El Seed 🇨🇵 Arabic Graffiti • Street Art • Print Release

[dreadnatty]

New eL Seed mural in Paris (photo from StreetArtNews)

[johnnyh]

Cheers for that dread he does awesome work

[dreadnatty]

Tunisian artist popularizes 'calligraffiti'

www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/faouzi-khleefi-el-seed.html#

Born Faouzi Khleefi to Tunisian parents in Paris, the artist eL Seed marries Arabic calligraphy with graffiti and gives it a modern, colorful twist. Taking up “calligraffiti” full-time just a few years ago, the iconoclastic artist has already left his indelible mark on edifices all over the world. From Gabes, Tunisia, where he painted an imposing minaret in 2012, to Montreal, Paris, New York, Dubai and Doha, eL Seed has spread his far-reaching creative wings.

Summary⎙ Print Tunisian-born eL Seed, an internationally famous artist and sculptor, uses Arabic-style "calligraffiti" to promote cross-cultural tolerance.
Author Daria DanielPosted December 4, 2014
Promoting a universal message of tolerance while limning a strong Arab identity, he gracefully balances his personality as a contemporary artist with his social responsibility. eL Seed aims to bridge the gap between the East and the West — a fetishized disconnect he rejects. His approach is not pedagogical but rather aesthetic and demonstrative. His pieces are visually striking and often overwhelming in size, seeking to take hold of the viewer in a visceral way by means of color, composition and message.

eL Seed’s most current exhibit, “Declaration,” featuring calligraffiti sculptures, runs through Dec. 27 at Tashkeel Studio Hub in Nad Al Sheba, Dubai.

View our slideshow on eL Seed's 'calligraffiti' »

Al-Monitor: Talk to us about your epithet. What spoke to you about Corneille”s “Le Cid,” that you would adopt this namesake?

eL Seed: I started getting into graffiti in the late ’90s but I didn’t have a proper name. In French class, at the age of 16, we studied the play “Le Cid” and our teacher explained that the word “Cid” came from the Arabic “Al Sayed” meaning “the man/the master.” In my head I thought, “I am the man,” so I decided to call myself eL Seed. I used to write it "El Scid" and later I changed it to eL Seed.

Al-Monitor: Are you inspired by one particular city over any other? How do the changed landscapes from New York to Paris and Gabes affect the direction of your work?

eL Seed: My work is inspired by the Arabic proverbial tradition, so I write messages. There is meaning in each piece. Those messages are always relevant to the place and people where I paint, but with a universal dimension so anyone in the world can relate to them. Painting in the street, you bring art to the people, a message addressed directly to them, in a beautiful and aesthetic way. I think it’s a generous act. That is what makes street art so powerful.

Al-Monitor: Can you share your greatest personal or artistic achievement?

eL Seed: My greatest personal achievement is the painting I did on the Jara mosque in my hometown of Gabes in Tunisia. After getting the approval from the local imam and town mayor, I spent one month suspended 47 meters [154 feet] above the ground painting the tallest minaret in the country. The mural displays a verse from the Quran about mutual tolerance: “O mankind, we have created you from a male and a female and made people and tribes so you may know each other.” What I liked most about this verse is that it was not only addressed to the Muslim community but it was a universal message, an invitation for people with different opinions and from different religions and backgrounds to meet and understand each other in spite of their differences.

Al-Monitor: You have mentioned that the Jara Mosque mural was not aptly covered by media in Tunisia. Have you seen a change since then in a willingness to cover more positive news?

eL Seed: Yes, I have noticed a small change. It was sad and disappointing to see that media outlets like CNN or BBC talked about the project, whereas no one covered it in Tunisia. I just regret that for the most part, media focuses on relaying sensational events.

Al-Monitor: If you had access to any platform in the world, where would you paint? Are there any spaces you feel would promote greater cross-cultural understanding over others?

eL Seed: There are so many places in the world I would love to paint. I am not sure if it is the space or the message/artwork that promotes greater cross-cultural tolerance. Opening the conversation is what allows for understanding between people. That is the ultimate goal of my artwork: talking about issues, opening debates with respect and consideration towards everyone.

Al-Monitor: Would you be interested in future collaborations, and with whom?

eL Seed: I would love to collaborate with artists in different fields — musicians, dancers, filmmakers — and explore how my work can expand through different mediums. I”ve done it in the past but I would love to collaborate again with the multi-disciplinary artist The Narcicyst.

Al-Monitor: Can you speak about your past collaboration with the artist Hest and his impression on your work?

eL Seed: Hest is the one who brought me back to graffiti when I totally stopped. I will always be indebted to him. I have a deep respect for him and his work. He inspires me a lot. We had the chance to collaborate on two pieces when we both lived in Montreal. It was an amazing experience. He is like my brother.

Al-Monitor: You mention a possible move towards sculpture. What is it that excites you about this medium over calligraffiti?

eL Seed: I recently had my first show in Dubai featuring large-scale sculptures. They weave through the walls and floors, spilling beyond the confines of the gallery. Each stroke of a letter or word seeks to build an affinity with the spectator and invites them to be part of the conversation — a conversation between the poem, the language and the form. These new works are an attempt to involve the viewer with the piece on a deeper level and move away from simply being a spectator. Jean Cocteau said, “There is no love. There are only proofs of love.” Bringing my art into sculpture was a way to allow it to materialize. The work is still tied to my instinctive visual language, but by releasing the “letter forms,” I have discovered a new territory for expression that celebrates and elaborates my deep respect and love for this art.

Al-Monitor: Is it increasingly difficult to maintain the spontaneity of graffiti culture while commissioned for works?

eL Seed: The spontaneity of graffiti culture is still inherent in the process of creation. In commissioned works, the only condition imposed on you is the wall you are painting. Despite the limitation of the wall, I keep my entire freedom in the art of creation.

Al-Monitor: The "Lost Walls" project traced a collective memory across Tunisia. In what ways was the journey and painting process personally transformative?

eL Seed: I thought I knew Tunisia, but through the "Lost Walls" project I discovered a lot of things foreign to me. The goal at the beginning was to have other people discover Tunisia, but I actually discovered it at the very same time. It made me realize the beauty and depth of my own heritage and history. I discovered the struggles of my people in some of the most neglected parts of Tunisia. This whole journey transformed me, as I now feel more connected to my country and want to develop more projects there.

Al-Monitor: In your book “Lost Walls: A Calligraffiti Journey Through Tunisia,” you comment, “Painting is just an excuse to meet people.” Can you describe a meaningful encounter of yours while painting?

eL Seed: During my road trip around Tunisia in 2013, I stopped in a village called Ksar Haddada. I found an interesting wall, so I asked if it belonged to anyone. A man told me that it was his and that I could paint on it. I was almost done when a young boy followed by his uncle came up to me, visibly upset, and asked what I was doing. It was [the man's] house and he immediately asked me to erase it. I was confused and apologized to him. I explained that I had obtained permission from another, a man who turned out to be his nephew. I asked him if I could just finish the piece, and then I would paint over it. He agreed. As I was finishing up, his nephew came back and said that his uncle actually loved the work and there was no need to erase it. A conversation then began between the nephew and the rest of his family on social projects that can be done to promote change in Tunisia. Everyone then shared his or her own stories.

Al-Monitor: How were you inspired by Taha Muhammad Ali’s poem “Venice Carnival” in envisioning a scarf as part of your collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2013?

eL Seed: In 2013, I was asked by Louis Vuitton to reinterpret the classic silk scarf with my calligraffiti style. When they approached me, I found the proposal really interesting — bringing the spirit of the streets to a luxury brand. I saw it as an opportunity to create a clash, but it turned out to be just the opposite. I tried to look for two different worlds, particularly the separation of East and West — a disconnect I do not believe in. I wanted to use this scarf as a way of showing people that these “clashing” worlds are not actually contradictory. Venice was the perfect example, especially as not many people know about this history. In the 12th century, the pope forbade trade activities with the Arabs. As an affront to the ruling power, the Venetians sold weapons and wood to the Arabs. I expressed the values of tolerance, acceptance and unity with a visual revival of the poem “Venice Carnival,” recounted by Taha Mohammad Ali. Through this poem, I wanted to pay homage to the city of Venice.

I take great pride in being the first Arab artist to design a product for Louis Vuitton.

Al-Monitor: Living in Dubai, do you think this cultural center has the potential to develop a street art scene?

eL Seed: Dubai is one of the only places in the Middle East where the street art scene is discrete. The perception of the street art culture is based on stereotypes. But the mentality is changing step by step and we notice more and more initiatives around the city to promote public art.

Al-Monitor: Where else would you like to paint in the Middle East, and would you consider gearing your work towards the more political?

eL Seed: There are so many places I would love to paint in the Middle East and beyond. I am working right now on expanding the "Lost Walls" project by visiting other countries around the world and bringing stories of forgotten people, places and culture.

Painting in the street is already a political act. Bringing art to people, hoping to bring about social change is my political commitment. As an artist, I am not serving any political agenda, party or cause. I have a social responsibility, just like every street artist does.



Read more: www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/12/faouzi-khleefi-el-seed.html##ixzz3L4VKIzkc

[graffuturism]

His newest work was insane.

[dreadnatty]

Interview: 2015 TED Fellow eL Seed
www.coolhunting.com/culture/el-seed-2015-ted-fellow

Born and raised in Paris to Tunisian parents, graffiti artist eL Seed has left his mark all over the world (from the Jara Mosque to canyons to Louis Vuitton scarves), by spray-painting universal messages that funnily enough, the majority of viewers will not be able to decipher without a little help. eL Seed merges traditional Arabic calligraphy with the freestyle, guerrilla nature of modern graffiti. His murals—which take their geographic location into context—relay their ideas on a deeper level than just language; their movement, shapes, colors and more splashed onto a wall capture the viewer's attention and asks them to open their mind. "Arabic script speaks to your soul before it reaches your eyes," the artist tells us a few days ago from Doha, where he is currently based at the moment. Yesterday, he spoke on stage in Vancouver, presenting his work as a 2015 TED Fellow.

"I'm a street artist, I paint in Arabic, and I'm Tunisian," says eL Seed, reminding us that the Arab Spring was born in Tunisia. "So people think that the only thing I write is about revolution. Why can't you have Arabic script in [foreign] places and accept it as a normal thing, without thinking this is a call for jihad?" He contrasts it to the way that English can be found around the world, even on his microwave in Doha, and taken for granted. In the same way, he hopes to separate Arabic from its misrepresented ties to the religious and radical and use it instead to spread messages of empathy, hope, understanding and more through the democratic channels of graffiti.

Everything that I do has a message. I try to get inspiration from the place where I'm painting; I try to bring messages that are relevant to the people of the place.
The former b-boy and business consultant (who quit that job the day before his daughter was born) took his name from a 17th century French play his class was reading in school, "Le Cid" by Pierre Corneille. "Our teacher was telling us 'Le Cid' comes from the Arabic word 'el Sayed,' which means the man. And at this time, I was starting graffiti and I didn't have a name. Then I was like, 'I'm the man!' and called myself 'eL Seed.' Simple as that."

"Everything that I do has a message. I try to get inspiration from the place where I'm painting; I try to bring messages that are relevant to the people of the place," says eL Seed. "For example, if I paint in Korea, I'm not going to use a poem by Baudelaire. I try to get inspiration from the place where I'm painting." Interestingly, eL Seed often takes inspiration from books or poems for what he writes, instead of traditional commentary. He continues, "I think painting in the street is already a political act. You're painting in a public space; you're addressing something to the people. And then what you write—it's a political act because you have a responsibility to the community. But I'm really against all the cheesiness of writing things like 'Freedom to the People.'"

Every wall that I painted was not planned in advance; only one wall—the house of my grandparents.
eL Seed is full to the brim with amazing stories of real-life human connections while painting his works around the world—whether its being arrested by the local military (then later invited to one of their weddings) or offered sandwiches by curious bystanders. "I think the coolest thing about what I do is not the painting," he says. "It's the crazy human experience you can have." One example: when in Rio de Janeiro last September, he went to the Vidigal favela. "At the top of the hill, I see this amazing rooftop—brand new, white. You never find a white rooftop. I started painting this poem from this [Brazilian] writer from one of the favelas, Gabriela Torres Barbosa. I did my piece, took my picture and I left." He returned straight to Dubai, and two days later, he woke up to his phone buzzing with notifications. It turns out that the respected Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz (who in fact, gave his own TED talk in 2007) had Instagrammed a photo of eL Seed's art, thanking the "unidentified artist" for his beautiful tag. eL Seed had unknowingly painted the rooftop of a new art school that Muniz was building in the favelas.

A major—a very personal—project for eL Seed in the last year was completing "Lost Walls," a month-long road trip through his motherland, Tunisia. Traversing the country from north to south, east to west, he and his team visited forgotten places, bringing attention to them and beautifying them through graffiti. "It was really spontaneous," he says. "Every wall that I painted was not planned in advance; only one wall—the house of my grandparents."

One memorable experience involves the Tunisian city of Tataouine—the same one that inspired George Lucas's fictional planet Planet Tatooine in his Star Wars series. "There's a fake city called Planet Tatooine in Star Wars, and there is a real city called Tataouine in south Tunisia," says eL Seed. "And Tataouine has more than 155 castles; only 11 of them are preserved by the authorities. the rest are falling apart." Lucas built a film set in the middle of the Tunisian desert near Algeria (not even close to Tataouine)—and after filming was complete, the nearby city of Nafta asked him not to destroy it, and leave it behind, as to attract future tourists. "When you [search online for] places to visit in south of Tunisia, the first thing that comes up is Star Wars—a fake film set built in the desert of Tunis," says eL Seed, angered that the region would promote this instead of its own rich history that leads back to the Roman times. "They reduce our heritage."

I would love to do something with a ballet dancer. The way they dance, the way they move, I feel like they are throwing letters; their movements are the same shape of my letters.
So he visited the Star Wars set in his mind plan to paint over it. "I thought I would find a big Star Wars sign, a Chewbacca welcoming you, with the music of the movie and everything. But it was empty. Nothing." Surprised by how dead the area was, he stumbled across an old man laying down inside one of the houses, who had no qualms about eL Seed painting, even in the middle of the day. "So I wrote, 'I will never be your son' in Arabic," he says. "This is not my heritage. You're not part of my culture or my history. I hope that people would maybe know that this place exists in Tunisia, but then visit the real heritage that we have in Tunisia."

el-seed-ted-2015-fellows-lost-worlds.
"There is a lot of stuff that has changed," says eL Seed, reflecting upon his art thus far. "The style, the scale of the work, the medium that I'm using; but one thing that I try to keep—the most important thing—is the love of it. I try to always have the same excitement when I paint a wall; I have the same excitement as I used to have when I started painting. I remember when I used to go paint, I was so scared–to fail, to do something s**tty, and I used to prepare so much in my head. I remember at some point my stomach hurt so much like I was going to an exam. I didn't lose that; that's the funny thing." On future ventures, he muses, "I would love to do something with a ballet dancer. The way they dance, the way they move, I feel like they are throwing letters; their movements are the same shape of my letters."

Lead image by Josh Rubin, all others courtesy of eL Seed

[dazarino]

Great read, thanks for posting would have loved to hear his wife's side of the story about him quiting his job a day before she gave birth to their child. #Pre labour screams!!!!

[M]

Great and very meritoric thread,  more please

[Iqra'a]

elseed-art.com/shop-2/

[sakyamuni]

can't find the edition size, anyone knows about it ?

[Iqra'a]

I think it's edition of 44 each.

[sakyamuni]

Apr 24, 2015 10:38:19 GMT 1 Iqra'a said:

I think it's edition of 44 each.

Thanks

[mrblast]

They're nice but expensive for "digigraphy". His work would be ideal for screen printing.

[sakyamuni]

only the smaller one is a digigraphy. others are lithography made at IDEM studio and i guess high quality products.

[rbk]

Sorry just to correct the original post these are not his first screen prints. He did a couple before.

very nice though

[trapnel1]

Interesting watch.

el Seed in Paris

[sakyamuni]

thanks for sharing, interesting

[Dibbs 45]

For his first UK commission celebrated French Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist eL Seed paints a large-scale mural in the heart of London’s urban art quarter.

Blending Arabic calligraphy with graffiti techniques, eL Seed has developed a distinctive and striking style, fusing poetry and language with dramatic design to create large-scale work.

His creations adorn the 47m high minaret in the Southern Tunisian city Gabes, a wall on the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, motorway underpasses in Qatar as well as walls in New York, Melbourne and Jeddah. This is his first London commission.

For more information and to see samples of eL Seed's work, visit: www.shubbak.co.uk/el-seed

Image below from FB

[Dibbs 45]

Progress shots from today. The start of something special

[Dibbs 45]

And a nice sketch he did for me.

[Dungle]

http://instagram.com/p/5CurUPuuBT

[11]

I was a bit bored so went into town this evening, mainly to see how the MoS event had developed but remembered the El Seed piece and, expecting it to be finished thought I'd have a quick look so was surprised to see him still working. He was literally just finishing off and then made a few touch-ups here and there. Light wasn't great by that time but I still got to have a chat and take some pics of him posing in front of the finished piece.....And it really was a stunningly beautiful piece, I bet it looks even more incredible in hte sunshine


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr

[HASH]ElSeed [HASH]arabicgraffiti [hash]villageunderground [hash]july2015

[11]

El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr

[HASH]ElSeed [HASH]arabicgraffiti

[11]

El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr


El Seed London July15 by 11 for UAA, on Flickr

[HASH]ElSeed [HASH]arabicgraffiti

[dreadnatty]

That El Seed is gorgeous! Even nicer than the piece at Coney Island Walls. He is def one to watch IMO. You really killing it today 11!!

[rosh]

One of the best El Seed piece I ever see ! Waw

[Dibbs 45]

Nice video and great interview with El Seed. There are a few UAA members in the video as well.

[11]

Dibbs 45 I'm getting an error on the vid - don't know if its just me?

[Dibbs 45]

Yep for some reason it is not uploading.

[11]

[11]

As said in another thread, this piece is done and gone but realised we never had a day-time shot of this one - I could only get the full image with a fish-eye so if someone has a stunning shot (Dibbs 45?) then lets finish this thread off in style and say goodbye to the piece with the best shots we have....

El Seed - London Mural - Fish-eye lens by 11 for UAA, on Flickr

[HASH]ElSeed [HASH]arabicgraffiti [HASH]villageunderground