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In 2012, when I painted
the minaret of Jara Mosque
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in my hometown of Gabes,
in the south of Tunisia,
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I never thought that graffiti would bring
so much attention to a city.
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At the beginning, I was just looking
for a wall in my hometown,
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and it happened that the minaret
was built in '94.
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And for 18 years, those 57 meters
of concrete stayed grey.
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When I met the imam for the first time,
and I told him what I wanted to do,
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he was like, "Thank God you finally came,"
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and he told me that for years
he was waiting for somebody
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to do something on it.
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The most amazing thing about this imam
is that he didn't ask me anything --
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neither a sketch,
or what I was going to write.
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In every work that I create,
I write messages
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with my style of calligraphy --
a mix of calligraphy and graffiti.
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I use quotes or poetry.
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For the minaret, I thought that
the most relevant message
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to be put on a mosque
should come from the Quran,
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so I picked this verse:
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"Oh humankind, we have created you
from a male and a female,
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and made you people and tribe,
so you may know each other."
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It was a universal call for peace,
tolerance, and acceptance
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coming from the side that we don't usually
portray in a good way in the media.
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I was amazed to see how the local
community reacted to the painting,
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and how it made them proud to see
the minaret getting so much attention
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from international press
all around the world.
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For the imam, it was not
just the painting;
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it was really deeper than that.
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He hoped that this minaret would become
a monument for the city,
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and attract people
to this forgotten place of Tunisia.
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The universality of the message,
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the political context
of Tunisia at this time,
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and the fact that I was writing
Quran in a graffiti way
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were not insignificant.
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It reunited the community.
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Bringing people, future generations,
together through Arabic calligraphy
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is what I do.
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Writing messages is
the essence of my artwork.
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What is funny, actually, is that
even Arabic-speaking people
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really need to focus a lot
to decipher what I'm writing.
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You don't need to know
the meaning to feel the piece.
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I think that Arabic script touches
your soul before it reaches your eyes.
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There is a beauty in it
that you don't need to translate.
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Arabic script speaks to anyone, I believe;
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to you, to you, to you, to anybody,
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and then when you get the meaning,
you feel connected to it.
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I always make sure to write messages
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that are relevant to the place
where I'm painting,
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but messages that have
a universal dimension,
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so anybody around the world
can connect to it.
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I was born and raised in France, in Paris,
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and I started learning how to write
and read Arabic when I was 18.
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Today I only write messages in Arabic.
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One of the reasons
this is so important to me,
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is because of all the reaction that
I've experienced all around the world.
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In Rio de Janeiro, I translated
this Portuguese poem
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from Gabriela Tôrres Barbosa,
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who was giving an homage
to the poor people of the favela,
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and then I painted it on the rooftop.
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The local community were really
intrigued by what I was doing,
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but as soon as I gave them
the meaning of the calligraphy,
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they thanked me, as they felt
connected to the piece.
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In South Africa, in Cape Town,
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the local community of Philippi
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offered me the only
concrete wall of the slum.
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It was a school, and I wrote on it
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a quote from Nelson Mandela,
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saying, "[in Arabic],"
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which means, "It seems
impossible until it's done."
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Then this guy came to me and said,
"Man, why you don't write in English?"
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and I replied to him, "I would consider
your concern legit if you asked me
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why I didn't write in Zulu."
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In Paris, once, there was this event,
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and someone gave his wall to be painted.
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And when he saw I was painting in Arabic,
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he got so mad -- actually, hysterical --
and he asked for the wall to be erased.
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I was mad and disappointed.
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But a week later, the organizer
of the event asked me to come back,
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and he told me that there was a wall
right in front of this guy's house.
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So, this guy --
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(Laughter)
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like, was forced to see it every day.
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At the beginning, I was going
to write, "[In Arabic],"
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which means, "In your face," but --
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(Laughter)
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I decided to be smarter
and I wrote, "[In Arabic],"
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which means, "Open your heart."
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I'm really proud of my culture,
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and I'm trying to be an ambassador
of it through my artwork.
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And I hope that I can break
the stereotypes we all know,
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with the beauty of Arabic script.
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Today, I don't write the translation
of the message anymore on the wall.
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I don't want the poetry
of the calligraphy to be broken,
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as it's art and you can appreciate it
without knowing the meaning,
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as you can enjoy any music
from other countries.
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Some people see that
as a rejection or a closed door,
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but for me, it's more an invitation --
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to my language,
to my culture, and to my art.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)