SOEM: “In my mural for NNWallery, I wanted to show that we can coexist in harmony and convey freedom”
We are at the Base Elements Gallery with SOEM. This graffiti artist is no longer called by his given name, except by his family. And it's because SOEM is not the name of his character, it's the essence of this artist, honest and transparent, who has been dedicated to contemporary urban art for over 30 years. He chose his name for the strength that these four letters convey and the typographic possibilities he knew they could offer.
The word graffiti comes from the Italian term graffiare -to scratch- and its origin comes from the Greek word graphein -to write-. Graffiti emerged in the sixties as a form of self-affirmation, characterized by being ephemeral, illegal, and confrontational. Its expression on walls, buses, or monuments took root mainly in the Manhattan subway. Graffiti artists wanted to make themselves seen and spread their name, relying on the abundance of repetitions and boldness in their locations. “As a teenager, discovering hip-hop culture and graffiti culture from New York changed me; I also delved into rap music and the graffiti movement combined with dance. I saw how people danced and painted, and that captivated me”, SOEM tells us about his growing interest in this culture since the age of 12.
In the 80s, urban youth from ghettos marginalized by ethnicity and race expressed themselves against the system through music, dance, and art, giving rise to hip hop. They spread the new culture to the world despite initial rejection due to its origin. It arrived in Europe later and did not carry the ghetto's protest connotations; here, it spread linked to social marginalization. SOEM tells us that Paris and London have always been the European reference point for this trend: “Paris has always been very close to New York, but creating its own style by mixing it with hip hop culture, there are many galleries dedicated to it. In these two cities, urban art is part of the city, it's super integrated”. On the other hand, in Barcelona, even being the most artistic city in Spain, there are very few spaces enabled for painting. “Things have changed a lot, before there were fewer graffiti artists and you could paint more peacefully. For example, in Poblenou they let you paint the walls, you could make murals; but a law came out in 2005 and they took away all the walls that we had secured and if we continued painting we were fined. In the end, what has happened is that painting is done illegally and that's a problem”, SOEM reports. It's only very recently that this form of art has become part of galleries: “there's a lack of acceptance, support, and resources. It's curious because one of the most famous paint brands that allowed us to make a big change artistically in terms of shapes and colors is from here”, SOEM claims. The artist is referring to Montana Colors, a Barcelona-based brand that achieved international projection with the launch of its first spray paint product, attracting writers and artists from France, Germany, Switzerland, or Italy to try the product.
Siguiendo la cultura hiphop, y a través de la música, SOEM se adentró en el mundo del grafiti. Xavi Franquesa, fundador y director creativo de Il·lacions, un espacio donde confluyen el mestizaje de disciplinas y se experimenta sobre los cánones funcionales y estéticos, ha sido quien nos ha puesto en contacto con él para el nuevo trabajo de NNShutters, perteneciente al proyecto NNWalery.
NNWallery es una iniciativa para mejorar el entorno y la percepción de las personas que habitan y transitan en los espacios donde intervenimos, como, por ejemplo, muros de obra, cerramientos o persianas en comercios o parkings, etc. El programa permite transformar los espacios en espectaculares murales donde artistas urbanos, vinculados a Barcelona, expresan libremente lo que la ciudad les inspira. “Me cautivó la idea que quieren transmitir de mejorar el entorno a través de artistas urbanos. Cuando me llegó la petición empecé a fijarme en otras obras que tienen y se reconocen por los colores corporativos, me parece una muy buena iniciativa por parte de Nuñez i Navarro”, afirma SOEM.
It's no coincidence that Xavi Franquesa and Joan Tarragó, have put us in touch with SOEM, who became part of the renowned international graffiti collective MAC, the acronym for Death to the fools or “creation of mural art”, a powerful creative group that was born in Paris. “Being part of this group is a great achievement after admiring them for so many years”, SOEM tells us. The artist left his job at the family business to dedicate himself to his true passion. With little financial resources, he sought his place and went to the United States to learn more about this art: “a graffiti artist I met in New York helped me a lot, he saw my worth in this field and that gave me the strength to continue on this path. Three years later, I started to earn an income doing what I love most”, the graffiti artist acknowledges.
The wild style, which is complex in its graphics, is a New York style that has always excited him and allowed him to express himself and stand out. He defines his style as “peculiar”, knowing that his works are recognized as his own without needing to sign them, but he is aware that graffiti has a hard time entering art galleries. For this reason, he began to investigate how to take his style towards contemporary art without losing its essence, and from this mixture, his distinctive signature has emerged: “I play with typography, similar but unique. I like to create things from scratch and always evolve my style. In my murals, I tend to use a lot of colors, for me color is life and I want to convey strength with my typography”, he asserts. And he concludes, “I feel proud that they buy my name”.
We found your mural in the NNparking at Plaça Bonsuccés number 7. “It has been a pleasure to be able to express myself on one of the shutters of Núñez i Navarro, helping the city of Barcelona to look even more beautiful”, comments SOEM. He explains that the process of thinking about what to do in that space was quite a challenge: “I wanted to create a city dancing to the rhythm of SOEM. It signifies the sun, the light, and the buildings dancing in unison. I wanted to show that we can coexist in harmony and not the opposite. Above all, I wanted to convey freedom”.
The project for NNShutters has been their latest work, in addition to continuing to create contemporary art like their series of #Superheroes from childhood, continuing to paint private commissions for clients, and conducting workshops for companies dedicated to children.
