A look back on my project in Caracas which was my last of 2019! This full loop we just completed around the sun took me to the Ivory Coast, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Slovenia, Palestine, Israel, Mayotte, the UK, and Venezuela. It was challenging at times, especially painting in the brutally violent slum of Le Trou in Abidjan where my friend/assistant Dudu got held hostage. In the end I want to thank the gang members for making Dudu and I stronger and even more prepared for future delicate situations. But above all this year was a succession of beautiful moments thanks to the lovely people I shared it with, and thanks to whoever invented paint. Genius.
It would be impossible for me to name everyone who contributed to making this year the best one I've ever lived. But massive thank you to Katy @camargokgh , Manon N, Jalal, Juliet, @amelie_amelove, @jodibona, Yara, Yanel, Emily, Sheherazade! And last but not least: Dudu!
My thoughts go to the humans around the world who've suffered this year again because a very small bunch other humans are greedy as fuck. This unfairness will fuel my art in 2020, like it did last year and the year before.
Lots of love to religious minorities who are suffering tremendously and in huge numbers, particularly across Asia. 🌙 .
The video is by @dougolivares at @urijijami
#Caracas #venezuela #video #streetart #ShareTheWordProject #uriji #petare #sanblas #2019
New print available on my online shop! (link in the bio)
Limited edition of 35 prints. 40x50 cm
Pigmentary print on 300 gsm mat paper
Numbered and signed by the artist. "Vida" is the Spanish word for "Life". It is a word I was asked to paint 3 times over the last few months in slums I worked in for Share The Word Project. I wrote it in French in the Ivory Coast, then in arabic in Palestine and in Spanish in Venezuela.
As a got back home from Venezuela I thought that the word "vida" says so much about the slums of Caracas. People are making up for the lack of outside help and the fact that 15% of the population has left the country. They compensate by being more alive than ever, caring for each other, and being very active in their communities. Even an extremely brutal can't take away life. And as Venezuelans will tell you quoting the Bible : "Mientras hay vida hay esperanza"! (="While there is life, there is hope") --- Shipment worlwide apart from North Korea, Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen. I'm very sorry about this, I know it's unfair, I hate seeing these countries being excluded, I just can't find a way to send the prints there. I guess I'll just have to carry on painting murals in those places.
#print #art #artwork #sebtoussaint #patterns #artforsale #vida #urbanart #contemporaryart #geometry
After cycling around the world in 2011 and 2012, I realised how a large portion of the world's population lives excluded, and I thought of a modest way to try and tackle this. I started “Share The Word Project” in 2013 because I thought I could use art as a tool to make marginalised populations a little more visible. The communities I've worked with face all kinds of problems, but wherever I've been, the feeling and the reality of being excluded is always striking. I know how important it is to be made part of a collective. It's what people do with me all the time, and it's the greatest feeling. I can only imagine that being excluded must be the worst feeling. I arrived here in a neighbourhood that isn't mine, in a far away city, in a foreign country on a different continent. But in a matter of weeks I've been made part of the community.
My work is the result of an artist meeting a community. My murals are given birth to like this. Therefore I have to congratulate the community of San Blas, Petare in Caracas for doing everything they could in order to make the project work! Together during the last month, we showed a very positive side of Petare on social media, on radio stations, in cultural venues and at the UCAB university. We made people from the outside come to visit a neighbourhood they would never have been to. Also, I've received many message of Venezuelans living outside Petare, and often living abroad, saying that the project has given them hope, or has made them see their country in a different way.
One could have thought that Petare would be very politicaly divided, and that the lack of food, water and power might have made the place hostile in many ways. But from my experience, this crisis is making people care for their neighbours even more, it's making them think of new ways of organising their communities. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that Venezuela has to suss out in order to pull forwards. But if there's one thing that gives me hope, it's the people.
