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pomocowboy-blog · 12 years ago

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SIXEART INTERVIEW

S: my artistic name is Sixe. I was born here, in Barcelona, in the city, in Barcelona but in the area of Badalona.

D: And were you a graffiti writer?

S: I’m a graffiti writer but a fine arts artist too. First I was a graffiti artist, and now I’m a graffiti artist and a fine arts artist.

D: when did you change to be a finer arts artist?

S: I didn’t change from one day to another, I began slowly. It wasn’t from one day to another that I said, “I’m going to be a fine arts artist”. Graffiti brought me to be a fine arts artist.

D: when do you start practicing graffiti?

S: in the late 80’s I started to paint graffiti in the street.

D: late 80’s?

S: early 90’s, late 80’s.

D: how has your graffiti style changed through time?

S: Well, I began doing letters as all graffiti artists, we start doing letters. But it evolved to the “puppet”, to make personages and characters. And…later on it transformed into both things, I combined letters with “puppets” and I don’t know. It all was as a small evolution, but without any intention. One thing brought me to the other.

D: were you always Sixe or?

S: at the beginning I was painting with the name of Sergi, which is Sergio in Catalán.

Next Six and then Sixe. But it took me little time to end up with the Sixe name. It’s a war name. I really like the four letters that compose the name.

D: what differences can you see between your work in public space and private space?

S: well…the street…no, I don’t know if there is a big different. In the street, somehow, it’s…the space changes, or the working base. Painting in the street, you paint on a wall, and when you paint inside of a studio you paint on a canvas, the only thing that changes is the base. And that later on, you bring the painting to an expositive lieu. Both of them are good. I really like painting in the street. The street gives you the energy to later on be able to do the works in a studio. It’s a thread and…it kind of gives you energy and ideas to be able to work inside of a studio.

D: what differences can you see between your work in the street and in the private space?

S: in the street, maybe it’s freer; I don’t think so much about things. It’s more impulsive; I adjust to the place where I’m going to paint, to the weather, to the site a bit. In the studio I become more methodic with my work. I think more about it. 80% of the works I do in a studio are more methodic. In the street…I don’t bring any sketch or any kind of drawing, or anything. I paint what I feel at that right moment or what I see I can do in that determined space.

D: have you seen any evolution from graffiti to urban art in Barcelona? Like you and artists that began with letters and then with “puppets” and characters?

S: well there are many people that, as I did, began doing letters, then “characters”, then paintings, or “characters” or some other thing and that ended up in a studio. But, nowadays I think there are many people who start doing graffiti and who do not make letters, they do other kind of graffiti. But I think there are many people who evolved like me here in Barcelona, and there has been an evolution of people who painted in the street and who paint inside of a studio but who keep painting in the street. I think that graffiti is like a tree with a many branches and many roots, right? It all belongs to the same trunk, but it has many derivations.

D: what’s for you the difference between graffiti and art in the street?

S: for me... in old school graffiti there were also characters, for me it’s still the same. It has evolved, but it’s the same. It isn’t the same than before because it has evolved, but it’s still graffiti, at least from my point of view.

D: Do you think that Barcelona has an environment that benefits graffiti artists?

S: well…no…it could benefit the same than other cities. There is sun and there are streets, so I don’t know. Maybe the style changes, because of the climate, or because we are near the sea. But I think it’s the same than in other places.

D: for how many years did you have this place?

S: I had it for some time. I live upstairs, in an apartment. And some years ago this place was empty so I rented it. But there has been 8 years since I’m in here. It’s very good. I don’t pay too much for the rent. Because it’s an old building so I pay very little, but it’s fucking awesome, it’s very big.

D: so… your identity as an artist does it change?

S: no. It’s the same. For me, it’s the same. It doesn’t change. The working base changes from painting in the street and working in the studio. But the technique is the same, and the style is the same. A small amount of things change. As I told you before, for me it changes in terms of, the painting I do in a studio is more methodic and the one in the street, in my opinion, is freer, but it has the same thread, from my point of view.

D: and do you have different rules and parameters between your art in the street and in the gallery? Or are there aesthetics differences?

S: for me there aren’t. Maybe for a person who sees my graffiti in the street and sees the works I do on a canvas, in an exhibition, they might look at it differently but for me it’s the same. I repeat, it’s a tree; graffiti is a tree that has branches and roots. Painting in a gallery and doing exhibitions is a branch, but it comes from the graffiti’s trunk. So for me there isn’t a change. It changes a bit because there is more technique or more detail for me, because the graffiti I do in the street is freer, in the sense of I don’t care if it drops or I don’t care how it looks like. And in the studio I’m more perfectionist and methodic.

D: and, for you, what’s the effect that globalization has in graffiti?

S: well, somehow, globalization has benefited it because there is more information when you want to see graffiti, from any kind of person from the whole world. And at the same time, when it comes to show your work to thousands of people. There is more information and somehow it is also easier to see things, and because of so much information styles might get mixed up and you can do similar things to those ones in other countries. Before, because of the lack of information or the lack of internet, styles were more differentiated than now, right?

D: what styles have you seen emerging from Barcelona?

S: Barcelona, in my opinion, has a very peculiar and personal style. Many of the artists who paint here have a very personal style, they don’t mix too much with each other. In other parts of the worlds I’ve seen that there is kind of a line with a predominant style in each place, right? For me Barcelona, is a city full of style, all of them different from each other. People want to differentiate so they don’t mix much, or they don’t get too close.

D: how do you then protect the style of Barcelona in the wake of so much artistic globalization?

S: how do I protect it? That’s impossible right? You do it and if there is someone somewhere else who sees it and copies it you got nothing to do. Just be original and honest with yourself and doing just what you feel is yours. Not doing something you don’t feel is yours or that might have influenced you. And if you see that something has influenced you then, put it aside because it’s super important to be original in your painting, that your works becomes your work. That’s important for me, even if you paint good or bad, it’s the originality of the style what’s important for me.

D: Have you painted in other places than Europe?

S: I’ve painted in many places. I’ve painted in Los Angeles, in San Francisco, in South America, in many places…in the South of France, in Milan. I’ve painted in many parts of the world. There’s still Asia, Russia…

D: Russia?

S: I didn’t go to Russia; I’d like to go. I’ve still some cities to visit and to paint. And in some others I’ve not painted but I’ve exhibited. But my favorite country right now is in South America: Peru, Bolivia…for me it’s the place that motivates me the most right now, that inspires the most to work. My last series of paintings are based in the pre-Hispanic cultures and in like the world…the Andes, “Andes psycodelia”. In this last year I’ve visited Bolivia and some parts of Peru that I didn’t know and it impressed me quite a lot.

D: what place did you paint in San Francisco?

S: in San Francisco I did an exhibition, it was a gallery promoted by a car’s enterprise. They used to do collective exhibitions from different countries. I have it somewhere around, the name of the gallery.

D: did you like San Francisco?

S: yes I did. I went with a friend. We did an exhibition in L.A and we went from L.A to S.F by car, on the route number 1. It was amazing. Two trips by car, watching the coast that is super wild. Very wild. It was a good trip.

Route number 1? Awesome right? Calmly, the roads never end and the landscape is beautiful, very natural…very aggressive.

D: What gallery work are you exhibiting now?

S: Here in Barcelona I work in three galleries. In the United States, in Los Angeles, the Carmichel Gallery, here in Barcelona with N2 Gallery and in Brussels with Alice Gallery. And I keep working with different galleries and I’ve done individual exhibitions. I’ve been exhibiting since 2002, 2001 I’ve been doing exhibitions, from that year on. But this one is just a big one. Last year I did one on my own also in Brussels.

D: what’s the symbolism of a pigeon for you?

S: oh well, I like them a lot. When I was little, very young, here there is culture of…like the pigeons you know? There are two kind of sportive pigeons you know? Some are messengers and fly around if you teach them. Maybe they take them, they taught them to fly in Barcelona, they have taught them here. You bring them to Madrid, you set them free and the pigeon comes here (Barcelona). Ok? But there is other kind of pigeons. In this case they free a female pigeon that needs to have a color, which is called blue or “toscado” (rough). They can’t be white, they can’t have white feathers. So they cut off the “tail’s” feathers and they add a white feather to the female. So the males follow that pigeon, the female. So they free 20 males and 1 female. And the pigeons are colored, there under feathers are painted so when they fly they can differenciate it. This was like a sport, they played, there were contests, there was a federation, you could joing it, look for the color to paint your pigeaons in order to be recognized…So during 2 years I had pigeons and this thing about pigeons still remains. That’s why I like them. And many of my works have a peak or are in relation with pigeons and the painting. Because the pigeons used to be painted. There was a kind of painting that you would paint the pigeon with. You open the wing and you paint the under wing in both wings. So when it flied, if there were 20 pigeons and each of them was painted in a certain way, they would give you a score because they knew how to differenciate it. I’ll send you information about it so you freak. Because there is a whole culture around this. There is a license; you need a license to free the pigeons.

D: How did Barcelona become such a haven for graffiti?

S: Before there were “death areas” where you could go painting, there wasn’t so much modernity. Now it’s way too much with the concrete. They took away the popular essence, by which people used to come. Now all tourists that come, in the Barcelona city center, there is nobody from here. You go there and it’s just foreigners. The popular essence has been lost. And as you go away from the center, it changes. For example, the area where Zosen and Kenor are, that area is really good. You don’t feel like…all full of foreigners or tourists, people in the street. I don’t want to live in the center. It’s the worst, it’s like…you go in the street and people. Here you are calm and you pay less of a rent.

D: What are the number murals you do?

S: these are ephemeral typographies. Proto-writing. Like a kind of writing previous to normal writing. Like…You know that the first writing was the cuneiform writing? So, like if it were writing anterior to that, proto-writing. And also like returning to…I always try to recall the starting of my work; the fact that what I first did was a signature, in the street, from graffiti. So, sometimes, because it evolved a lot, I try to go back to the origin, which is writing. Like going back to the origins, doing a “remember”, returning to the start, but not in the same way because I have much more information now. Like a signature from… it’s full of messages and numerical symbolism. Dates where things happened to me, or magical numbers, which I think are magical, the life’s story. I’ve created a whole vocabulary of symbols and numbers and shapes, and as time passes I get more information about it. And these are very fast works.

D: it’s like a diary for you ?

S: yes. A diary of symbols. So that it doesn’t become as obvious as just writing a diary that anybody can read and understand. And also these are works that I make very quickly. Maybe in 20 minutes or in an hour I can make them. And those others are more methodic. They are like a relief, a therapy. “I’m going to make a fast one”, “it’s already done”. I take longer to make the other ones.

D: When did your collective "Epuipo Plastico" form?

S: I met them in Madrid, Nuria Mora, Nano, and El Tono. I used to go to Madrid a lot, to paint, and I had girls there, my girlfriends, some of them were in Madrid so I used to go to Madrid and I used to meet him. So we became very good friends and came up with the collective, “Equipo Plástico”.

D: how have laws changed in Barcelona to set the Barcelona label for tourists and tourism?

S: they have totally eliminated graffiti. They didn’t like it as decoy for tourism, they saw it as something negative. Because in here, there was a moment when you could paint in the city center and many other places. But when everyone knew that in Barcelona you could paint everywhere, what happened? People from the whole world came to paint here. So the police said, “stop” and stop in the sense of, you might go the suburbs of Barcelona and being inside of a closed space, near the railroads tracks, and they still give you a fine. Before it wasn’t like this. There were areas were you could kind of paint. But not anymore. You go now and next day they cover it. And there is a following process and you have to be careful because if they catch you, they penalize you. And they got me some times; if they catch me again I could have a problem. Because I’ve been arrested two times and I’m in the files because of painting.

D: so the police know you?

S: well…if I give my name and they call the police station and they look at the archives, they probably would know who I am. And now because I’m a little known, then even more. Probably they would use me as an artist that everyone knows, to penalize me or punish me in a way so that the rest takes it as an example. Do you understand what I want to say?

Because publically, the people, everyone knows me. If the police caught me they would used me as an example of “we got the most known one and we gave him a very high fine” , like to scare other artists, I think. Can you imagine? So you realize how much the police investigate. Here in Barcelona, when you do a signature, they take a picture and send it to a database and there is a guy that classifies it. So when they catch you painting, if they relate you signature with the data they have, with the signatures you have done in other places, they get all together and give you the fine.

D: is there a city hall department only for graffiti?

S: and on the other hand, the city hall calls you to go paint somewhere, or they want to use your image to “wow, the artist of whatever”. Or maybe people from the city hall buy a painting from you. Or the city hall organizes a graffiti course for kids…so like…there are courses subsidized by the city hall; maybe there are neighbors associations or institutions that organize like graffiti courses. Zosen? Has done graffiti courses. There is a part that is subsidized by the city hall or that has the city hall’s stamp, because they do it in a place that belongs to the city hall. And later on, when they grow up and if they catch them painting, they penalize them. It’s like…they are creating a person that can later on, break the law and so they can sanction them.

S: they could recognize the movement, which is an artistic movement. And they can’t forbid and artistic movement because they would be forbidding freedom of expression. So, on one side, if they don’t allow painting everywhere…ok I might understand that. But there should be a place enabled, at least one or two places, where people could go painting.

D: they are near the Ramblas. There is a wall that is part of a school…or?

S: yes, but if they catch you painting there, they sanction you. You know what happens? That’s a place where the tourists’ buses stop when they are leaving somewhere. Then what happens? Because there are so many buses, the police pass by and can’t see them. They paint very quickly and then leave. But if they catch you there painting, they fine you…even if it is painted. You might say, “here I can paint” but no…they sanction you.

D: what are your artistic influences from when you were a kid?

S: there was a tv show…I really like animals dude. I think that my greatest artistic influence was the nature world and the architecture of the city where I used to live. I think there’s a bit of that in my works. Very basic and simple things influenced me and not very conceptual.

S: I got to know the painting as I was painting, you know? The art world. When I was doing graffiti I wasn’t interested, I was interested on graffiti, the wild style and who did graffiti, but I wasn’t interested in Picasso.

D: and do you include that in your art right now?

S: well, now, somehow, getting into that side, I’ve learned a lot from many painters, painters that influence me but you can’t really see it. I like them but…you need to be original, it’s very important. Everything is already invented; nobody is going to created anything new. But I don’t want it to be similar to anything else; I want it to be original. Even if it’s bad, even if the technique that you use to paint sucks. But when you see it once, and the second time you see it you already recognize whose is it, that’s very important.

S: let’s drink something.

D: of course.

#sixeart #barcelona #graffiti #n2 gallery #street art #contemporary #arte urbano #catalunya #tate #suso33 #equipo plastico

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