there are so many taxis, we just blend in..." "The cops rolled by in a taxi." "Just look for two guys sitting up front." "It always has the light off on top, and they drive really slow." "Dirty smelly cops, itching to take you to jail and ruin your life." "Graffiti is the placing of a mark on a surface, with anything, a rock, spray paint, a marker..." ""You have permission?" "Have a nice day!" "You didn´t?" "Come see me!"" "You have to be on the lookout." "Last time I was arrested?" "I was in jail for fucking five days on 2000 dollar bail shit." "They wouldn´t let me out from the court, they made me go back in jail two times." "Hating so hard!" "He´s been arrested." "But lately, he´s been below the radar." "Hopefully, because he was arrested, he´s not doing it anymore." "I hope not..." "Oh, man!" "Are you getting that?" "He does that for cameras only!" "The Lower East Side is for lovers!" "Ehhh, lovers and derelict graffiti writers!" "It used to be everywhere." "Down here, it was a mess." "They´ve been cracking down on it bigtime." "Is it fair to put people in jail for graffiti?" "Oh yeah!" "You´re destroying somebody else´s property." "If somebody spray-painted on my house, I´d beat the shit out of them!" "They wouldn´t get a chance to go to jail." "But they wouldn´t do it again!" "Now it´s beer time!" "Have a good one, guys..." "We like to paint in the day, so people can see us." "So that everybody can see who´s painting." "The city is there to be painted, we don´t see any risk or fear the law." "Fuck that." "The concrete should be painted." "It´s our way of using the city." "The last thing we think about are the law, the police, restrictions..." "Our craving to paint makes us ignore that." "Those matters don´t even exist for us." "Except when the cops stop us and say, "Are you crazy, what are you doing!" "?"" ""Fuck yeah, I´m crazy... "" "It´s a good side-effect of the street work, being illegal, then it doesn´t have to pass through any bureaucratic qualitative measurements." "It´s free and open, and people can say whatever they want." "I feel really inside now, in a way that scares the shit out of me." "Like, this experience, the last couple of months, has been this weird state of panic." "The MOMA just bought six pieces, and I´m doing this show at Deitch Projects." "It´s like..." "I don´t know..." "Here´s this thing, where you´re needing to be outside of certain structures, and it´s the thing that lands you right back inside of them..." "It´s weird." "I mean it´s good, I´m having a good time, but..." "Go ahead." "Did I scare you?" "No, not at all." " No, right..." "It doesn´t work from this phone..." "We can go fast to a taxi-phone..." "It´s over here." "Hi, is it possible to speak with Denise?" "Hello." "This is ZEVS, the French artist, regarding the invisible spray paint..." "But I´m really only interested in the aerosol, the spray..." "Because it´s a game involving graffiti..." "They will confiscate it." "Like nail clippers, it´s considered something dangerous..." "Thank you." "Bye." "Number 14, please." "Boss, please tell me, are you always like that?" "Oh yes, always like that." " That´s nice." "What look is that?" "It´s the ZEVS-look." "ZEVS?" " Yes." "It´s nice." "It´s like a tiger." "Yes, it´s electrifying." " Oh yeah?" "!" "..." "Here you are, thank you." " Thanks, goodbye." "Goodbye." "Hey, my name is Adrian Nabi, Backjumps, West Berlin." "One-two, one-two." "How are you doing tonight?" "Backjumps Live Issue is a street art exhibition." "Not really, I mean, what is street art?" "The subtitle is Urban Communication and Aesthetics." "We have people from New York, like SWOON... from Sao Paulo, we have OS GEMEOS." "Weve people from all over the world, it´s an international lineup." "I´m happy." "Let´s go inside." "They´re not in there..." "Ah, there!" "We are the world!" "Today, you are inside our head!" "This is head." "Inside head." "It doesn´t exist here..." "This is a small part of what´s happening in our minds, that´s why we have painted this big head and do what we do." "I chose OS GEMEOS, because I really like their work." "When we planned the murals, I imagined what they were going to do." "They did a character." "Which I thought they would." "And it´s working and it´s dope!" "Now I´m working on an Illuminated Graffiti..." "I´m working with neons." "Do you see anything?" "Along the neon I make a lightning, composed by the letter Z." "The light is strong, so I use sunglasses." "It´s a way of protecting the eyes." "And this nail is very efficient in scratching off the paint..." "Voila!" "It´s a lightning." "It´s no longer a neon, it´s a lightning!" "It´s over for this one!" "You had a good time filming ZEVS last night?" "I heard he did something fun." "He´s smart, he does fun stuff always." "It´s like, there is not much air or light in here, and I´m like, "What am I doing?" "Where did this start?"" "Because I don´t have much time, I started without putting anything up in the street yet." "When I go outside it reminds me of what I do, and why I do it." "It grounds me again." "It just has a certain energy." "Sometimes, I want the protection of the confinement, because you can be really careful and make delicate things..." "But anything that gives you security is going to constrict you..." "I had a nightmare the other night, that I had made this thing Jeffrey Deitch was selling." "It was this expensive piece of jewelry and he was selling it for thousands of dollars." "I was like "No, what is this horrible elitist bullshit!"" "I woke up and was like, "Oh my God, is that what I´m doing?" "Making perfect, elitist objects to sell to people for thousands of dollars, so I can buy a house and settle down... " And ehhh..." "It looks good in the camera, when it appears like that." "It´s super!" "Once it´s inside, it´s not street art any more." "But that´s not the point." "Because I use the white cube or the institution, as a communication tool to make a link to the outside - to reality." "Because the reality is outside, not in the room..." "Voila, my lightning!" "It´s kind of discreet, I don´t know if people will see it..." "Yeah, you easily see it." "I´ve put one up at the exhibition, also..." "Well, it´s different, I think I prefer it here, with the graffiti around it and everything..." "It´s very good like this." "I´m very happy." "Hello." " Hi!" "What are you guys doing?" " Yes!" "What are you doing?" " I´m talking about this work..." "It´s a new style of graffiti." " New style of graffiti?" "You also have a name?" " Yes, but I don´t use that." "You do something for the people, the place." " Yes." "I give the light for graffiti." "But now I must go." "Please cover my face." "Oh nice!" "Now you can say, "I was there!"" "I have to satisfy my sponsor." "That´s fucked up..." "You realize that the art world is a crazy world." "A world of pure egoism, money and fame." "Sometimes it´s good to play this game." "To learn how to play this game." "We risk getting fucked..." "To me, the material is there." "It´s the street, it´s life, it´s things happening." "It´s the way..." "It´s what exists in the urban space." "I don´t have a specific agenda." "I just want to see people creating and making, and using this simple channel we have, the walls of the places we live in..." "And the simple media we have, paint and paper..." "I think graffiti isn´t the problem with the graffiti artists." "It´s a problem with society." "They don´t know what to do with artists in this society." "Obviously these aren´t criminals." "Gods giving them this talent, and their idiot society doens´t know what to do with it." ""Oh look, a rose is growing!" "Pave over it!"" "One day, we´ll be artists." "If we want." "Imagine if I painted in daytime, how beautiful Sao Paulo would be!" "They would never let us!" "I put the garbage on the curb, and I´m so happy that a person picks it up." "I sure as fuck couldn´t be that person." "I feel tremendously lucky that I´ve been given a space with this much freedom, and that I´m being supported and affirmed for it." "Sometimes, we ask ourselves if we should show ourselves." "Why should we build this stuff, why?" "Sometimes we ask that." "But it´s inside, and it must come out." "But is it art?" "I don´t know, that´s a matter of opinion." "Does it have to be?" "Does it need to be?" "Voila!" "Invisible Cloud on the Police Precinct." "That´s it!"