“This reiteration comes from tagging”. Basik talks about carachters, graffiti and working with art

Basik is painting in Italy since the early Nineties, somebody may recall him with the name of Lego. When I saw its artwork in the recent “Street art, sweet art” show in Milano I was sincerely surprised, as it’s style changed massively. Anyway, its stuff is interesting and fresh, so I tried to contact him and the result is the interview you can read here. (thank you basik!)

Since I’m sure he will raise your interest, you can read more about this artist with a street attitude and see more of his works on his website, flickr, fotolog or even myspace.

After a serious writer career in a time, the early Nineties, when everything was different, you switched to the canvas. You told me that “the environments cast a different light on the things one does”. How is it?

The studio ambience makes you feel in a different way the things you already had in your mind, or at least for me it’s like that. Everything comes from having a more intimate ambience, a surface that’s not concrete or metal, mostly the possibility to use the most disparate matters and objects for my ideas. I think that the most interesting part of painting artworks that will end in the inside, for one that’s coming from the street, is the possibility to widen one’s vision and better, if you look at the good side, gives you a way to read what you did in the past in a way that you didn’t imagine.

I love painting on a wall, as I love painting canvases, woods and the rest, I don’t avoid a priori the new stuff as I think that somehow I can get something interesting from it, that will mutually enrich what is produced outside in the same way it betters what is done in the studio. In my opinion,none of the aspects is more important of the other.

Moreover I think that bringing in the gallery or on canvas what you did on the streets would be too easy and would make the final result unfit.
The PAC show, for instance, gave me the possibility to try on canvas the fusion between cement and oil colors. Maybe this hybrid is a choice I won’t repeat, what matters is that the places and the events give you a chance to try, experiment and evolve in force of your acquired experience.

1. dopo una seria carriera da writer, in anni (i primi Novanta) in cui era tutto diverso, sei passato a dipingere su tela. tu dici che “gli ambienti danno risalto in modo differente alle cose che uno fa”. in che modo?

Penso che la dimensione da studio ti porti a percepire le cose che hai avuto finora nella testa in maniera differente, o almeno cosÃ¬ lo Ã¨ per me. Il tutto nasce dall’avere ora a disposizione un ambiente per certi versi piÃ¹ intimo, un supporto che non sia cemento o metallo, soprattutto il poter utilizzare per le proprie idee i piÃ¹ disparati materiali ed oggetti. Credo che la cosa interessante del dipingere opere che finiranno in ambienti interni per uno che viene dalla strada sia la possibilitÃ di ampliare la propria visione delle cose; soprattutto, se uno ne coglie il lato positivo, dÃ modo di concepire ciÃ² che uno ha fatto fino ad ora in variabili che magari prima non aveva valutato.

Io amo dipingere su parete, cosÃ¬ come amo dipingere tele, legno o quant’altro, non mi precludo a priori le novitÃ perchÃ© penso che in qualche modo ne possa trarre spunti interessanti che arricchiscono a vicenda ciÃ² che Ã¨ prodotto all’esterno cosÃ¬ come ciÃ² che Ã¨ fatto in studio. Per quello che mi riguarda nessuno dei due aspetti si sovrasta poi in importanza.

Penso anche che il portare semplicemente quello che fino ad ora si Ã¨ fatto in strada dentro una galleria o semplicemente su tela Ã¨ assai facile che faccia stridere il risultato finale. La mostra al PAC ad esempio mi ha dato la possibilitÃ di sperimentare su tela l’unione tra il cemento ed i colori ad olio. PuÃ² darsi che questo ibrido sia una scelta che non ripeterÃ² piÃ¹, quello che importa Ã¨ che i luoghi o gli eventi diano modo di provare, sperimentare ed evolversi grazie all’esperienza acquisita.

Your style had a radical change. What inspirates you now?

Let’s say I tried to evolve in a pictorial way some parts of the figurative work that who knew me as a writer probably saw. I tried to leave what could be a comic\illustrative attitude and from there I started a personal research, a journey that brought me where I am now… that it’s a simple stage of everything that will pass thorough my head in my whole life. Regarding the latter inspirations, I’ll say the Phil Frost works, Egon Schiele and all the religious art of the Middle Age.

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Talking with El Gato Chimney

Here we are finally with this long interview to El Gato Chimney. Look at his stuff without prejudice and let us know what you think about it!

[we already talked about him here](http://www.fatbombers.com/?p=101) – [check his flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/elgatochimney/) – [and his website](http://www.steambiz.com/) – [and his fotolog](http://www.fotolog.com/elgatochimney) …

Street or sweet?
Ahhahahah! You knowâ€¦ I canâ€™t decide if I should get the subtle provocation in your question or read it literally and tell you â€œthis question makes no sense!!â€ hehe.
Iâ€™ll take my responsibilities and Iâ€™ll tell you that this question brings to my mind the name of the exhibition that is now open at the PAC museum, and I havenâ€™t been invited to join it, like many others. I donâ€™t want to criticize this, the only thing that lefts me distraught is that the people who has the power to organize an event like that giving the artists the right acknowledgement, positioning them in a precise context, getting streetart out from the vandalism or amateur art stereotype, doesnâ€™t do any of the above. Everyone can see that street art is powerful, interesting and rich of talents but when an exhibition is set up, it seems to me that itâ€™s done only to exploit the trend in its utmost moment, or maybe itâ€™s done so they will be able to say, in the future, â€œI believe in them since years! I had them do an exhibition!â€ (If an acknowledgement will ever come). But, if you look at how the artists are treated in this kind of events, thatâ€™s enough to see the lack of esteem and respect. These people never take the responsibilities to promote the culture from which we came, they always try to find similarities and references with more classical and mainstream art forms. Like if, without these so-called credits, our work would be worth nothing! Someone is ok with this situation, because he feels more â€œnobleâ€, being positioned into a â€œstandardâ€ or simply because he knows how things work and adapts to the requests, trying to find and have a correct position in a precise art movement in order to gain credibility in the art market. Theyâ€™re more than free to do it and I respect them for the goals that many of them achieved, but thereâ€™s people, like me, bearing the utopic, crazy hope of being part of a totally new and independent art scene.
Eventually, one of the artistâ€™ licenses is to dream, isnâ€™t it? Hahahahâ€¦ luckily, the hunger keeps my feet on the ground!
Therefore, I wonâ€™t stop going along my road hoping that we will recognize something to these shitty-organized exhibitions organized just to do it, to which, once in a while, we should say NO, even if theyâ€™re held in important placesâ€¦ itâ€™s the how what accounts, not the whereâ€¦

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talking with…2501

2501 is a real artist. give him a spraycan, a a paint roller, a marker, some fabric or everything else and he’ll create something stunning. Judge yourself from the photos hereunder (some of the photos come from the [2501 website](http://2501.org.uk) and some others from cpsh flickr).

You paint a lot, but itâ€™s hard to see your pieces on the internet or in the magazines. When did you start? Why are you painting in the street (and not in the art galleries following this daysâ€™ trend)?

In 95 I started to handle the first spray cans, Iâ€™m talking about Nivoli color, drip effect guaranteed. My first true kru was back in 97 98. Myself (my first tag that you could call a tag was â€œneverâ€) moz biglia19 e xsone. Moz has been my partner in crime till 2000. At that time I painted letters. Three years in which we did only trains on fs (ferrovie dello stato, tha national railway company, ndt). It was the paradise. Even if painting in italy is usually easier than painting in other countries, that moment was really great. I still paint in the street and I do some fs trains because I enjoy it, I have fun with my friends that are still doing it Iâ€™m happy to see winking faces on the city walls I enjoy. I took part in some street art exhibitions like Arte impropria, Now underground, Urban Edge; inside art galleries in recent times and even more often now I realize different things, more and more as, since 2003, I share a lab with unz ggt Tatiana catufus riccardo arena e ciste. Iâ€™t hard to see my stuff on the magazines because I never been into hip hop world, even if I think of myself as a wrighter. Too much jerking off is related to internet posting. Although now I opened a space at miresidenza, just to post old trains and to play the occasional wrighter with all the people that was seventeen when I was it too.

Italian Versione and go on reading in (poor) english

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Talking with Peeta

peeta

We finally come up with a new interview, this time Peeta (EAD – FX – robots will kill), an Italian writer and artist. We go against the trend and against the title of this website (fatBombers) interviewing a three-dee styler. We do this for a reason. We appreciate Peeta’s style since a long time, and we think that photorealistic pieces are an hard terrain, on which it is really difficult to innovate. Peeta does it: he rocks. So, he deserved some attention.
Never heard of him?
check peeta’s fotolog, peeta’s website, an interview in italian (with flicks), his page on Artcrimes.

Te la vuoi leggere in itagliano? vai in fondo a questa paggina.

peeta

You are in the FX crew since 5 years. How do you live the contact with the NY experience, what influences did you receive and what are the differences between the US and the Italian scene?

From the day I’m part of that crew very few things changed in my vision of things, but nonetheless I can say that it is a big stimulus to me. I’ve been a few times in New York, even recently, and I painted mainly with Per, Yes 2, Eaz, Pose2 and Cope 2.
Since the last time I’m part of another crew, born in New York, the RWK (Robots Will Kill). To keep a relationship with a so disseminated and far crew is not easy, and often the friendships become weak.
The reality of that city – from the writer’s point of view – is strictly linked to traditions, the style of the pieces and of the hall of fame is alwayss a little bit static. And things are changing, now In Ney York there’s this new “quality of life” law that makes things harder: now, to paint an hall of fame, you need a permission from the owner of the wall and from the city of NY. You have to bring a sketch and then they give you permission for a well-defined day. That means that if after a week you want to paint over your piece you have to ask permission again, or you risk being arrested. Many historical hall of fames became illegal, and now every writer has to uncover his full name in order to paint with ease. But than bombing is still bombing, even if it get buffed in a flash really often.
Other places like Chicago, San Francisco or LA have other issues, problems and different ghettos from New York. Writing has another history and writers are often gangsters, mainly in California.
In Europe and in Italy things work in a different way, I think that people is more open-minded, often some cities give big spaces to paint, some writers and crews push everything to another level, over the _classicity_ of the new york style, even if I must say that in our country there are some contradictions in this field.

peeta
Read more >>

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Aaron Rose and Beautiful Losers

Thanks to [Gelati Motel](http://www.gelatimotel.com) we are happy to present you one of the independent art curators we like most, Aaron Rose.
The fourth edition of his exhibition Bautiful Losers will open in Milano in a few days, for more infos check the [Triennale](http://www.triennale.it) website, the Italian [Beautiful Losers](http://www.beautifullosers.it), [Iconoclast USA](http://www.iconoclastusa.com) for the catalogue (photos of the catalogue [here](http://youworkforthem.com/product.php?sku=P0359)).

For ten years (1992-2002) Aaron Rose worked as director of the highly influential Alleged Gallery in New York. The gallery was responsible for breaking the careers of many visual artists who are now considered the leading edge of contemporary art, including Mark Gonzales, Ed Templeton, Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Thomas Campbell and Phil Frost. Rose worked as a producer for MTV on-air promotions for two years and produced short films for artists and filmmakers such as Mark Gonzales, Rita Ackermann, Harmony Korine and Mike Mills. In the past year has been working as a freelance curator, organizing gallery shows in America and Europe. His first large-scale museum exhibition Beautiful Losers will travel till 2007.

**Could you try to draw the urban environment where the beautiful losers are from? Which is the role of this global urban periphery where they work? **

It is important to understand that while many of the influences of the artists included in Beautiful Losers are urban, many of the artists actually were raised in suburban environments. This is a common misconception. People misconstrue the word “influence”. The late-1980′s and early 1990′s were a time of great cross pollenization between the East (Hip Hop/Graffiti) and West (Punk/Skateboarding) coasts of the US and the urban/suburban environments. This was the beginning of the cultural movement from which this art spawned. So to ask me to describe a landscape is difficult. As far as its role in society I believe it that particular moment in time has been perhaps the most important cultural moment of the last 30 years. Everything from music, fashion, film, marketing, as well as art have been influenced.

*Shepard Fairey, Andre The Giant Sticker, 1992 ad oggi, Courtesy of the
artist*

**So, which are the three most interesting cultural episodes of this year? **

Difficult to say. I would say perhaps that the psychedelicization of the young art world for sure. Of course this has been brewing for a few years now, but it seems like 2005 was the year of the giant geometric swirl from the cool kids. Blame it on artists like Jim Drain, Dear Raindrop and musicians like Animal Collective I suppose. I saw it from coast to coast. Can’t really figure it out yet. Seems like all of the aesthetics of the 1960s with none of the philosophy. Whatever, at least it beat out photorealism. I thought that was next. Thank god for that! Bearded men also made a huge resurgence this year. I’m not talking about stubble. I’m talking about big beards…like on a wizard. Seems I couldn’t go any opening, concert or party this year without seeing a bunch of “Beard Guys.” All the Mexican kids in LA have discovered death rock and have dropped their gangster dickies in favour of tight black jeans and studded belts. Their two favourite bands are Morrissey and The Misfits. I call them “Smithsfits.”

*Thomas Campbell, Adrian Lopez outside Hong Kong Airport, 1998, silver gelatin print, Courtesy of the artist*

**You are a strong supporter of youth! In a recent article you have criticized the role of academies. How do you think is possible to create a bridge between young talented artists and the art system? **

It is important for artists to remember that the art world is a forever morphing entity. It relies on new blood to feed itself. Artists have much more power in the situation than I think many realize. Art is perhaps the only creative field where there exists no independent system run by artists. I wish artists would look at their career possibilities more like the music industry. There are thousands of independent record labels that release millions of albums a year completely independent from the industry establishment. There is absolutely no reason why the art world should not be operating in the much same way. I know from experience that collectors and fans will come to wherever the good art is, regardless if that is a 5,000 square foot pristine white cube or someone’s dirty garage. If there is ever to be a healthy bridge between artists and the art system I believe an independent network is essential. – Even if they have worked for years under the skin of cities and suburbs, now they are shaping the imaginary of the global market, branding cities and products. Which is their role in this waive of brand urbanism? I donâ€™t believe artists have any role in this besides making art that is true to themselves! Let the branding people brand. It will always fall just shy of the truth anyway, or arrive too late to really make much difference if it does. I believe the artists role in all societies is to create with total abandon and express whatever is in their hearts to express. If that has influence beyond that it is not the artists role to define it. In fact, I am quite weary of artists who try to place themselves in terms of global markets or brand influence. It always seems like a cover-up for a lack of talent.

twister barry mc gee beautiful losers milano

**Which is the cultural space where we should enjoy art? **

We should enjoy art everywhere! Art is everywhere. Of course it is in the galleries and museums, but it is also in the riverbeds and back alleys, on billboards and the sides of trucks. It can be a construction site or pile of garbage on the street. It all just depends on a person’s ability to open their eyes. The best art I’ve seen this year has happened by accident, by some oblivious soul who happened to randomly place a few discarded objects in a particular pattern on the sidewalk and inadvertently illuminate the entire neighbourhood. Do you think this movement, after the work of historisation you have done with Beautiful Losers, is over? Some artists will grow and some will not. This is life. In terms of a movement the jury is still out as to whether it is in fact a movement. That is for history to decide. Not me. The idea behind Beautiful Losers isnâ€™t really about one set of artists anyway. Itâ€™s about an idea, an approach to life. It is the same approach that the Beats had, The Abstract Expressionists, Minimalism, etc. It is basically the will and desire to be unpopular in order to create from the heart and if that is how you define Beautiful Losers it will go on forever, generation after generation.

**How far is the European imaginary from the American one? Where the beautiful losers are looking to? Asia, Latin world, Europe? **

Cultural references are cultural references. At the core, I don’t think that what Dumbo or Space Invader are doing in Europe is much different from what American artists are doing. We live in a global culture, this is nothing new, everybody sees everything.

beautiful losers catalogue

**What kind of imaginary world do you wanna live in? **

The same one that I am living in today. I love it.

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FontFace interview

*He’s young, Italian and does something that is, plainly, different. We decided to ask FontFace a few questions. Let’s go.*

**1\. How and when did you start? Your work is about lettering, are you coming from the writing world or are you part of the new generation?**

I’ve always been involved in flat graphics, in black and white, in simple concepts directed to everyone, and that’s what I hoped to express with my work. I started using stickers to make my creations, or my ethical/politcal Ideas, “public”; then, much later fontface was born, and I started producing and pasting stickers on the streets and without even knowing it I found myself in the middle of the movement that everybody calls street artâ€¦ so I don’t come from writingâ€¦ if you want to frame me the right place is the new schoolâ€¦ (but I don’t like to be framed hehehe) *[yes, yes, that's what most pop bands say in their interviews - fat&proud]*

**2\. Why did you choose using letters for your characters? and what’s the role of the external environment?**

Letters and numbers are under our eyes and in our hands almost all day long, it’s beautiful to see how seemingly uninteresting things can have different interpretations.
The outer environment is essential, because it lets me change the role of things often unnoticed (like trash bins) and perhaps I dare to gift some distraction to the observers’ daylife.

Read the full interview –>

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Milano Urbano vs. Lucifero Culo

Written with a small marker, usually black, little and ephemeral, these “graffitis” are different from “traditional” tagging, street art or simple soccer-sex-politics sentences. the signatures come in many different patterns, but always with a precise refence to the Devil (Lucifero, Baal, Belzebu, etc.), in different languages and they are everywhere: uptown – downtown – all over Milan.

1. everybody asks you if you know that ad-buster. it is really important to know who the writer is? (or the mistery adds up to the beauty of this unknown artist?).

“Lucifero infame” is one of the mysteries of Milan, it is a sort of a metropolitan legend. Almost everyone has seen these “tags” in the subway, but no one knows who the author is. People then visit our website, asking wheter we have ever met him.
We do not think it is important to know who the author is, and the mistery does greatly contribute.

Read on…

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