all right, i’ve got very few minutes to update the blog since we’re very close to the show opening (saturday 24th) and there’s still a lot to do. as a plus, i’m sick of writing on a website and you guys should be tired of watching it all on a monitor. why dont you get your ass down here for once? it’s going to be fun.

you can see it all in the video linked above, but anyway, here’s what king MOMO managed to do with the help of three different artesans from grottaglie, Peppino the carpenter, Eligio the ceramicist and me, the fat printer. it all happened in just 10 days.

a crazy edition on wood called “color selection”

some nice ceramic sculptures based on his previous project 3520 wich later got glaced and fired

and some new kick ass 7 colors screenprints at studiocromie

he kept us all busy while he was painting these two walls and making a big installation for the gallery show

all this was done right by the end of the festival. in this period i’m usually crazy tired and stressed but mr. MOMO was such a good company that this time was different, he brought me back to some primitive smiling and happyness and that’s what he’s all about. thanks!

now we’re talking!
108 came here for just 4 days and we’ve managed to paint this massive wall and make some beautifully obscure set of prints!

this is so big and beautiful that it goes straight in your face when you pass by and you just cant pretend it’s not there

as you can see, the big change since last year is that he’s adding some color bits here and there, but it does not really matters, the result is still dramatically morbid

here’s one little rushed video

this was the first time ever i saw Sam 3 going abstract

not so much after all, if you’re watching from this one very specific angle of my bathroom window, these lines and shapes will definitely remind you something

here there’s a little video to show you the process and some people wondering about where and how would these weird lines converge

that’s what sam did here, a huge dick and some lovely sculptures, from these smaller editioned ones

to this scary massive one

this one was so heavy that it took three of us to accidentally drop it and break it in two pieces. we soon figured out that was a bless, we would have never been able to lift it in one piece, luckily, the cracks on both pieces were still fitting perfectly and it’s now ruling the view of a sweet corner of the ceramic district

on another note, i should remind you all that it’s one week missing to the opening of the final group show, you still sure you want to see it all from the internet?

crazy time at Fame festival. in the past three weeks we’ve been working with 5 artists at the same time. this is what the spanish Escif came up with. Applause please (photo above) was painted on the stadium walls, video here

he kept painting here and there

and went conceptual on this video.

this was actually part of an installation.
after filming we left the cans there to see what would have happened in the next few hours. escif left town right after it and i was going back there each day to see some progress and take some pictures. surpise surprise, nothing happened for four entire days. the pictures are so boring they’re not even worth sharing on this blog.
at some point during the fifth day, somebody stole one can, just one and without leaving any track

the others were still there, that place has a lot of traffic usually but nobody was touching them. Escif thought we had to place our bet on some drunk fool on the weekend, he would have definitely killed the spot but no, nothing happened till the end.
the remaining cans were removed six days after the installation and whoever took them didnt even write his name on the wall

i could say it’s interesting and it was fitting with the idea of the video, to leave the cans there and see what people would do, depending on the context, maybe this wasnt the right context for a mess to happen but come on, i was expecting at least some “maria ti amo”
that was just very disappointing

being the least collaborative person i know, im not much into collaborations, not even if i’m not involved.
it happens quite often though, that artists meet each other here and want to do shit togheter. for how guilty i can feel, i cant help it and i always do my best to sweetly sabotage it
there was nothing i could do with Brad Downey and Akay though, other then an exception. they’re so twisted in what they both do, that when they’re togheter it doesnt even look like a collaboration, it’s just a powerful combo and they’re always ready to fuck with everything around.

the pasta curtain above as all the pieces below, were made and filmed in just 6 days

this video was shot in the city centre, by the time everything was set up there was a pretty impressive crowd watching, i didnt bother asking then but i hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

then we moved downtwon to delete some ugly cars

and play with found objects in these narrow little alleys

“brakay” was another nice twist to FAME festival routine. i’ve been asked from people in town what these new two artists do, i tried to explain, providing examples and stories, and when they finally saw the pieces they did here, most of the times the same people would come up with a smile and simply ask : why ?

i couldnt really give an answer if not: just because! or “why not?” or even “to make you smile”

now that im supposed to write something to go with these pictures, i’d say that to me, these pieces and actions reflect pretty faithfully the entire festival atmosphere and attitude. A bunch of kids playing freely with the context, for fun, improvising totally unnecessary things that will eventually look good or even have a meaning or a message.
the truth is that it just feels great to do what we really like to do, especially because we were never asked to do it and it wasnt supposed to be done at all

so you do your shit, somebody will point it out as illegal, some other will call it art, but after all, legality has never been fun and art is just so BORING when it’s so much “art” that it’s better to let others do the talking
we dont really give a fuck

Nespoon is the first Polish artist we’ve worked with! she’s super determined and very very prolific

this is just a selection of pictures to show you what she did here in town, she spent almost one month here working in close contact with one of the artisans in the ceramic district

and in the meantime she was painting big beautiful stencils here and there in the city.

when ceramics were finally ready, she installed them all around

this last piece is based on Die Sterntaler

a huge thank you to Nespoon and Marcin for being so much indipendent and constantly positive while they were here, working like crazy, under such a non-polish sun

Vhils is one of those artists that just does things at last minute, i guess he has to feel pressure to get to do them. bad for him (or good?) that he also likes to have a lot on his plate. he gets so busy all the time that he just have last minutes in his life.
it’s a romantic way to say that since i met him i’ve always and only seen him workings his ass

in just 6 days we managed to build a wall in the gallery (picture below) and destroy it (picture above)

he did a big beautiful piece on the wall downtown

and several pieces on paper and wood for the final group show (opening on the 24th of september)

he left yesterday and im sure he’s already running after some other lastminute shit somewhere else in the world, nice one alex

only for italian speakers, unfortunately

in just one week Grottaglie has gained 4 new big wall paintings. Blu and Erica il Cane were - and still are - spinning around europe and they just had a few days to spend in town.

Erica il cane painted this wolf stealing ceramics in the heart of the ceramic district,

he did it in just one day and he moved forward to another wall, in the old town

being famous in Grottaglie for how unlucky he his, always getting into troubles when he paints here, we were sure something was going to happen this time too. the aggravating was that we had been told a lot about the old lady living in the building on the side, she was a tough one to deal with and she was making us think, there were going to be fireworks this time

luckily, for how tough she could have been, she had no words, as everybody else in the neighbourhood. Im sure she felt the same way we all did: hands down for il cane, this is a hell of a beautiful painting!

…in the meanwhile, in the opposite corner of the town, Blu was painting another wall with just a very long pole and a ladder

here it is :

and the spanish Aryz was getting warmed up while i was freaking out in search of a big wall for him too. it finally happened, after some weird wrangling with the owners of the soil and boom, he pulls out this huge shrimp on lsd (the shrimp, not aryz)

aryz doesnt do drugs, he’s 22 years old (yes Vhils, he’s the youngest now, get over it, we’re old) and it’s just beautiful he decided to put all his energies into painting walls, his skills and motivation makes me scared about what he’ll be able to do in the future. i mean, he’s just 22 and he’s already so fucking good !!!
so yes, we’ll be watching, welcome in the family

a little gossip now, somebody opened a page on facebook, it says “basta con il fame festival a grottaglie” wich means “we’ve had enough with this fame festival in grottaglie” here it is

oooh come on! right now that we were starting to have fun ?!?