a brief glance issue_28 by a brief glance skateboardmag

issue _28

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WES KREMER \ INITIALS COLLECTION

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LIMITED EDITION VANS X INDEPENDENT FOOTWEAR AND APPAREL COLLECTION AVAILABLE NOW AT FINER SKATE SHOPS. VANS.COM

VANS X INDEPENDENT TEAM RIDER ANTHONY VAN ENGELEN

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From your friends at a brief glance_

Stefano Amadio_Bluntslide.

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EDITORIAL_28

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T O R E Y P U D W I L L / / @ D V S S K AT E B O A R D I N G

P H OTO : K Y L E C A M A R I L LO

ISSUE _28

CONTENTS

FRAGMENTS_

White Marble_

Shredding with the boys_ Emerica Europe i Exercises In Revolution_Carhartt at Museo PLACES_New England_ A Matter of Smiles_Gummyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interview_ Dusted Off_Sean Malto & Ryan Smith_

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in northern Italy MAXXI_

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PHOTO: BROOK

EDITOR and CONCEPT_ Davide Biondani.

(davide@abriefglance.com) ASSOCIATE EDITOR_ Guido Bendotti.

ASSISTANT EDITOR_ Andrew Zolin. TRANSLATIONS_ Jonathan Levin. PHOTOGRAPHERS_

Leo Sharp, Kévin Mètallier, DVL,

Friedjof Fèye, Fred Mortagne, Fabio Montagner,

Brian Gaberman, Michela Corsi, Davide Biondani, Bertrand Trichet, Erik Groß, Craig Dodds. CONTRIBUTORS_

Mario Torre, Francesco Paolo Chielli,

Jerome Campbell, Samu Karvonen, Mark Baines,

Ale Martoriati, Stefano Sedioli, Simone Bertozzi,

Manuele Mariotti, Niall Neeson, Fred Mortagne. DESIGN_

Fake Donkey Lab.

GET ALL THE INFOS at: info@abriefglance.com

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F BOA

RD TRU

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RD TRU

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RD TRU

G A

BOA

RD TRU

G M

TM A

BOA

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COVER // Eniz Fazliov_Crooks pop over in Verona. Photo_Davide Biondani_

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FRAGMENTS

Tas Pappas, Method air Photo_Marcello Guardigli. Melbourne, Australia.

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FRAGMENTS

Chris Doebrich, Bs powerslide. Photo_ Erik GroĂ&#x;. Dresden, Germany.

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FRAGMENTS

Bastien Marlin, Sugarcane. Photo_Kévin Mètallier. San Francisco.

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FRAGMENTS Conor Valente, No comply wallie Photo_Craig Dodds. Belfast, Northern Ireland.

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WHITE MARBLE

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Photography_Davide Biondani. Words_Jonathan Levin.

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Skateboarding in a city like Rome means being constantly surrounded by history and architecture from many different historical periods. The most relevant historical period to skateboarding is definitely the twenty-year Fascist period going from the 1920s to the 1930s and the white marble from the quarries in Carrara that was so extensively used in Fascist architecture. Carrara marble is premium quality marble that grinds, slides, is smooth and hard, and lasts forever. Definitely the ideal material for skateboarding, and it is on these materials that skateboarding in Rome was born and developed, starting in the 70â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, through to the 80s and 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, up to the present day, when most of the marble spots built over 80 years ago are in excellent condition and still being shredded. Places like the Foro Italico, the EUR residential and business district, and the Sapienza University, are all famous skatespots that were influential in the development of the Roman skate-scene. ( JL)_ a brief glance

Matteo Franceschin // Half cab crooks. The Foro Italico is a sports complex built in the 1930â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s by order of the dictator Benito Mussolini. It includes the Olympic Stadium, Stadio dei Marmi, and Stadio del Tennis among others. It was built entirely out of marble coming from quarries in Carrara, the highest quality marble, it slides and grinds excellently, and after 80 years is still in very good condition. It was very likely the first ever skate spot in Rome going back to the 1970s. The Stadio dei Marmi is part of the Foro Italico complex, and hosts around its perimeter 60 marble statues in classical style portraying athletes, each donated by different cities in Italy. Obviously skateboarding was not included, so Matteo halfcabs into a crooks to show us what a skateboarding statue wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve looked like.

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Jonny Levin // Ollie up to wallride down. Jonny bs wallrides on the outer wall of the Italian National Olympic Committee (C.O.N.I.) to protest the fact that no statues were built in wallride positions, and the huge statue to his right cheers him on with his fist clenched. Through the big glass windows on the left you can see the statues around the Stadio dei Marmi.

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Nikolai Danov // Nollie kickflip in. The white building with columns in the background is the Pigorini Museum of Ethnography and Prehistory, in the EUR neighborhood, and has always been a historic skate spot in Rome. One of the only places to skate when it rains, its long halls underneath the porticos offer perfect marble flatground and ledges. Nollie kickflipping into this is plain crazy. Nikolai knows.

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Stadio Dei Marmi, Roma.

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Luca Crestani // Noseblunt nosebonk. The EUR neighborhood was built starting in 1940 for the 1942 Universal Exposition to be held in Rome, which never took place due to World War II. It was eventually completed after the war, and is a whole neighborhood built in white marble and includes a large number of different spots, among which is the “Bar Palombini,” which together with the Foro Italico were the main hangout spots up until the early 2000’s.

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[the White Marble project has been produced with the support of 7Hills dist.]

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WHITE MARBLE

Igor Cianti // Pop shove-it. Igor pop shoves over the gap at the base of the 17.5 meterhigh obelisk that dominates this sea of marble. That in the background is the Olympic Stadium, and the white fences you see were erected only a few years ago to control the flow of soccer fans and ultras, thus turning part of the Foro Italico into a sort of a â&#x20AC;&#x153;cage.â&#x20AC;?

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Nikolai Danov // Nollie to switch crooks. This is how a statue at the Stadio dei Marmi would see Nikolaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nollie to switch crooked grind on the perfect ledges overlooking the stadiumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playing field.

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Luca Crestani // Transfer to bs tail over the hip. The Tiber Island sits right in the middle of the Tiber River between the Ancient Roman Circus Maximus and the Trastevere neighbourhood. One of the most difficult spots to skate due to its badly cracked marble ground and rough cobblestone banks that are flooded every year as the Tiber overflows during the rainy season. Every year in October it also hosts the Brick City Contest, a best-trick contest organized by Roman legend Papik Rossi. This year Braydon Szafranski and Brian Herman also showed up! See you there next year.

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Emerica Europe in northern Italy_

Shredding with the boys_ a brief glance

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Photography_Davide Biondani. Words_Andrew Zolin.

Usually when you ask a foreigner what he likes about Italy this is the answer you get: the food, the women, the weather. Yup, the weather. The classic mild, temperate weather you find in the areas between a very cold zone and a zone that is too warm. Wait a second, there’s something that doesn’t add up if I think about the year that just went by. We’re only a few days away from the end of 2014 and the weather has been really bizarre. Summing up the weather here in northern Italy we have had: an elusive spring for a while, a rainy summer, and a winter that was not really that cold after all. The only part of the year that gave us a break was autumn: mild weather and always sunny. During this lucky period the Emerica team, composed of Eniz Fazliov, Nisse Ingemarsson and Rob Maatman, spent one week among the main cities in northern Italy, including Brescia and Venezia. (az)_

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Verona_

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NISSE

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FS KICKFLIP_Mestre. Every tour has its story that is different from every other. During this tour, the time spent on sinlge tricks was more than the time spent doing lines. We could say it was more of a photo-oriented tour than a video-oriented tour, but this does not mean that Nisse didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fs flip over this street gap at the end of a line among the housing projects in Mestre.

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KICKFLIP TO BS NOSEGRIND BS OUT_Verona. I remember that the boys were surprised by the fact that travelling by car, they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see any skate spots. And yet, at the end of every car ride, we always ended up at a spot. This place is the only one you can see passing through Verona by car; the spot is pretty famous and has been skated by many, thus lengthening the NBD list. Nisse whips out the ace up his sleeve on this one: kickflip bs nosegrind revert. I was amazed by the way he executed it!

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ENIZ

Fazliov

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FS BLUNTSLDE_Venezia. The first time I went to this spot I was with Davide and we were moving around Venice trying to get the material for an article that came out a few issues ago. The hubba was still virgin and we immediately started imagining various top tricks for a photo. Fs blunt was definitely at the top of the list, we already imagined a photo like this, with the canal and the fishermenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boats in plain sight for context. In just a few tries, Eniz materializes our vision, and soon afterwards we celebrated with some Spritzes.

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KICKFLIP TO BS TAILSLIDE_Brescia. When you travel by airplane it may happen that your luggage gets lost. If you also have to stop over at other airports on your way, the probability of your luggage getting lost increases. If your intermediate stop is at the airport in Rome, then you can be almost sure that your suitcase will be lost. This is what happened to Jonathan, the filmer of the tour, and the suitcase in question contained the precious batteries of his videocamera. But it took Eniz very little time to land this kickflip bs tailslide, before Jonathanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only battery ran out.

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Shredding with the boys_

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ROB

Maatman

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BS SMITH GRIND_Venezia. When you are in a different country and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the local cuisine well, it is always very difficult to choose what to eat. I remember that at the table, the boys were constantly asking for advice regarding what to eat. But skateboarding is an international language and Rob knows very well what trick to choose for this hubba: a dope bs smith cooked in no time.

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FS LIPSLIDE_Verona. These benches sit right outside the Bentegodi stadium in Verona. The local team recently started playing in the Major League and even won the championship in 1985. Who knows how many people have walked by here in all these years: fans, players, managers, tourists, each for a different reason. Rob came here to do this fs lipslide before breaking his ankle.

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Emerica Europe in northern Italy_

Shredding with the boys_

AREF KOUSHESH_HANDPLANT WALLRIDE__Verona. Aref is part of the Italian team, and he’s a young kid full of energy. He skates mostly trannies and he caught up with us right on the day we went to skate the cement trannie outside this church. Good timing! This spot is incredible, and has been skated since the 70s; for us locals it’s kinda like “the usual spot” while everybody who comes into town always asks us to bring them there, and every time we try to avoid doing so, usually without success, ha ha ha. While some of the guys rest under a warm autumn sun, Aref shows off his skills at the spot. This handplant wallride was only the first trick of the sort done at the “church-quarterpipe” and adds on to the long list of tricks.

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EXERCISES IN REVOLUTION

carhartt skating at Museum MAXXI_in Roma.

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“ FreeRide” a Raphael Zarka’s project_

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Photography and words // Davide Biondani_

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“The title of the sculpture is “Free Ride” that in itself suggested the performing activity...for me it was a kind of a prophecy of the future use of the artworks in the city as skate spots.” (Raphael Zarka).

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As part of Rome’s contemporary art museum MAXXI’s exhibition “Open Museum Open City” French skater and artist Raphael Zarka participated last October in a three-day performative project called “Exercises In Revolution”. The project, reflecting on the theme of games and rules, featured a wooden replica of Tony Smith’s sculpture “Free Ride” from 1962, a very skateable piece of early Minimal Art that inspired Raphael for his latest book with the same name: Free Ride. For the very first time the space in front of the MAXXI Museum was open to skateboarders who were allowed to skate the sculpture and became an active part of the artistic performance. Definitely a “Free Ride” inside the museum. Carhartt fully supported Raphael’s projects and invited two of their riders, Sylvain Tognelli and Bram De Cleem, to take part in the event. The MAXXI Museum is an amazing place with huge spaces, long empty white alleys and an outdoor area with art installations and spaces to meet and chill, something alien in the heart of the most historical city in the world. It was definitely a fascinating experience to see skateboarding inside a place where it is normally forbidden and see skaters merging with the architecture of the museum and bring a special energy to the event. (db).

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Sylvain Tognelli // fs feeble grind_

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Bram De Cleen // ollie over to bs noseblunt slide_

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SYLVAIN // TOGNELLI

What do you think about the Carhartt/MAXXI project? When I got the email from Bertrand about this project I didn’t really know what to expect, I tried to imagine the scenario and in a way I was a little afraid because it could easily become a nightmare if you have to skate this sculpture for three days and the obstacle is badly built or the event badly organized, but in reality the organization was really good. We saw the structure on the first day but it was new and we were not allowed to touch it until the performance started, so we began to imagine all the tricks, and the sculpture was actually perfectly built. We started waxing it and many skaters from Rome came over to skate it and it was good fun. I can see that these kinds of projects don’t always work out as well as you can imagine, but this one I think was a success.

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What was the funnest part of the event? The potential of the tricks we could’ve done was way larger than the tricks we actually did, in the end we skated it as a ledge, but there could have been so many ways to skate it, turning it around, putting it down some stairs or flipping it on its side. We fantasized a lot and we did a little in three days, but it was a success and the purpose of the performance was certainly achieved. It was a physical confrontation with the sculpture, hurting yourself, pushing it, even when we had to move it to find the right angles for the pictures; this is a sort of knowledge that you can only have if you skateboard, you can try to imagine it, but you cannot know in advance for sure… so even finding the right place in the location for the sculpture was itself part of the performance.

The museum could have put the Raphael replica sculpture in the place and present it as a potential skateable sculpture, but this time it was a completely different experience because skating it was the core of the performance. You could touch it, you could skate it, and it made more sense to me because it’s like giving a new life and new meaning to the sculpture. What’s your opinion about the fact that nowadays skateboarding is more accepted compared to many years ago? It’s funny because when I started skating, which is not that long ago, there was a reaction to the legitimate culture and to the legitimate sports at the same time and we “were against”; the movement was to reject other stuff to define yourself as a group, and slowly I started feeling like skateboarding has

been accepted more and more as a thing on its own. Now we are encouraged as a group not to be against, but be as a creative group for photography, videography, etc. People from skating work in the film industry, and skaters are listened to by architects and urban planners and this is an interesting thing. It’s interesting to find yourself in 2014 as an active part of a modern art exhibition in Rome. I don’t have a strong opinion about this because it’s just happening now and we’ll see if it will be good or not for skateboarding. These days skateboarding definitely exists not “against” but as “part of ” and that’s interesting.

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Sylvain Tognelli // bs ollie to fakie 5-0 fs out_

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Sylvain Tognelli // fs bluntslide_

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BRAM // DE CLEEN

What do you think about the whole project from a skateboarding point of view? I really like places where you can hang out, drink a coffee, skate smooth flat ground, roll around not doing the same back and forth every minute, so the space is nice, well designed, open, there are contemporary things as well, the chill-out atmosphere, no crazy traffic. I really enjoyed that, this could be the everyday spot. It’s a museum and we were part of the exhibition, so the attention that people gave to skateboarding was kind of positive and curious. Usually you are not really supposed to be there and there was still some uncertainty surrounding our presence there, ha ha ha! There were still some doubts ah ha ha but all went fine. As a skateboarder how was the feeling of being part of an “art performance?” I didn’ t feel like we were performing on a modern contemporary sculpture at all, I just felt like skating a ledge basically. When you are skating you are skating, you know? Sometimes sculptures have skate friendly shapes and that’s why we skate them… they go together very well. I really appreciate and understand what Raphael is trying to say... to take back stuff and give them a second life, a second meaning... skateboarding is one of the things where you actually experience shapes and forms instead of just looking at them. I get this, but when you are skateboarding you think more about the tricks you can do on the obstacles more than the concept behind their construction. It’s cool to have people like Raphael who has the vocabulary and the references to put all of what skateboarders know from the everyday experience on the streets into words and to make it understandable to everybody. Even if I know what he wanted to say, I don’t have the knowledge about the art history, physics, and all of that stuff to do it properly, and it’s nice to hear somebody recount it in a book and give some order to the thoughts I already had in my mind. He did a good job.

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Bram De Cleen // fs ollie to switch nosegrind revert_

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Bram De Cleen // switch bs kickflip_

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RAPHAEL // ZARKA

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Where did the idea for this project come from? The project for the Maxxi started 2 years ago when I was doing a residency at the French Academy in Roma at Villa Medici. I was writing a little book about the topography of skateboarding, what kinds of spaces skateboarders are using and what types of strategies they use. I wanted to show how they find spots, how they come to know structures and how they recreate them into skateparks by doing a synthesis of different spaces they liked. This was the first part of the book, and the second one was about some objects from a long time ago, from Galileo who was experimenting with mechanics, being it the science of motion, he used a wooden structure that looks like a half pipe to study gravity. So I was trying to tell a story about the fact that maybe skateboarders are the grandsons of Galileoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiments: both for the apparatuses he was using, but also the method; skateboarders use gravity as a kind of engine, like something to create speed. The last part of the book relates to my collection of images of skateboarders on public sculptures. I noticed from the end of the 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in skateboard magazines there were more and more images of skateboarders on artworks, and of course this was completely prohibited and for me that was really linking two of my main personal interests: skateboarding and visual art. I saw that maybe beyond vandalism there was something to learn from the practice of skateboarding because there were al lot of different moments in the history of sculpture in the 20th Century where sculptures were not something to be looked at but something that you could interact with. One of these occasions was in the US at the end of the 60â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s with what we call Minimal Art. Some people from this movement wanted to use the space as material so they were having simple forms in spaces, and it was the movement of spectators around the piece that were activating it. So I kind of took something from art and something from skateboarding and tried to tell a bit of a story and tried to learn from skateboarding.

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Why did you choose this specific sculpture? I chose a very important piece from Minimal Art by an artist called Tony Smith which is at MOMA in NYC, in the garden, and as a sculpture, you cannot touch it according to the rules of the museum. But it also could be like a bench and of course for skateboarders a bench is a ledge, something to activate speed, not something to rest on. The title of the sculpture is “Free Ride” that in itself suggested the performing activity. The artist never explained why he called it “Free Ride” …so everybody, as a spectator, has to imagine why; so my idea is more poetic than rational: for me it was a kind of a prophecy of the future use of the artworks in the city as skate spots. So that’s why I decided to do this replica. What I’m interested in is “reuse.” How something was made for a use, and after a while maybe some other people see some other potential in it. This is a humble project, but if it was a bigger project I suppose there are several things I would have liked to do, for example “The Minimal Art Skatepark,” taking very representative pieces like “Free Ride” from the 60’s but making it a real skatepark with different sculptures, or I could try the “Tony Smith Skatepark” only with pieces by him or involving the works of different artists from his generation. These are the things I’d like to do if I had the opportunity. Today we are at MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, riding the sculpture replica of a Minimal artist from the 60’s thanks to an exhibition called “Open Museum Open City.” This is a very difficult museum for artists

to show in because it has a lot of character: the walls are not straight, and there are different floors… today the museum is completely empty and you have a lot of sound pieces, you walk around and you hear all different sounds, noises… so from this project by the new director Hou Hanru and by curator Giulia Ferracci in collaboration with Nomas Foundation they organized an event called “Exercises In Revolution” and they invited international artists to make performances about games... finding new rules and giving a new meaning to a game. I collaborated with Nomas Foundation before and I suggested we could recreate Tony Smith’s sculpture and skate it. The issue was to make the space in front of the museum public, because the skaters from Rome are normally not allowed to skate here so with the “Free Ride” sculpture…it’s actually a free ride at the MAXXI. For 3 days everybody could skate the place and the replica

together with Sylvain Tognelli and Bram De Cleem, sent by Carhartt who supported Raphael’s project. There were a lot of skateboarders from the city from the youngest to the oldest guys, and a lot of people watching, it was a very nice ambient and a good use of a public space. What’s next for you? At present time I’m also working on a project I started in 2005 called Riding Modern Art, and it’s a collection of skateboard photos on public sculptures shot by professional photographers. The whole thing will see the light in 2015 with a series of photo exhibitions in France and hopefully it will end in a book.

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Sylvain Tognelli // fs boardlide_

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Bram De Cleen // noseblunt slide_

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View of Roma from Villa Medici_

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The Villa Medici is a Mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici was founded by Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and is now property of the French State, housing the French Academy in Rome since 1803. On the last day of our stay, thanks to Raphael we had the chance to visit Villa Medici to have a coffee together and admire its magnificence. The view from its terrace leaves you breathless, no doubt the best view you can experience in Rome. Our secret mission was, however, to try and skate an empty fountain Raphael told us about that was located in the garden of the villa. We were lucky we had the time for this mission! Skating an empty fountain in one of the most luxurious and historical buildings in the world, and in the city with the world’s most important historical heritage, has no price!

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Bram De Cleen // bs nose pick_

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Sylvain Tognelli // switch blunt to fs out_

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PLACES_ Photos_Michela Corsi.

Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island.

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NEW ENGLAND

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NEW ENGLAND

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A MATTER OF SMILES Intro_Manuele Mariotti // Interview_Guido Bendotti_ Photography_Davide Biondani.

GUMMY [andrea casasanta ]

interview_

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Describing Gummy in the usual way, talking about how the new generation kicks ass on street and vert would be kinda boring... I love rolling around with him on our cruisers along Ostia’s seaside, enjoying the

sun while we push ourselves as fast as we can... And that’s how I discovered Andrea’s real talent, being a mini-Banderas that can’t be stopped... and I’m not talking about the Banderas from the Mulino Bianco (Italian snack brand), but the one-time Latin Lover. Rolling around with him is like torture: every twenty

meters he’ll stop to say hello to girls of all ages... and when I ask him, “Who was that?!” He always answers

me with a smile on his face, “just a chick that’s going after me.” And at every sunset my frustration grows

if I stop to think about the fact that back in the days, at his age you were considered a total loser if you skated, a misfit, whereas now you’re mainstream, you’re cool if you skate and women look at you with admiration and acceptance. Lil’ Andrea is the boss in this regards, and he knows it too!

I remember how hard it was for us to get noticed by women at contests, and the disappointment of finding only sweaty guys or ugly women among the spectators... while he gets kidnapped after contests and locked

in the bathroom... nearly raped... and he answers, “Not now, I’m tired, I just did the heat and my legs are hurting me, maybe later.” It makes me kinda mad, but actually it’s just envy on my part... hahaha.

When it comes to women in Rome, he wins hands down... Regarding his skateboarding, the photos speak for themselves... there’s no need to add anything further.

P.S. If you were to open his address book you would find more girls than in the list of the Womens’ Rights Movement!

Hey Bro... I’m proud of you! ( Manuele Mariotti).

Stale fish.

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Bs tailslide up.

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Let’s start with the old boring presentations. Hi guys, I‘m from Ostia, a Roman neighbourhood. I’m 16 years old and have been skating for 10 years. You started skating in a pretty unusual way right? I guess so, my brother used to skate and surf back then, because you can surf in Ostia. One day he brought me to the local The Spot skatepark, and just told me to skate… that’s how I began and have never stopped since. Did you ask him to go skating? No, I didn’t ask him anything, he brought me to the skatepark and told me to skate and I skated! Thanks brother!!! Imagine if he had brought you to play soccer?! Soccer is for fags, I’ve never played soccer, but I’ve been playing rugby for the last 10 years and I enjoy it because it’s a gentlemen’s game. Can rugby and skateboarding coexist? Of course! On the days I don’t train for rugby, I go skating, so I manage to do everything no problem. Actually, my only problem is school, I go to high school and don’t feel like doing anything… I’m gonna flunk, I know… well I hope not, even if I have very low marks. Why did you choose to skate trannies instead of street from the beginning? I always skated at The Spot, and since I was little I didn’t care about skating street that much. I’d just skate, I didn’t care, so now I do kinda have some problems skating street. For sure it’s much easier to learn how to skate in a park rather than on the street. Anyway, without The Spot I wouldn’t be a skater now. There really isn’t a reason, it’s just that I feel more at ease on trannies you know? Just keep skating. Even because it’s been quite some time since Italy has had good vert skaters. There’s all these really small kids coming up now. The problem is that if there are no parks, nobody can come up knowing how to skate trannies. Now there are some parks where you can skate bowl or vert. Among the young kids, Ale Mazzara is very promising, and he’s only 10 years old!

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It’s quite a problem for you to skate trannies now, right? Ever since the park closed down it’s a real problem for me. The first skatepark is 30 km away from where I live. I skate the Bunker vert ramp, and It’s like 50 km every time. The Roman vert scene is composed of guys like Jekill (historical H-Street graphic designer) who’s probably like 50 years old, and Ale Mazzara who’s 10 years old. This is the first serious vert ramp in central Italy to be built in some time. Rome has always had a street scene, but now a vert scene is also developing. Is it easy for you to skate vert? I’m learning tricks and get hurt much less than skating street, that’s for sure! Skating vert gives you a basis on which to learn how to skate bowls as well, especially big ones. Everything is more difficult in bowls, but having a vert foundation makes it easier. If I could, I would like to only skate big bowls. And then what happens is that someone brings you to a spot and tells you what trick to do, because you can’t think of any. Ahahahahaha it happened a couple times, if not more. I was at a secret spot in Fiumicino and Dave (Biondani) asked me to do a fs blunt, and I told him I didn’t know how to do it.Dave answered me, “Do it!” A few tries later I landed it. Yes!! Ostia is a town on the sea on the outskirts of the more famous Rome. Ostia is the most beautiful town in the world, there are many hot women and most importantly, there’s the sea. I prefer Ostia to Rome 100 times because Rome is very chaotic. Apart from all the Romans that come here to party on Sundays. Although you are young, you’ve skated in contests alongside guys that are older and more famous than you. But you are always respectful of other peoples’ lines. I’m very anxious… I’m always afraid of missing the first trick…regarding skating with older guys, I bring them respect, and have lots of fun skating with them. I get nervous in front of a videocamera or photocamera too, if I don’t land the trick right away I get fucking mad, I get anxious.

Kickflip over // Fs smith grind.

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Ollie up to no comply.

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Do you enjoy skating contests? I enjoy skating contests, both in Italy and abroad, even though for the moment I’ve only skated in Europe. The vert scene is growing, but I don’t like vert contests that much, I don’t have fun. I prefer bowl contests, maybe with a Jam session, because if you miss a trick, you can make up for it, so there’s more energy. Every time I go to a contest, I go back home inspired to try new tricks and lines. The problem is the absence of decent bowls in the area. Who inspires you to skate? Absolutely Brad McClain!!! Enough boring questions, let’s talk about serious stuff. The word is spreading that you’ve got the hottest Whatsapp in Italy. Hahahahahah! I think Jacopo Picozza comes before me, but before him the great Manuele Mariotti, a real Casanova, but the target of his women is much lower than mine. C’mon, tell us! Well, it all begins with a tactical like on Facebook or Instagram, and I take it from there. For example a chick wrote her phone number on my Instagram. They’ll send me anything, I get really explicit things (the editorial staff can confirm), and then I decide. The ugly girls I just ignore or block them. For the hot ones, I charge ahead until I obtain the outcome I desire. I can’t show you certain things though, hahahahaha! Is it because you’re famous? Actually, lately I’ve had girls writing me because I’m good on a skateboard. Not bad… hahahahaha!! I hope you’re conscious of the fact that back in the days when we were kids, skateboarding was for losers, right? In fact I’m damn lucky! Do you think you’ll ever be able to live from skateboarding? I have no expectations, I love skating and I see myself skating in the future, making a living from it is not a necessity right now. I want to travel and skate contests, and I would like a park near my house where I could really learn to skate seriously.I want to go to the U.S., as I see it, it’s full of crazy parks and spots… a dream. Up to now I’ve only travelled in Europe, I want to go to the U.S. and see what it’s like. It would be a problem going over the border with your Whatsapp. Ahahahahahahaha!!! a brief glance

Crooks.

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Bs nosepick

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Dusted_Off Sean Malto & Ryan Smith_Belgium_2006.

One evening, in the spring of 2006, I got a call from my friend Luca who told me he was around with the Analog team and he

asked me if I was down to follow the tour to shoot some photos. Of course I accepted the proposal. The next day they picked me up at the exit of the motorway where I was informed

that our destination, that initially was supposed to be Austria, a

3 hour drive from where we met, was changed for some reason and we had to go straight to Belgium. At first I thought it was

a joke… but it wasn’t! So we drove for like 12 hours straight, arrived in Antwerp at 5 in the morning and found out that

there were no reservations in our name at the hotel that was supposed to be booked for us.

Despite this very stormy start, the trip went very well and we skated some sick spots between Antwerp, Brussels and Ostend with Ryan Smith, Sean Malto and the rest of the team.

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Photos and words_Davide Biondani_

Sean Malto // Switch tre flip // Ostend_

Antwerp_

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Ryan Smith // Bs tailslide // Ostend_

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Sean Malto // Bs ollie to fakie 5-0 // Brussels_

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Sean Malto // Bluntslide // Ostend_

Ryan Smith // Crooks // Ostend_

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...and happy new year_

NicolĂ˛ Novali_fs noseblunt slide.

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issue _28