Mini interview with Jolek & the girlz

Jolek: Je suis JOLEK peintre sur tous supports , originaire du nord , sur Bordeaux depuis quelques années.
10 ans de graffiti et j ai dépassé le 1/4 de siècle…


eko: Le graffiti c’est comme collectionner des baskets ou mettre des jantes en alu c’est un truc de mecs. Exhiber des filles c’est juste une autre façon de briller vis-à -vis des copains ?

J’aime le graffiti / la peinture / les femmes et la photo , j’ai donc rassemblé ce que j aime , le résultat  me plait et plait a mes modèles  c’est le principal . Si ça plait aux autres c’est cool  sinon j’men bat les c……
après je fais voir et fais tourner quelques photos aux potes qui aiment ce que je fais mais j’en ai qui restent secrètes .

T’as pas l’impression que sur tes photos on ne regarde plus tes pièces ?

Ceux qui aiment mes graffs regarderont les graffs et les  sexygirlz.
Ceux qui ne m’aiment pas moi et mes graffs se contenteront de mater la sexy girl ou regarderont
ailleurs.

Comment a commencé cette série pornograffitique ?

Mon premier body paint c’est une histoire de dingue que personne ne croira… . fait aux feutres de couleurs et  marker noir réalisé sous skunk / photo pourrie mais un pur souvenir

Mon 2eme body paint c’etait pour une femme libertine contactée par le net / pour faire une série de photos insolites pour son site perso X.

Pour la 1ere séance photos pornograffitique. je faisais un graff autorise sur un camion de prostituée a Paludate pour ceux qui connaissent et j’ai convaincu  la dame de poser devant mon graff.

Voila pour les débuts.

Les calendriers de routiers ont-ils bercés ton adolescence ?

J’avoue  j’ai  toujours aimé les magazines et vidéos de femmes dénudées mais je n’imaginais pas un jour avoir le plaisir de faire de telles photos .

Qui sont ces filles  ?

Secret professionnel ,,,,. La plupart sont des modèles photos mais il y a aussi des étudiantes . une star du x. stripteaseuses ,  femmes libertines échangistes et coquines………….  toutes majeures et volontaires.

Comment les rencontres-tu ?
Je les rencontre par internet pour la plupart. Après il y a le bouche a oreille ou des connaissances.

T’es plutôt un gros baratineur ou ton charme est-il si irrésistible qu’elles ne peuvent refuser de poser pour toi ?

Non , je les contacte, fais ma proposition accompagnée de photos de ce que je fais , si interessee on échange quelques mails ou tel pour régler les détails  si ok on se fixe une date sinon on laisse tomber.

Jamais de mauvaises rencontres lors des prises de vues ?

Jusqu’a présent ca c’est bien passé, j’espere que ça continuera comme ça, je vais dans les endroits ou je peins tranquille et où il n y a pas beaucoup de passage. Les modèles viennent souvent accompagnées et je me déplace avec mon pitbull, mon fusil a pompe et mon couteau à huitres.

L’hiver arrive, les rhumes aussi maintenant t’arrêtes tes conneries ok ?

Justement non, je vais en profiter pour faire du body painting au chaud, mais comme je suis du nord je suis habitué au froid et je continuerai  à peindre en extérieur, par contre pour les photos de modèles devant graffs c’est clair que c’est pas terrible, je vais faire mes séances prévues et on verra la suite.

Je peux rajouter quelques dédicaces stp.

Pour mon homeboy, et mes vrais amis / EKO pour les photos publiées et cette interview, a ma copine [pour mes absences avec mes bimbos’. IDEM //        GHETTO mon poto de BORDO //
NEFAZ // NAZ //GREMS………………………………………………………………………………………………………
DECIBELLE // ESTELLE // EVA // MISS AMAL //JADE // NATH // FABIENNE // CAROLE // TYPHAINE // COLINE // JULIETTE // CELINE// ANITA …….pour tous les graffeurs avec qui j’ai peint et partagé de bons moments et FUCK  à toutes les langues de putes.

pour mes futures modèles et futurs supports

Merci à toi Jolek et j’ai envie de citer le pseudo d’un mec sur Flickr pour conclure: Fuck Vulgar shit !

Jolek on ekosystemJolek on myspace

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DC Gecko interview

Interview with DC GECKO

Can you give us a brief rundown of your life up until today? When, where, did you start to work in the streets?
My name is DC Gecko, Docteur Gecko. I was born in “La Réunion”, a french island located in the Indian Ocean. I hijack, hack, remessage advertising that you find in bus shelters. The particularity of my work is that my modifications can only be seen during the night. However, during day time the ad modified seems to be untouched.

Like a lot of us, I started first with graffiti (Toulouse, south of France), nothing really important though. I missed the gold age when it was still “possible” to paint downtown (La trueschool, Miss Van, Weky, Rezo were my favorites). Unfortunately, council from my town adopted a anti-graffiti law. Only a few months were needed to make our graffiti history disappeared. So we got a clean city, and they wanted to let it stays like this, that is: a tag at best stayed 2/3 days. they did a good job (and still does).
Then I tried to figured out something different for interacting with my city. So without really giving up graffiti, I jumped from spray to mold (around 2003). I made sculptures of a gecko (inspired by a kind of lizard from my island) that I stuck in my city. This new medium open up a new area for me. I tried matching the color, design of my gecko to the environment chosen. Well, this project, did not last very long. Even if I put them hight, people started to steal and more often broke them…
At this time, I was doing some long study, so everyday i took the bus from my house to the university and I start noticing the advertising on the bus shelters. To be exact, I was not really interested by advertising, I was more excited to take the place ot this ad. But later, I found that just putting a drawing into the shelter lasted just a day or two. In fact, JC Decaux (the company that owns the shelters) have some workers during the day. After some experiments, I find a way to be visible only during the night. I was pretty proud of tricking the JC Decaux team so my modification could last a week or more depending on the  turnover ads. So in the beginning it was only about putting my logo (a gecko) whatever the ad was (ex: the easyjet ad). And then, the concept has evolved, my ideas and my productions too.

Have you worked for JC Decaux to learn the tricks to open their bus-stop advertising systems ?
:), well no, but that would be amazing, especially that now they have some new shelters, I should give it a try. Actually, Internet was the solution. I found on a ad-busters forum how to open a model called “sucette”. So I did my simple “key”, and still use this one in different cities.

Then later I saw the really cool work from the MC crew in a bus shelter explaining how to open a more complex shelter in a ikea-like manual (http://ouvresa.tk, we all (should) know this one?! ).

Kaws has been known for his work on bus shelter posters. Did he influence you in any way ?
Well it’s not because of his early work that I wanted to work onto advertising, if you want to know. As I said, in the beginning I wanted my stuff to be a bit longer than 3 days in the street. I guess, if my city did not adopt this anti-graffiti law, I would still do graffiti or sculptures on wall, or something else. It was the frustration of not being able to express myself that leaded me to hack advertising, a kind of adaptation to the constrains of my city. However, I knew that working on these ads was not an original idea, but at that time, I was not aware that he was the first and that he did open a new area for others.

You are born in Reunion Island. Jace who live in Reunion also painted a lot on billboards. Same question, did he influence you ?
We cannot not be influenced by Jace, we can only rip him! :)

I’m a huge fan of his work and of the fact that he can bring a humoristic wink on some important society’s problems.  He has a strong sense of humor, something I wish I have :).
More generally, I’m inspired by people who bring in their work a wise critic of our society, the way we live, etc… Ron EnglishAkay & Peter, Darius Jones, JR, Banksy to name a few. I’m also really interested by works with several meanings, different readings, hidden messages like ambigrams, anamorphosis etc…

When you see an ad, do you bring it at home to work on it ?

For the moment, I need some preparations. What I want do do (ideas) and how to achieve the modifications (technics) need times, so usually “yes”. But for some specific future projects, it will not be necessary.

Your work can only be seen at night. That’s the beauty and the strength of you project, but at the same time aren’t you afraid people don’t notice your work ?

As you said, what I do can only be seen during the night but the interesting part of it is that:
* It tricks JC Decaux since they don’t see that their ad are manipulated and then don’t replace it. And it’s always pleasant :)
* It’s like showing the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I like the similarities between this concept and the fact that at night the city changes (it’s “scary”, new people hanging, “unsecured”, there is a new kind of life, a new reality etc…).
* It’s also a wink to the wast of energy. In fact, my modifications can be seen only during night time because the city wastes energy lighting the shelters. No light, no DC Gecko. I’m wondering what is the impact of such lighting in our environment. Don’t you think it is hypocrite to ask us to take care of our energy because we are fucked up and in the meantime to waste so much (oh yeah, cash rules everything, unfortunately).
When I place a hacked ad, I like staying around to see the reaction of people. And even if they are “anesthetized” by the load of stimuli from advertising, they are surprised by what they see. they wonder if it’s a real advertising, how it is done, etc..  It get noticed if the new message, image is incongruent with what people are usually confronted. For example, that was not the case for the Nissan micra’s ad, the tattoo was too much integrated to the ad. But, in most of the case, I’m sure the modified ad are much more noticed than the original.
However, I don’t know if it has an impact. I hope people start noticing what goes around, how outdoor advertising is defacing our city, the lies behind the ad, etc… As I do, now that I’m working on this. But I guess I’m dreaming.

There is now a real little community of French street-artists living in Spain. How did you land in Madrid ?

Well, after my long study, I needed some vacations and doing something different. One day, a friend of mine asked me if I would like to come in Barcelona… what would be your answer ? Then later, another good friend asked me if I would like to come in Madrid… So, i said “yes, let’s do it”.
It’s easy to understand why spain is so attractive: life is a bit less expensive, spanish people are really friendly and spend more time in the street than in their house, artistically speaking there is a lot of stuff going on here (in galleries, in streets, magazin etc..). And I’m not talking about “Fiesta”: Spain is definitely “campeon Olimpico”! Also, being part of another culture is really exciting. Just make a try, and you will understand it.

Do you have connections with other “urban artists” in Madrid ? (somewhere else ?)

Well, hanging with friends like Miss Van and the Limbo family in Barcelona let me met some cool artists like JR (Fr), Jace (Rn), Alexone (fr), Nano 4814 (mad), el Tono (mad), Sixe (Bcn), Raul de Dios (Bcn). During the Intermix 07 in Taiwan, i spend some days with “the crazy duo” Tilt and Mist, “mysterious” Honet, “queen” Klor and artists from Taiwan like Kea, Colasa, Dzus, Bobone, Bounce, Reach and Sense (Japan), we had an amazing time.

Any plans for the future that you can tell us about?

yes sure! I’m planning to work for JC Decaux and make a movie called “Super Advertise Me”. Stay tune ;).

According to you who should i interview next for ekosystem ?

mmm.. there are so much but maybe some who are not well known here: Reach (Taiwan) and Sense (Japan) about the history of graffiti and what’s going on in their country. Other artists from la Réunion would be great!
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Zonenkinder interview


Interview with Zonenkinder collective

– This is a question we usually ask to rock bands, but where does your name (Zonenkinder)
come from ? and why have you made such a choice ?

Zonenkinder” refers to the “twighlight zone” from where we get our inspiration
(or extraterrestrial orders)
…but  our crew-name originally derives from a funny street-project we started in 2001. in this project we used the typical “ZONE”street-signs which indicate pedestrian precincts. We used the pictograms on these signs and gave them – mostly by applying stickers to signs – faces of animals/famous persons like Marilyn Monroe, dalai lama etc./or just imaginative faces, let them wear shoes, let them carry strange mushroom-baskets etc.
The original meaning of the term “zonenkinder” refers to the German history – when Germany was divided. The young guys from the eastern part of germany who were born somewhere around the time when the system-change from communist/socialist to capitalist happened, are sometimes called “zonenkinder”. This expression derives from the word “zone” which was some kind of synonym for the German Democratic Republic and the word “kinder” (children).



– Zonenkinder is a duo; you also are a young married couple. Do you sometimes feel the need
to paint alone ?

Yes, of course! Sometimes it is more a kind of “motivation-thing” and sometimes one of us likes to express/push an individual thing. From time to time we also have specific projects where the clients/collaboration partners are asking for the special style of one of us (e.g. the fashion-project from last year together with the Frankfurt based designer Lin Beeser).
… and we also have projects where one style works out better: the trees for example are more a kind of a solo-project concerning the painting itself – but discover the beautiful spot in the forests is something we do together.

Was there anyone, or any particular moment or event that motivated you to begin painting
together ?

We founded the “Zonenkinder Collective” about 8 years ago as a cooperative project to create our own world of a(r)tmosphere, influenced by mixed memories resulting from our various journeys and from our love for art, for the flavour of graffiti and our positive thinking.
But there was not really a particular moment or event… of course we had some initial experiences concerning art-projects, murals and stuff but our interests in art and the passion for graffiti grew together somehow naturally.  Maybe working together became the logical way of being and living together.
As we both love spending time with each other being creative it proved to be the best to share our passion for art by working on the “zonenkinder”-project as one. a shared alter ego…additionally of course it is very inspiring to create a wall or something together
…together often we discover places which scream for color and revival or we suddenly see diffuse parts, faces, animals in a fresh painted wall and let it flow…we love to jam together by creating a new piece of art, just to pour our soul direct on the wall…

I’m particularly fond of your work with trees. Land art from the sixties has been partially criticized for not really respecting the environment. Is it something you have in mind
when you paint on a tree ?

One main part of our work is definitely to create art in the nature and to work with the environment which surrounds and inspires us. Do we have scruples? Yes and no. About two or three years ago when we started painting on trees we had some scruples doing this. So first we solely painted on dead or dying trees. And even today we mostly paint on that surface. But we are constantly in search of new spots for our art and new ways to be creative, and as we see imaginative faces etc. in the living nature around us as well we decided to integrate also living trees in our project. We are convinced that just applying some paint to a tree will not kill it (instead of acid rain or something). Furthermore we are deliberate to paint only a single or a few trees in a single forest – we do not want to destroy something, in a subjective sense we focus to be an active part of our environment with our works by transforming and re-interpreting what we find and create a new atmosphere.


You visited several cities and countries in Europe last 2 years, what’s your favourite city
to paint ?

We really like Lisbon, Berlin and Sete (france) because of the “unclean” atmosphere in these
cities. But when it comes to painting, the painting-spot itself, the atmosphere and the connection between the artists working together on a wall or a project is the most important thing.
You can sometimes experience the best times in small towns or abandoned sites which do not
even have a name simply because “set and setting” are fantastic. We think no big city or
“must-be-place” is needed to have a great time outside painting.

You painted in an abandoned stadium in Zurich, can you tell us a bit more about this place ?

That was a real strange story and a funny place to paint as well.
We and some other artists from Belgium, Italy and Germany were invited to come to Zurich by a local artist whose name we do not want to tell – you know who you are ;-)
From the beginning on it was some kind of conspiracional event. Neither we knew what kind
of site the festival was going to take place nor where the event was at all or who would be there. So everything was some kind of surprise when we arrived at the meeting point, a
squat in Zurich. The squatting guys were extremely suspicious of us (maybe because our clothing were not all in black and we were not masked.
Not until ten minutes before the guys from the squat left to head for the event the guys at the squat told us where everything would happen: the former grasshopper-stadium.
The opening of the event started with a rude police-action. The police of course wanted to prevent the people from squatting the abandoned stadium and shot with rubber-ammunition from a short distance into the crowd!
But fortunately they were not able to clear the stadium and pulled back. So the stadium got slowly but surely transformed in some kind of a creative festival site. The activists started immediately to go over the advertisements, to build stands, bars, a kitchen and different tents directly on the playing field. Additionally there was a stage in the centre for music and bands. They also organized different happenings like a race with selfmade cars or a kind of cable railway from one roof of the stadium to the other all over the playing field. While there was a lot of action in every corner of the crowded stadium they invited painters and lots of local troublemakers “visually reinterpreted” the stadium.
In the end the whole stadium was painted – inside and outside.

It sounds like a fantastic experience.
What other  artists do you most admire and why?

Kowalski from Berlin, cause his characters are full of so much soul and energy. His style integrates typography, painting and characterdesign and is really worth checking out.
Alex from Wiesbaden, cause his rude graffitistyles are simply burner.
Esmaeil Bahrani, cause he showed in his art that there is so much more to learn about
expressionism and action-painting – spheres of art which are underestimated and
underrepresented in the “urban art scene”. Beside of that he is a great impressive guy.
Herve Di Rosa who is a great painter of figuration nouveau.
Os Gemeos, JR, Latlas, Blu with their inspiring works.  In this all day moving picture-carousel they are still able to make us being amazed and surprised!


If you could do artwork for the CD  of a musical artist, who would you like to work with
if you could choose anyone?

– We think our artworx would  go with many different kinds of music, ranging from psychedelic rock to rap. Let us see what future brings ;-)
But if we could choose right now: lee “scratch” perry. He is a weird and strange genius.



Any future plans?

– Yeah, there is more to come in the future and we got several upcoming projects. Here
are some parts we would like to emphasize:
We are looking forward to our show at the Basementizid-gallery in Heilbronn, Germany
together with mr. Kowalski.
Furthermore we plan to travel next spring to Iran to meet friends and artists there –
and paint for sure.
in summer 09 there will also doing a show at a festival in Sete and we will be in London,
ah, and check also: the upcoming issue of ROJO-magazine (out september 08) with some Zonenkinder artworx – and also great other contemporary artists of course!

Peace.

Curious to see what we are talking about? Visit our website:
www.zonenkindercollective.de.vu

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