2014-01
URBAN ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE
RUSL LEON WYNE
WALLS TRAINS EVENTS SKETCHES INTERVIEWS
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BONER - Germany
DOES - Netherlands
BAKER - Turkey
WIPER - Turkey
TWM Crew - Turkey
NASIMO - Bulgaria
OMEN - Bosna
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TWM Crew - Turkey
RUSL - Germany
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Urban Disturbance 2013
KRYS - Turkey
NUKA & WICX - Turkey
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CRIS & KIDCROW - Germany
DESAN21 - Switzerland
SET - Turkey
SHIONE - Turkey
SPOARE153 - Frankfurt
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9 “Love Letters Crew” kuşkusuz dünyanın en iyi graffiti gruplarından biri. Bize biraz bu gruptan bahseder misin?
styleizm detailizm globalizm stuttgard
Love Letters; Hollanda’nın güneyinde Sittard adında ufak bir şehirde 2006 yılı sonunda kurulmuştur. Ekip; Almanya, İsviçre, Fransa ve Hollanda’dan 11 Avrupalı writer’ın yer aldığı bir kollektiftir. Öncelikle 4 üyeden oluşan grup (Nash, Tumki, Chas ve Does) sonrasında Rusl, Dater, Ozer, Sean2, Biser, Dare ve Puaks ile bireysel grubun kurucuları tarafından genişletilmiştir. Tüm üyeler graffiti yazarları, yaratıcı sanatçılar için evrim geçirmiştir. Onların mevcut faaliyetleri diğerlerinin yanı sıra şunlardır: grafik, görsel ve web tasarım, animaston, fotoğrafçılık ve tattoo. Her writerın gerçekten eşsiz ve farklı olarak mürettebat içinde kendi uzmanlık alanı vardır.
İyi bir style’da olması gerekenler nelerdir? Bize kısaca kendinden bahseder misin?
Adım Emin, lâkabım RUSL ve 1993’ten beri graffiti ile ilgileniyorum. Almanya’nın güneyinde kalan Heidelberg ve Stuttgart şehirlerinin arasında kalan Neckarsulm kentindenim. İllustrasyon,grafik ve görsel iletişim mezunuyum ve şuan serbest olarak typografi, illustrasyon, görsel tasarım ve Motion Design üzerine çalışmaktayım. İsviçre ve Almanya sınırında olan Konstanz şehrinde yaşıyorum.
Avrupa’da pek çok şehirde boyadın. Sana en çok boyama arzusu veren şehir hangisiydi?
Graffiti sayesinde bir çok şehir görme imkanım oldu ve bundan çok mutluyum. Nedeni ise basit, serbest hobi olarak böyle gezerek çalışmak herkese nasip olmaz. En çok boyama arzusu veren şehirlerden bir tanesi Sevilla (İspanya) ve harbiden İstanbul’dur. Sevilla’da senede günlerin %80’i güneşlidir ve oradaki writerlarla beraber olduğunuz zaman durmak diye bir şey yoktur. Her zaman mutlaka bir eğlence ile karşılasşırsınız. Her şey yolunu alır ve bir hafta içinde yaklaşık 10 kaliteli duvara sahip olursunuz. İstanbul’un da büyüklüğü ve büyüleyiciliği sokakları boyama arzumu yükseltir.
“Detailism” (detaycılık) nedir?
Detailism, slogan sıralamasında Styleism’den sonra gelmekte olan, ikinci önem verdiğim bir cümledir. Style’ın iç hayatı harfler gibi önem taşır. Fakat detailden önce style gelir diye düşünüyorum. Renk teorisi ile anlaşma başlı başına bir disiplindir ve kullanma tarzları veya teknik bakış açısından olsun ayrı bir dilden daha konuşmak gerekir diye düşünüyorum.
Öncelikle yazı şeklinizin “orjinal” yani benzersiz ve çeşitli olması en önde gelen şartlardan biridir. Düşünce kapasitesinin bol olması ve bundan daha önemli olan ise başkalarının style’ını kopyalamamak. Başkalarınn çalışmalarını inceleyip, bakıp örnek almakla işi bitirmemek, mutlaka ama mutlaka graffitinin devamını getirmek lazımdır. Bugüne internet açısından bakacak olursak, graffiti dünyasında şu son 5- 6 sene içinde stillerin karıştığını farkederiz. Graffitilere artık çok hızlı bir şekilde ulaşolabiliyor ve dün boyamış olduğun duvar veya tren bugün yayınlanmış oluyor. Bu her zaman güzel bir şey değil bence. Başkaları takip edebiliyor ve örnek alıyor ya da bazı gördüğünüz style’dan ilham alıp kendi graffitinize örnek olarak uyarlayabilirsiniz. Bu aslında çok güzel bir şey ama aynı zamanda kötü bir tarafı da var. O da başkalarının style’ına bakıp bilinçsizce onu kendi çizimlerine benzetmektir. Bunu aşmanın en kolay yolu kendinize daha fazla saygı göstermeniz ve harbi, adam gibi kendinize sormanız lazım, benim style’ım orjinal mi? İyi bir style’da olması gerekenler nelerdir?
Çalışmalarına baktığımızda detaylı bir iç boyamanın yanında geniş bir background’da görüyoruz. Arka plan senin için ne kadar önemli?
Arka plan çalışmaya ve boyadığım temele bağlı olan bir şey. Misal, eski bir duvar yada boyanmış bir duvar olsun, ikisininde zevkinden öte ayrı bir çekciliği vardır ve ona göre de çalışma tarzı ister. Eski duvarın dış görünüşü hoşuma gidiyorsa eğer, o görünüşü bozmak istemem. Ona yakışacak bir şekilde bir çalışma çıkartmak isterim. Önemli olan sadece resmin güzel olması değildir. Benim için sonuç arka plan olsun, style olsun, mekan olsun, hepsi bir arada belli bir heyecan yaratmalı. Demek istediğim arka plan hep gerekmiyor ve ben duruma göre karar veriyorum. Önde gelen sorular ise; Hangi renklerin birbirine iyi gittiği ve hangi fırça ya da tahta olsun ve kendi isteklerime bakarım.
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İlham kaynağın nelerdir?
Geçmişte ve halâ bana ilham veren çok şey var. Bu, her şey ya da herkes olabilir. Dostlar, yerler, dergiler, sanat, internet ve yazarlar beni bir şekilde etkiliyor. Ancak benim için bu sürecin en heyecan verici kısmı ilhama uyanmak ve kendi yaratım sürecime başlayabilmek.
12 Graffiti NewYork’ta doğmasına rağmen altın çağını Almanya’da yaşadı ve yaşamaya devam ediyor. Peki Almanya’yı diğer Avrupa ülkelerinden ayıran şey nedir sence? Neden bu kadar fazla boyanıyor?
Zor ama güzel bir soru bu. Her ne kadar ilk örnekler Amerika’da görülmeye başlandıysa da graffiti, ruhunu Avrupa’da buldu. 1980 sonrasında zirvesine ulaşan graffiti özellikle hiphop kültürünün yaygınlaşmasıyla günümüzün modern graffiti sanatı olarak ortaya çıktı ve ABD’den sonra en ön sıralamada Almanya, İsviçre ve Fransa’nın olduğunu düşünüyorum. Almanyayı diğer ülkelerden ayıran şeyler ise sanırım Almanya’daki writerların style çalışmalarını daha yüksek bir kalitede olduğundan ve geniş bir anlamla graffiti ile ilgilendiklerinden olabilir diye düşünüyorum. Bir de sprey boya sanayisi Almanya’da bulunduğundandır belki..
Geçtiğimiz ya bir festival için İstanbul’a geldin. Önceki gelişine göre İstanbul’da graffiti adına bir gelişme gördün mü? 2011’deki İstanbul’a gelişimde çok güzel işlerin ve çok yetenekli kişilerin sanat veya graffiti ile ilgilendiğini gördüm. Bunları farketmekten öte, graffiti ile ilgilenenlerin az destek gördüğünü farkettim. Çok yetenekler var. Özellikle gençler için buna benzer etkinlikler düzenlenmesi gerektiğini düşünüyorum. Dünyanın pek çok yerinde graffiti halâ yasadışı ve malesef bazı insanlarımız bu yönden daha bilinçsizce davranıyor.
13 Almanya’dan Türkiye’deki writerlara neler söylemek istersin?
Boyamaya devam edin. ama kendinizi geliştirmeyi sakın ama sakın unutmayın. Kendinize güvenmeyi bırakmayın. Mümkün olduğunca çok okuyun. Genel bir anlamda söylüyorum, graffiti ve sanat veya iletişim olsun sanat ile ilgilenin. sağlığınızı unutmayın ve eldiven ile solunum cihazı kullanın. Protect yourself! Ama her şeyden önce tabiki LOVE LETTERS! Tüm writerlara buradan çok çok selamlar saygılar. Tekrar görüşmek ümidiyle, PEACE!
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CAUSE & BROT & ODIN & RUNO & DOZER - Turkey
HOMBRE & POSE - Germany
MAD C - Columbia
DESAN21 - Switzerland
DHEN - Germany
OMERIA - Turkey
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DOZER - Germany
TURBO - Turkey
DESAN21 - Switzerland
PALM - Turkey
MASTER & KRYS & RAKEN - Turkey
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17 What’s going through your mind while you are painting? What keeps you motivated to keep painting?
Depends...sometimes daily things, sometimes new ideas for upgrading my style and sometimes very good music from my player! I am self-critic, sometimes maybe too much and every time I finish some wall I see what I could do better and what I will use next time. I strive to éperfect styleé and I think that motivates me the most.
MCT CP.5 YUGO80
BELGRADE
What would you call your style? What other writers or artists have influenced and inspired your work?
Hmm.. I can describe my style as semi-Wild Style, with close attention on some details. During those 12 years I was improving following a lot of artists from the same or similar field of art but definitely one of the greatest influences on me had Kongo and Juan from MAC crew.
Are any writers catching your eye at the moment? For those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself and how you came about your name. Your tag, artist name? Crew?
Hello, my tag is Leon, and like other graffiti artist I have changed a lot of tags in the beginning, but Lion was all the time going through, and still up today it remains as Lion a.k.a. Leon. My current crews are CP.5, MCT and YUGO80’s.
Where are you from and how did you get into graffiti? What are your first memories of seeing graffiti?
Belgrade is my hown town, when I grew up. Since I am from little older generation, I didn’t have media opportunities that have today, to get in touch with graffiti from abroad. My first contact with street art started in my home town, looking at older writer’s graffs. But after short time I have got in touch with some French graffiti magazines and since then I like French graff scene the most. In thar first moment my partner in crime was my friend Sarin, who actually took me into this game slowly.
In today’s “new graffiti era” with high tech equipment for painting, everyone can be good after couple of months. But of course there are a lot of very good and talented writers. From Serbia here are my man Ekos, Rage, CFDMk crew, MadC, Pork, Smash137, Brok, Rude, Resh, Vision, Zeko156... Those are just names of few...
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where do you paint mostly? Do you travel to other cities or countries to paint? Tell us about some of your adventures?
I have my spots in Belgrade, but mostly I like to paint in my hood, because I want to paint in piece without so many people passing by. I didn’t travel so much as some other writers, but I have been couple of other cities and countries. I was participating with my friends on one graffiti jam in Croatia. The jam was organized for disable kids, as security was only one police woman. She was standing nearby our wall whole day. She has been amazed with our graffs very much, asking about our technique, how we are doing details and everything else what is related to street art. At the end we were asked to paint one small wall for Croatian’s police department! Of course after all we had great drunken night at our Croatians organizers!! Big up to our friends from Koprivnica!
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How do you see the past and future of graffiti and street art in Bankan countries? Tell us about Balkan artist you have met or worked with. Situation in Balkan countries is worse than in other European countries. Guys from west Europe had much better conditions for painting but still, here in Balkan we have done a more creative walls than we can see it today. I think that the main “suspect� for this is internet, now you can see all on it, do copy paste method and think that you have done a real deal. But there is also a bright side of the internet: you can meet and get in touch with many people, exchange your experiences and publish your works. I can say for my country that is coming a new wawe of good and talented young people, who will represent Serbia in good way on graffiti scene. I have painted with lot of writers from Balkan countries, really cool guys and also talented writers, like Arsek and Erase, which work I respect the most.
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Any tips you would share with people that are just starting? Anything else you would like to say to the world?
Don’t look too much graffiti movies and graffiti scraps on internet! I would like to give my regards to my wife, my friends and to thank you for choosing me for this interview! Respect to all who are true to the game!!
Do you think there are enough events in your country you can take part in? And what about publishing your works in books or magazines? From 2006 my friends and I have organized a couple of jams, but of course I think that Serbia should have more events which promote and support street art culture. I participated in almost all events in Serbia. I didn’t publish my works in magazines that much, have done it just in few but I’m planning to publish more in the future.
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S2K ABC
TURKEY
Hi Wyne, to start with, for those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself and tell us how your interest in graffiti started?
My real name Doğus Cihan I am a DJ and music producer. Writers know me as Wyne from S2K Crew. I started graffiti in 1997 - 1998, the years when I was skating. In those years we were watching skate videos featuring scenes of graffiti pieces, and we were drawing sketches without even knowing what they were. Than I had to stop skating since my leg got broken. After that I focused on drawing, read books, magazines and comprehend the source of the writing instinct and this culture.
You are among the first Turkish graffiti artists, you were the inspiration of most younger artist, many of them learnt from?
I still find it interesting that many people grew with my graffiti in Turkey. Ifeel as if I just started graffiti although it has been 15 years. I learnt much from many other artists I painted with. But of course some of them are special for me, for example an old writer called Skyman helped me much in understanding what graffiti is. Cowboy69 helped me much aboud style, we were making sketches for 10 hours a day together. Turbo is also very spacial for me with his influence on my wall technique and being the reason why I still paint.
Today we see graffiti art or its effects everywhere, from walls to trains, from streets to galleries, what does it mean to you? Do you thin it a life style or a hobby?
Once no one was painting train in Turkey, we started doing that. We were makind End2Ends, walking around in the railroads. We were painting streets, thinking nothing else. After thet I made dravings for galleries, biennales and exibitions. We can call it a hobby, however, when looking in the depth, there lies the meaning of graffiti, introducing tour real self to others under another name, and experiencing yourself in a life style on the center of which being writing.
For you, what is style and how one can achieve it?
For me graffiti consist of letters. Today street art or anything made with spray paint are called graffiti. You can say that I’m closed minded, but for me graffiti is still related to writing, not drawing. I think style is the way how your letters reflect you. Typically, you do not make your style intentionally; you direct that way spontaneously, waiting for it to take its own shape. Today most writers try creating a style just to be different, but I think style is something different than this. A thousand people can write the same letter in different ways, that’s what style is, it’s the signature of a graffiti artist. No matter if it’s old, new, beautiful or ugly, the most important thing is that it reflecting the graffiti artist.
What does it mean for you to be in a graffiti group?
A graffiti group is called crew because you consider other members of the group as your brothers. I don’t get it how people from across the world make a group without even seeing each other. For me a graffiti group should be like the old NYC crew. It’s like when people larking around at in the same neighborhood paint together. I get along well with rather than people who can make S2K popular. You need to know who you are, and who you represent when you say “us”.
In which countries did you have you painted before? And how did you feel at those times? Are there any country you want to go and artists you want to paint wall together? I have been to the Netherlands and Italy to paint, my opportunity to travel around is limited due to my job. I made tags, throw ups and stickers abroad. I prefer leaving traces of mine in the inner-city with tags rather than going outskirts of the city to find a legal wall to paint. Form me being a part of the city matters most. I would like to be paint together with Os Gemeos in Brazil. I believe that they adapt their country well with their job.
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Which graffiti artist do you follow most?
Actually, I don’t follow anyone, but I still look at works of old names young Bates, Can2, Dare(Rip). I like most the magazines published in the late 90s. I think those days were the best. I also follow Smash, Katre, Kent, Mad-C.
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In recent years, we have heard about the arguments among writers who are not satisfied with themselves in almost every country, every city, what do you think of it?
Ego wars are not something new. I find it nonsense that such thing cause unrest. Today people argue even in graffiti meetings. I haven’t had any quarrel with a graffiti artist until now: this is how my logic works. I just do what I want, and they do what they want. Their comments, critics about me and their anger with me do not mean anything to me. I want it to be a process of mutual interaction, not of quarrel. In the past we were using the word “respect� more frequently, now I guess, we started to forget it.
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What else do you do other than graffiti?
Besides graffiti, I am a DJ fot years, I have a recording company called keepitpure music. Also I am a music producer working on indie disco, deep house music, which may seem a bit weird for a graffiti artist. These jobs are taking most of my time, and I watch for opportunities to paint.
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And what else do you want to say to our readers?
I know you show great efforts to publish this magazine, so I congratulate you for this great job. I wish graffiti artists leave their images created by gangster movies of 80s, and perform and enjoy their art in a modern way as the era requires. “Respect is the answer� Thanks.
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STAN
FLUSH
SROCK
SEAK
DUVOK
TURBO - Turkey
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SKORE79
TESLA
NEAK
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DOES - LOVELETTERS
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Tapetown Graffiti Magazine 2014 - 01 Design : StalkerOner Resources: Balcans Mag. issue 1 Balcans Mag. issue 3 HighPressure Mag. No 1 Magazine Experiment StalkerOner TURKEY
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