WEBVTT

00:00:00.758 --> 00:00:05.001
In 2012, when I painted
the minaret of Jara Mosque

00:00:05.025 --> 00:00:07.956
in my hometown of Gabés,
in the south of Tunisia,

00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:13.247
I never thought that graffiti would bring
so much attention to a city.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:13.271 --> 00:00:17.197
At the beginning, I was just looking
for a wall in my hometown,

00:00:17.221 --> 00:00:20.451
and it happened that the minaret
was built in '94.

00:00:21.102 --> 00:00:25.719
And for 18 years, those 57 meters
of concrete stayed grey.

00:00:26.617 --> 00:00:30.218
When I met the imam for the first time,
and I told him what I wanted to do,

00:00:30.242 --> 00:00:32.686
he was like, "Thank God you finally came,"

00:00:32.710 --> 00:00:35.517
and he told me that for years
he was waiting for somebody

00:00:35.541 --> 00:00:36.834
to do something on it.

00:00:37.422 --> 00:00:41.508
The most amazing thing about this imam
is that he didn't ask me anything --

00:00:41.532 --> 00:00:44.942
neither a sketch,
or what I was going to write.

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:45.959 --> 00:00:48.832
In every work that I create,
I write messages

00:00:48.856 --> 00:00:52.979
with my style of calligraffiti --
a mix of calligraphy and graffiti.

00:00:53.622 --> 00:00:55.494
I use quotes or poetry.

00:00:56.153 --> 00:00:58.860
For the minaret, I thought that
the most relevant message

00:00:58.884 --> 00:01:01.500
to be put on a mosque
should come from the Quran,

00:01:01.524 --> 00:01:03.135
so I picked this verse:

00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:06.399
"Oh humankind, we have created you
from a male and a female,

00:01:06.423 --> 00:01:09.838
and made you people and tribe,
so you may know each other."

00:01:09.862 --> 00:01:13.179
It was a universal call for peace,
tolerance, and acceptance

00:01:13.203 --> 00:01:17.172
coming from the side that we don't usually
portray in a good way in the media.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:17.661 --> 00:01:21.429
I was amazed to see how the local
community reacted to the painting,

00:01:21.453 --> 00:01:25.760
and how it made them proud to see
the minaret getting so much attention

00:01:25.784 --> 00:01:28.489
from international press
all around the world.

00:01:29.346 --> 00:01:31.514
For the imam, it was not
just the painting;

00:01:31.538 --> 00:01:33.403
it was really deeper than that.

00:01:33.427 --> 00:01:36.864
He hoped that this minaret would become
a monument for the city,

00:01:36.888 --> 00:01:39.759
and attract people
to this forgotten place of Tunisia.

00:01:40.759 --> 00:01:42.909
The universality of the message,

00:01:42.933 --> 00:01:45.179
the political context
of Tunisia at this time,

00:01:45.203 --> 00:01:48.687
and the fact that I was writing
Quran in a graffiti way

00:01:48.711 --> 00:01:50.353
were not insignificant.

00:01:50.377 --> 00:01:52.431
It reunited the community.

NOTE Paragraph

00:01:53.559 --> 00:01:56.573
Bringing people, future generations,


00:01:56.573 --> 00:01:59.573
together through Arabic calligraphy

00:01:59.573 --> 00:02:01.058
is what I do.

00:02:01.082 --> 00:02:04.087
Writing messages is
the essence of my artwork.

00:02:04.896 --> 00:02:08.047
What is funny, actually, is that
even Arabic-speaking people

00:02:08.071 --> 00:02:11.906
really need to focus a lot
to decipher what I'm writing.

00:02:12.668 --> 00:02:15.605
You don't need to know
the meaning to feel the piece.

00:02:16.012 --> 00:02:19.733
I think that Arabic script touches
your soul before it reaches your eyes.

00:02:19.757 --> 00:02:22.827
There is a beauty in it
that you don't need to translate.

00:02:23.628 --> 00:02:25.906
Arabic script speaks to anyone, I believe;

00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:29.447
to you, to you, to you, to anybody,

00:02:29.471 --> 00:02:31.431
and then when you get the meaning,


00:02:31.431 --> 00:02:33.435
you feel connected to it.

00:02:33.435 --> 00:02:35.782
I always make sure to write messages

00:02:35.806 --> 00:02:38.177
that are relevant to the place
where I'm painting,

00:02:38.201 --> 00:02:41.282
but messages that have
a universal dimension,

00:02:41.306 --> 00:02:44.048
so anybody around the world
can connect to it.

NOTE Paragraph

00:02:44.699 --> 00:02:47.026
I was born and raised in France, in Paris,

00:02:47.050 --> 00:02:50.995
and I started learning how to write
and read Arabic when I was 18.

00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:55.060
Today I only write messages in Arabic.

00:02:55.084 --> 00:02:58.281
One of the reasons
this is so important to me,

00:02:58.305 --> 00:03:02.121
is because of all the reaction that
I've experienced all around the world.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:03.700 --> 00:03:07.606
In Rio de Janeiro, I translated
this Portuguese poem

00:03:07.630 --> 00:03:09.542
from Gabriela Tôrres Barbosa,

00:03:09.566 --> 00:03:12.946
who was giving an homage
to the poor people of the favela,

00:03:12.970 --> 00:03:14.938
and then I painted it on the rooftop.

00:03:15.367 --> 00:03:18.280
The local community were really
intrigued by what I was doing,

00:03:18.304 --> 00:03:21.897
but as soon as I gave them
the meaning of the calligraphy,

00:03:21.921 --> 00:03:24.850
they thanked me, as they felt
connected to the piece.

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:26.723 --> 00:03:28.713
In South Africa, in Cape Town,

00:03:28.737 --> 00:03:31.786
the local community of Philippi

00:03:31.810 --> 00:03:34.857
offered me the only
concrete wall of the slum.

00:03:34.881 --> 00:03:37.254
It was a school, and I wrote on it

00:03:37.278 --> 00:03:38.746
a quote from Nelson Mandela,

00:03:38.770 --> 00:03:41.433
saying, "[in Arabic],"

00:03:41.457 --> 00:03:44.140
which means, "It seems
impossible until it's done."

00:03:44.489 --> 00:03:48.074
Then this guy came to me and said,
"Man, why you don't write in English?"

00:03:48.098 --> 00:03:52.193
and I replied to him, "I would consider
your concern legit if you asked me

00:03:52.217 --> 00:03:53.801
why I didn't write in Zulu."

NOTE Paragraph

00:03:54.912 --> 00:03:57.056
In Paris, once, there was this event,

00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:00.986
and someone gave his wall to be painted.

00:04:02.016 --> 00:04:04.373
And when he saw I was painting in Arabic,

00:04:04.397 --> 00:04:08.421
he got so mad -- actually, hysterical --
and he asked for the wall to be erased.

00:04:08.445 --> 00:04:10.412
I was mad and disappointed.

00:04:10.436 --> 00:04:14.313
But a week later, the organizer
of the event asked me to come back,

00:04:14.337 --> 00:04:18.055
and he told me that there was a wall
right in front of this guy's house.

00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:19.231
So, this guy --

00:04:19.255 --> 00:04:21.474
(Laughter)

00:04:21.498 --> 00:04:23.523
like, was forced to see it every day.

00:04:23.547 --> 00:04:26.531
At the beginning, I was going
to write, "[In Arabic],"

00:04:26.555 --> 00:04:28.546
which means, "In your face," but --

00:04:28.570 --> 00:04:30.913
(Laughter)

00:04:30.937 --> 00:04:34.596
I decided to be smarter
and I wrote, "[In Arabic],"

00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:36.254
which means, "Open your heart."

NOTE Paragraph

00:04:37.095 --> 00:04:40.171
I'm really proud of my culture,

00:04:40.195 --> 00:04:45.710
and I'm trying to be an ambassador
of it through my artwork.

00:04:45.734 --> 00:04:50.670
And I hope that I can break
the stereotypes we all know,

00:04:50.694 --> 00:04:52.468
with the beauty of Arabic script.

00:04:53.207 --> 00:04:58.655
Today, I don't write the translation
of the message anymore on the wall.

00:04:59.148 --> 00:05:02.825
I don't want the poetry
of the calligraphy to be broken,

00:05:02.849 --> 00:05:06.030
as it's art and you can appreciate it
without knowing the meaning,

00:05:06.054 --> 00:05:09.090
as you can enjoy any music
from other countries.

00:05:09.630 --> 00:05:13.405
Some people see that
as a rejection or a closed door,

00:05:13.429 --> 00:05:15.898
but for me, it's more an invitation --

00:05:15.922 --> 00:05:19.201
to my language,
to my culture, and to my art.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:19.225 --> 00:05:20.383
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:05:20.407 --> 00:05:23.259
(Applause)