I have had the luck to be invited to the Xeex (which means fight in Wolof) Festival in Dakar. This time, the purpose was to sensibilize people from the medina with pollution: Xeex Pollution! Everything happened really fast and from one day to another I found myself in Senegal right after coming back from Vietnam…
It has been 3 magical days ; painting with the locals, eating typical dishes prepared by the Mama living next door and enjoying people goodness and enthusiast. I feel very grateful to everybody for opening their houses and hearts so naturally. This painting goes for « tous les amis du quartier » .
Special thanks to Nico and the guys from BIFALL EUKHLOU !!!

Last september I have been contacted by Greenpeace to make a mural during one of their intervention against the illegal construction of the Algarrobico : a HUGE hotel they were building in the middle of the natural reserve Cabo de Gata. We broke into the hotel and barricaded there during 3 days, that is the time it took me and my super motivated helpers to paint the mural. I made a sketch that is basically an allegory of the fight between Nature and constructors, at the beginning it was much more detailed but as we only had short time of work, I have simplified it to finish it on time. To me, the best achievement of this experience is definitely to have made it with the poor means and few time we had, and the great working spirit during these 3 days. Thanks to all.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Here is my part of the N-spired Interactive Project. It consists in 3 things: Anyone can relates any kind of short stories on the webpage; the most voted story inspires a design interpreted by an artist for Tshirts and silkscreens; and there is a social act bounded to the whole theme. Through your mobile and an application online, the design is the code that leads you to the real story. In my case, the story was about a guy that decides to leave on the street for a while, it relates his feelings and especially the way he perceive the look of the others on him. For the social act, we decided to build a foldable house and give it to a homeless. You can check the whole story and get the Tshirts at the Nspired Story webpage, they are cheap: 20€!

Chapter 2: Faceless – the foldable house on wheels from The N-spired Story on Vimeo.

Here are the for vases once kilned, they are the result of my last trip to Vietnam. This time, as I explained in the making of post, I have been willing to experiment with another ceramic technique, and so, I went to Bat Trang: “The white ceramic village”. It is 15kms away from Hanoi and I spent there almost a week painting on the vases in Mr Nguyen Quy Son studio.
This technique was quite new to me and I found it pretty exciting and tricky at the same time.
You are ought to know that: What goes in the kiln comes out in a totally different way…

I need to do more!

Back again in Hanoi to learn some more about the ceramic. This time I went to Bat Trang to paint on some potteries. I wanted to use a typical support from the village and the oriental countries as are the vases. In Bat Trang, you can see vases surrounded by dog figure’s all over town, so my aim was to confront an “overused” support by giving it my own western interpretation. You can see the pieces once kilned here.

After that, I went back to Phu Lang, where I have worked another kind of technique last year, to say hello to everybody and especially my good Artist friend’s Tuan…Once more, we have had some crazy Karaokes and good laughs.

I managed to do a 3tteapot and it felt good to see the pieces I left there last year kilned and looking “Phu Lang blackish”.

This village is definitely an enchanting place and the people there are wonderful!

Here is the interview with Alberto de Pedro, the photographer who has been following me while doing this cement tags serie:
These last months 3TTman left sprays and paint aside to promote cement. You could tell us why?
What gave me the idea first was to see a cement wall on which children had drawn their names, their declarations of love … when it was still fresh. It felt very raw and natural at the same time. Back in these days I was doing some big reforms in the studio and I was getting familiar with these workers technics, so I decided to apply it in the streets.

So your approach also refers to unconscious impulses of people who express themselves in the street?
Correct! I’m fascinated by these interventions in the street because they often reveal a more spontaneous expression and protest than when someone is consciously working in public space. Besides, I did the first text “Mañana día de huella General” after seeing the streets bombed of tags to promote a general strike. One had the impression that all the grandpas of the district went down to write their will on the walls.

It was just the day before the strike. Can you explain us the meaning of this text.
At that point I decided to make my own campaign claims, that starts with the right to write in the street. Hence the pun between “Huella” (t: Print) and Huelga (t: Strike).

The texts always refer to the specific context of working on the streets. You play very often with some antagonism in the message?
I want to give a touch of autocynisme to my work. I don’t like to impose myself too much when it comes to send a message or an opinion, I prefer to allow more freedom of interpretation to the viewer, that’s why I play on multiple readings. I also like that behind a primary aspect this hides a more subversive message.

Why cement?
Graphically it is a technique that refers to instinctive graffiti, like the one that was picturing Brassaï in the 50th, I wanted to go back to the basics in a way. It also gives an artistic value to a technique that is considered as a working proletariat’s one, and i find that interesting.

I guess it also deals with the longevity of the piece and the current situation in Madrid?
Sure, it adds a new variable to the typical Intrinsically rules of graffiti and it’s interesting to see how people will interact with that. Especially here in Madrid where both the antigraffiti brigades and writers are very active. Given the panorama, the cement seems to me a good technical issue concerning visibility and longevity of the piece. In addition the disguise of worker allows me to pass unnoticed from the police.

In the so-called “street art” today, there are many things that are meaningless. What brings this technique?
The saturation of information that exists in the street today brings all those who use public space as a medium of communication (advertisers, graffiti writers, artists, architects, bill-poster…) to seek for more visibility at any cost. In addition to bring a bit of fresh blood, I find it interesting to think that such a rudimentary technique could have more visual impact than many marketing campaigns. And I think that’s the case.

What kind of walls are you seeking for?
Brick walls of abandonned local or under construction ones…

You even left a free expression’s wall. Tell us how that happened.
I was doing “Opinion sur rue”* in the prostitutes’s neighborhood when one of the girls asked me if she could sign. As surely as the girls were those who had the right to reclaim their lives in the neighborhood, I came back prepare them a Hall of Fame on the wall next door. We had a good time to seeing the girls drawing, at the beginning they were a little hesitant but after a while there was no way to stop them. In addition I like how the 2 walls work together.
* “Opinion sur rue” is a pun between Opinion on the street and the French expression “avoir Pignon sur rue” which roughly translates as “have a good place on the street”.

These pieces of cement, would they have the same meaning if you had them done legaly?
There’s no need to have permission and it is precisely the fact that the technique allows you to work in the center without authorization that is good.

Madrid has changed in 10 years, the streets are not as welcoming as before. You’ve had problems with the cement?
I started a piece in the Fuencarral’s street (very commercial street in Madrid), the police had gone several times by without noticing anything and when it just remained for me to write the council’s guys blew the whistle on me. At first they wanted to take me to the police, but I convinced them to remove the wet cement and let me go. We took the opportunity to do “No me gusta escribir en las paredes” (t: I don’t like to write on the walls. cit: May 68) on another 200 meters away spot.

Almost all pieces have a size of 1.5 mx2m. How long will do you last?
Between the time I start doing the mix and I finish writing, 2 hours or something

You’ve left the head of Calle Corredera for 6 months on the street, between tags and buffs it has gone through many phases. After that you’ve painted it. Is this the next step is color?
I think I’m done with the texts at the moment and it’s true that the desire to use this technique of drawing and color tickles me ..

To finish with cement, what does that mean “Mas y menos arte obra” *?
It has two levels of reading, the first is that I myself am not even sure of which position I am in between the artist and the laborer when I do the cement thing … And the second is a critique to the world of art in general and all the show business surrounding it. Basically it means “Less waffle and more action!”
* Obra word has several meanings: Obra as a construction place or Obra as a piece of art.

And the indoor works, how’s the sculpture I saw the other day in your studio going? It is finished?
It is over and I am making more of the same series. Besides, it makes me want to use the sculptures on the street.

Last year you were speaking with Eko about a future project in Vietnam. How did it go?
It has been an amazing experience both in human and professional aspects. I made several trips over there in 2010 to work the mosaic and ceramic in a small village. I kept good friends there and I go back in a month to continue to perfect the technique.

I am just coming back from Vietnam where I have been spending most of the time in a small village called Phu Lang at 60km from Hanoi. Phu Lang is the last survivor of an old pottery Village triangle. It is incredibly picturesque and relaxed with its outstanding countryside and its streets full of wooden structures, that will lately be used to burn the the potteries and give it its peculiar shiny/black aspect (in the pictures, my sculptures hasn’t been burnt yet).

3TTMAN SCULPTURE IN HANOI from 3ttman on Vimeo.

There, I have been living in Tuan’s house, a young and brilliant artist that introduced me to the technique, the connexion was immediate and we have had loads of fun during my stay.

He prepared amazing meals like the 6 hours long charcoal grilled pottery chicken… a delicious typical meal from Phu Lang.

And the not-to-miss state of the art Karaoké where we have been spending most of the crazy nights with the rest of the team!

I instantly fell in love with Phu Lang, its atmosphere, the people there and the landscapes…

Here is the result of the mosaic, it is located in the centre of Hanoi on the dyke that used to isolate the city from the red river; just on the right side of the famous Long Bien bridge.

The result is very nice, though the format makes it difficult to get a good picture of the whole piece… So I mostly put close-ups on this post. Many thanks to Monica and César from the spanish ambassy for making this project possible.

Check out the making of in the previous post.

Last spring I spent almost 2 months in Hanoi doing a 30 meters long mosaic, invited by the Spanish embassy as a part of the “Hanoi 2010 Milenium Mosaic Mural”. After doing some sketches, I decided to spontaneously draw on the floor using elements I would have previously imagined in the some sketches.

During that time, I made friends eating dogs (without me knowing it) and drinking rice liquor with the team that would help me during the second step: putting the mosaic tiles on the draw.

The third step consisted in cutting the mosaic in pieces and then paste it on the finale mural. It has been another great human and artistic experience, though I sometimes had to “fight” and waste energy to be understood and get the job correctly done. But the result definitely deserves it!