We caught up with french graffiti writer Honet to do an little smalltalk for a minute
Honet, lets review the past 10 years, the goods, the bads
nothing good / nothing bad. Its just funny to watch the all evolution of this Graffiti Movement sometimes unfortunatly called “Street Art” ! On one side : police, justice and politics trying to explain “how bad can graffiti is”, trying to break it, quite unsuccesfull till now! And on the other hand, to see all this public fascination for it : in the media, the Art scene, the brands merchandizing !
You mean in general or in France?
In France, that’s just incredible to see that they are doing here, 10 years after, a huge and mediatic trial of all the graffiti-writers who’ve been caught painting trains beginning of 2000 and at exactly the same time. This train company, bytheway the same one involved in this trial as a plaintiff, inviting 4 european writers to paint that Thalys train, in Gare du Nord, the headquarter of the “vandal Squad”…and paying them 10 000 euros! May I should ask this company to pay me for all the “Art pieces” I’ve done on their trains ? wahooo, I’m gonna be a millionaire!
Yes that one were definitaly one of the “Media Highlights” this year. Other question, do you read books about graffiti? If so any favourites in the big book release jungle of the past 10 years?
I’m not reading graffiti related books, websites, forums or print magazines, i’m not that graffiti nerd. I just give an eye to the books that people are sending to me. So the last 10 years I just received :
“Poch et Rock – Teenage Kicks” ( Wasted Talent )
“Action Painting Bringing Art to the Trains” ( Publikat )
“Burn & Lurn” ( H.G.M. Overbeek )
“Like Lipstik Traces” ( Hixsept )
“All City Witters” ( Kitchen )
Honet´s favorite surface 2009, concrete walls, trains or something else?
I don’t care about the surface : I just care about the atmosphere of the place, the adventures for making it and the people I’m with !
Honet 2010 wants still to be called a classic graffiti writer?
I’m a graffiti-writer and a graffiti-artist, yes. From the first moment and till death ! It can’t be just “classic”, “avant-garde” or “vandal”, graffiti is a “way of life” with an infinity of possibilities…
What you can tell us about the Topsafe Onlinegallery from London?
This serigraphy is telling our stories exploring urban empty spaces, the top part was a drawing I did on a billboard for a big show at the Fondation Cartier in Paris ! the entrances / exits symbolised the 3 differents spaces that we used to visit : catacombs / bunkers / churches, we can imagine many parallel like : undergroud / ground / overground, it’s about a vertical travel from the crypt to the sky !
And the 3 personnages ( magical number ) are in a kind of perfect and poetical equilibrium where everyone is at the same time helping and beiing help by an other one !
On the bottom, the clock and the bird are just details from some places I’ve been ( like we’re inside a church ) but also some kind of “classical” references about “being free and enjoying every second of life before the end”
On your website we could see great photo shots of several east european spots you been to. Possibly you can share a story connected to the photos?
I’m always trying to tell a story, mixing images of cities architectures, actions, food and some paintings in the middle : as the result of all this “everyday life” atmosphere…and about the rest you have to let your imagition’s working ! But basically the answer is in your question : aventuresextraordinaires.fr
It seems you dont care showing your face anymore, on the internet or in videos, any special reason for that?
Beiing a graffiti artist is something strange, quite paradoxical ! You want to be anonym and famous at the same time…After all those years I learned about how to use my image, more or less! And I learned how to “play” with the system, always being borderline in between doing “official” works and some “acceptable” illegal things, trying to never go to far! In our “Latin” country the law is quite “flexible”, it only depend on your attitude!
Scenario: Honet need to pack and have to go to an very special area, what would be the destination and what you would take with you?
I would choose the highest church bell tower around, like the ones of Notre-Dame! I would bring some bottles of beer and from there I will enjoy the full moonlight, the sunrise, the landscape, Paris under my feet, the drunkenness of this fragil moment !
and if you have the chance to ask 5 others to go with you..
My best friends, but I’m afraid they are more than 5………….
Thanks for the smalltalk, anything to add about future plans, what to expect from Honet in the next months?
I even don’t know what I will do tomorrow, but I hope lots of good surprises…
good luck for 2010! See you soon
graffiti is a “way of life” with an infinity of possibilities… . .that frame of mind is needed to create new possibilities for street art which can get stale. honet is top dog. im still waiting for my copy of book like lipstick traces . .
[...] Bonus: Smalltalk med Honet. [...]