PISA73
Biografie

Ausstellungen

Interview for SuccoAcido Magazin, Italy

by Marion Weber

This is:
A dive through spray-can-color-soaked-windrow.
A fight against boredom and surveillance. TO trip from the darkness of ignorance to light.

...

SA: So then... Cast off! PISA73 please introduce yourself:
P: Name’s obviously pisa73, the name doesn't have any hidden meaning whatsoever. I live in Berlin and I am working as a freelance designer, illustrator and artist. 
Last year I opened a small gallery space which has featured two exhibitions so far. Back in 1990 I abused spray-cans for the first time and their appeal hasn't failed to captivate me yet.

SA: Your artistic expression: “Street- Art”
Speak about this special enunciation of creative urges:
P: For starters I despise the term "street-art" for at least two reasons. 
First, it's been overused on the media side by hordes of authors, journalists and students, and on the activist side by hipster-wanna-be-graphic-design-students whose easy access to color printers has spawned a tsunami of half-assed designs. Second, as friend once pointed out, street-art can also include pantomimes or jugglers. 
I wouldn't feel comfortable mingling with those characters.
Resulting from a lack of a better term I’ve decided to use the label urban-art which in my opinion covers graffiti, posters ("street-art"), chalk scribbles, installations or interventions in the urban landscape, as well as certain aspects of photography or illustration. The term includes art forms that are influenced by the urban habitat.
It’s also a common misconception to call my work street-art because most of it never makes it to the streets. 
The common denominator is my choice of tools, like spray-cans and markers, and - at least in part - the subjects I am working with. I don't want to analyze my motivations for sticking to a certain style, my work is what is.
While I don't agree with the aesthetics of most of what I see in streets it's good to have visual evidence for the impossibility of keeping everything under surveillance.

SA: Term was chosen by virtue of the admittedly strange definition in a press release for an exhibition of you and Evol in 2006. I am assuaged, obviously you have not changed vocation yet.
Delineate then these kinds of aesthetics you don’t agree with:
P: To put it as simple as possible: most of what's happening in the streets around me these days- at least in my opinion- sucks. Most of it is uninspired, unreflected and badly placed.
based on what i see (mostly in Berlin) "street-art" as almost vanished, leading to the not too farfetched conclusion that for many protagonists it was fad which was disposed of as soon as the next thing made an appearance. With many ups and downs graffiti is still around but unfortunately the art form doesn't keep up with technical development and widespread availability of material.
This may require some explanation: looking back to the early and mid 90s, graffiti required devotion- not only to sketching and painting- but also to finding stores or mail order places where to buy your paint, which was limited to only a few brands anyway. Paint was relatively bad and you needed to memorize which shade was too watery or what brand couldn't be painted over another brand. Caps (the plastic nozzles used with spray cans) came in only a few variations (for example thin and fat) and often had to be knicked from spray-canned deodorant at drugstores. Magazines where put out by enthusiasts, mostly in black and white and if you were lucky a four pages or at least a cover in full color. 
Those magazines could be found at hip hop jams, a few record stores or in some mail order catalogs. 
Today we have several brands of spray paint produced and marketed exclusively for graffiti, sold through internet shops or graffiti shops- i know at least seven spray can stores in three districts of Berlin. 
Graffiti magazines can be bought at newsstands. Unfortunately most of what i see these days doesn't come close to what has been out in the 90s. 
That’s a short conclusion for a long intro but it was necessary.

SA: "Visual evidence for the impossibility of keeping everything under surveillance" what do you mean? 
P: We’re being kept in a state of increased alertness because, as we are being told constantly by politicians and the media, we are in danger. In danger of terrorists, violent crime, vandalism. I guess nobody knows how many surveillance cameras are in operation. But despite of cctv (closed circuit television), police or alert neighbourhood watches there's visual proof that they don't see everything.

SA: A good basic we obtained here to let us dive inside your spray– paint- imagery- cosmos. 
I'd like to pick out some of your personal visual evidences and hear you speak about them:
arms... girls... flash points... ulterior motives... information... boredom... etc..

...

SA: Do you think it would be very wrong to say: Meanwhile our society has got supplanted nearly complete ideals like social competence and a discerning reflection of incidents around us with boredom, ignorance and neglect?

P: I tend to believe that this is a somewhat accurate observation, however it is highly subjective. My criticism isn't based on empiric studies or solid data. Certain issues jump at me because I am unconsciously searching for them to corroborate my opinion or bias. I can't say much more about it because my own behavior isn't strictly following my own definition of what's right.

SA: Any explanations or theories (for yourself) what did let lapse our society in this current state of lethargy and insensibility?
P: I would argue that our society isn't insensible but the huge amount of information and products makes it increasingly hard to make a choice. One could come to the conclusion that it must be in somebody's interest to keep the majority in a state of distraction. I am not a conspiracy theorist but sometimes I am afraid there might actually be one. Usually this fear is fueled by a brief look at the tabloids and the tsunami of irrelevant messages, simplifications, distortions and falsifications.

SA: Can art be considered as a functionally method to affect against this, especially urban art, I think of guys like Banksy or Obey, to pick out two very popular examples
P: Urban art, as well as art in general, can at least help to raise awareness to those issues but it won't change a lot. However, i don't think that everything we look at should be a reminder of what is wrong.
It’s hard for me to say anything about the examples you have given, Banksy and Shepard Fairey. First of all, urban art forms like graffiti or posters are a political statement by nature since the artists don't ask for permission when leaving a piece in the urban landscape. Hence it's symbolic for rebelling against a controlled environment, or private property, or corporations, you name it. Whether or not this message is perceived by the broader public is questionable at best. other circumstances speaking against an intentional underlying bigger message is that a lot of urban art is self referential in its primary message - the latter oftentimes proclaiming that something is being done for the sake of doing it - and to make things just a little bit harder it is also using a coded language which isn't intended to be understood by those outside a certain circle. Banksy is mocking authority like nobody else but I am not sure if it was perceived that way. With the hype he has managed to generate I am certain that most people don't realize that he is much more than just hilarious.

SA: Since some years there is a progress noticeable that graffiti art (at least the style) becomes more and more an instrument of commercial forces. Any emotions about that?
P: Oh I have to say quite a bit about this. First of all with a lot of graffiti writers turning to graphic design it doesn't come as a big surprise that the style made its way into design. it is positive that some agencies hire graff writers for assignments, giving them the opportunity to make some money off of their love for graffiti and after years of relentlessly pursuing to get better without a financial goal in mind. That’s one side of the coin, here comes to other. As soon as advertising agencies and corporations are involved chances are they are gonna go over the top, which they invariably do. Graphic designers who had nothing to with it now try to adopt graffiti as a style and since they went to design school or university they actually believe they have the skills to apprehend and copy it quickly. Usually they and their resulting designs suck. As a consequence there is more and more half-assed pseudo-graffiti design out there. Now people who did nothing for graffiti in the past are making a buck stealing it.
What’s even worse is that guerrilla marketing started stealing the locations, too, by paying for wall space which looks like any tag-covered wall. Now we're looking at pseudo-graffiti at pseudo-illegal spots.
I am almost sorry that I don't have the guts to do it, but I’d like to see the reaction of a company which shamelessly exploits graffiti for their business ends, after their headquarters received a real dirty graffiti treatment.

SA: Is all of your work deflected meanwhile on stencil pieces or are you still doing big formatted paintings on walls.
P: I am not limited to stencils but I don't really paint walls no more. Every once in a while I go out for some characters with Base 23 but that's about it.

SA: Tell a bit about your gallery space: "Superplan"
P: I always wanted to have my own place, with a gallery, a design studio and space to paint. Superplan is just that. The gallery also serves as my design studio since that doesn't require much more than a desk and a laptop. Right now I am having about four to five a shows a year. The duration of a show is usually four weeks, between shows I put up my own work mixed with some of Evol's.

SA: What moves you?
P: It's pretty hard to say what moves me... probably whatever keeps me moving. Looking at some of my paintings I’d say partly it is anger and fear, another part might be an adolescent fascination with the opposite sex. There is always an element of power and I’d say most of my pieces question various forms of power, for example the power of a state or an army, or the oppressive smoothness displayed in omnipresent advertising

SA: Who are your influences?
P: I don't like to speak about influences because I am usually not aware of my actual influences. Instead of naming artists it is much easier to say that I am influenced by my friends, the media and my surroundings. I fear artistic influences because they make me feel like a copycat. (However here are a few: wk interact, Evol, James Nachtwey...)

SA: Any heroes?
P: Rob Wright, James Nachtwey (again, sorry about that), Neal Stephenson

SA: Where would you like you art to take you?
P: It would be nice to make a decent living without becoming an asshole.

SA: What does let you keep on going?
P: Support from my girlfriend is most important. I also need to feel some kind of progress in terms of exhibitions and publications; I don't want to be in the same spot in two or three years from now. So far things have been working out, even though much more slowly than I would have hoped and since I’ve been at it for almost 18 years I am convinced that this kind of zeal will eventually pay off.

SA: This is a really serious text let us close this article with something that makes us smile... Tell a funny story... something that happened to you while mauling a wall with spray- cans...
P: While I was painting by myself at a legal wall, a woman approached me to forcefully let me know that she didn't approve of my painting that particular wall. Her furor was fueled even more because nobody had bothered to ask for her permission even though she had to walk past that wall several times a week. When she wouldn't stop ranting I told her that it was a perfect occasion to acquaint herself with the idea of her opinion being irrelevant to a lot of people. This story is not as funny as it true...

SA: Writing here for independent free press, settled in Sicily, they adore to speak about eating… to please them, let us talk a bit about food… some south German special meals or other foods you miss in Berlin?
P: I have a pretty simple taste and so far I have been happy with what Berlin has to offer. 
One major problem is that Berlin doesn't have decent bread, which can actually spoil my breakfast. My roots into southern german food aren't too deep and since I rarely eat meat there isn't much to miss. I do miss Kässpätzle** (come on , you explain 'em!) tho. 
Usually I spend my friday evenings at an Italian place called "Il Ritrovo" hoping to get some pasta with seafood or a pizza.

SA: Best food in Berlin?
P: seriously, don't ask me...

SA: Anything you want to say at the end?
P: Nope. i think.

SA: Thank's a lot for this enormous number of words. So long!