For this first monthly guest artist collaboration and interview, we thought that Gregol y Kadett, also known as the Mentary Brothers, were the perfect choice. Their work is in the crossroads where Street Art, graphic design, animations and art installations for art spaces meet. We believe that that attitude fits perfectly with the Subaquatica spirit and that’s why we chose them for designing the header of this page and for answering these few questions. These 2 Swiss brothers of 33 and 29 years of age have followed a very similar path until their current joint collaborations, with various and interesting projects always related with their own inner universe. A couple of weeks ago we contacted Gregol via Messenger and the following interview is the result of that conversation. We hope that if you didn’t know their work you start enjoying it as much as we do and if you did, you find the interview revealing.
Let´s start talking about the beginning of your creative activity in the streets…can you answer WHEN, WHERE, HOW and WHY?
I think around 1987, but i am not very good with dates. I started around my village, in the countryside, going on my bicycle to the train tracks with a bunch of brushes and paint that i found in my fathers garage. The first time i almost got killed by a fast train. I spent four nights on my first painting and today it’s still there because the spot is too hardcore to paint. It´s a straight inspiration from Mode2 and thats why i did it, because i saw it in a mag. it was one of the early Mode2 pieces. I was amazed by the size of it when i saw his stuff for the first time. Thats one of the reasons for me to start: painting big. Why? Because I was always attracted by the train tracks and the night going out alone, and having this adrenaline rush…the best.
You mention Mode2….I suppose then that it was the graff scene that you were looking at?
No, not at all. It was in a normal Vogue mag or some other mag my mother had. I come from the countryside, i had no idea about graff. The first piece i did was the word “art”. It was more the idea that i could paint something bigger than me. This was near Geneva, but still in the countryside, the city was not really something i liked at this time! because now things changed a lot!!
What…do you mean you changed a lot? or Geneva?
Me. I spent some time in big cities after this first piece and i learned about cities.
…that leads to another question i had ready: about your travels. i know you have traveled a lot, right?
Yes i am lucky bastard.
What was your motivation to do so? When did these fever start….? Any trips you remember specially?
I think its part of my happy education. My parents spent a lot of time traveling and we were always joining the party. From africa to Asia and America. But i think the first time i was dropped alone in a city was the most impressive. It was New York in 1990. I was so naive…it was great, maybe sometimes a bit dangerous.
How long you were there?
4 months, and then i went all around the US with my backpack: Atlanta, Washington, San Diego, LA, SF, Boston, Providence and more.
Were you bombing at all?
Yes i was bombing… It was the only thing i wanted to do. The Krylon fever!
I suppose at this time you were totally aware of graff.
Yes, yes.
What were you doing?…characters or more writing?
Both, but more characters.
And this is when you ended studying at San Francisco?
No this was before i started. In 1990 i went back to Europe to study at the begining and in 1992 i moved to LA and i studied there from 1992-1999 at ACCD (Art Center College of Design). After that i moved to NY and finally to SF where I spent two years.
There i did the first show ever at the Upper Playground gallery under my old tag name TEMSA. Its french fonetic that means “do you enjoy it?” (temsa = t’aimes ça?).
Being there all that time….any anecdotes?
In LA, i spent so much time there and i never did one graff. I was just too scared. I went with some local kids, and it was just no fun. They were not scared of the cops, but of other crews that were gonna steal their shoes or spraycans, but in SF it was the best.
I lived in “The Mission”, the chicano area, and we had this tunnel from the “Juda lane” streetcar. We could go and paint at night and meet other painters every nights and this place was just 2 minutes from my apartement. SF is maybe the best city i lived in, the energy was great. At this time i met John Trippe, the big boss from Fecalface, and also matt the big boss from Upper Playground and I discovered with their help the world of San Francisco.
…the underworld!
Yeah! it was going very fast. concerts all the time, dj session, battles every week, art shows of course! and at this time everybody was dirty rich because of the internet boom. But the good art for me was more from LA or NY.
Any names?
My favorites were Tim Hawkinson, Jochem Hendricks form Germany, Mike Kelley…also i remember a great technology oriented show at SFMOMA when i was there.
It was my fav when i was a student in LA…lo-fi techno.
Why did you decide to get back to Europe after you were starting to feel comfortable in San Francisco?
He he….it was the worst choice of my life. I was starting to get a name there in SF, i had my first good show with Fecalface. It was the best! its the third arty party from Fecalface. And then i went back to Swiss “protestant” land because of a girl….always the same story.
Hahaha… i could imagine that! I guess it didn´t last long….or am i talking too much?
It lasted a nasty year!! And after that she had two babies with my (ex)bestfriend…a classic i guess.
Wow!…So at that point you could either go back there or start something in your hometown, rigth?
Yes.
How was going back to Europe at that time untill now? How is living there related to your work?
I guess I love SF and all, but change has a powreful effect on creativity. It has a lot to do with not having your safe habits anymore, and this gives you energy to look around, to be curious, to see your own country in a whole new way. I remember looking around like a total mongo. The way the houses were build, how the people interact and also the art scene.
Is then when Mentary is born?
First time i met you, i already knew about Mentary and I was a fan from the begining….love your styles. What is Mentary? just you and your brother?
No, Mentary started with SF around the same time as Fecalface. I guess John inspired me to go for the web thing. At the beginning was just me and when i came back to Swissland, my bro came back from two years in Asia and i asked him if he wanted to join and start some projects together and now we are the Mentary Brothers.
Mentary.com is a word game from com.mentary.
What was your brother doing while you were in SF?
He went to a school in London to study animation and illustration and after that he traveled all around Asia for two years. When we met in Geneva after our studies we realized that our style was very similar.
Thats really cool.
But before our schools experience we were already drawing all the time. He was always into drawing, just behind me doing the same but with his style.
We are both comic books lovers, big fans of the underground French and Belgium scene. People like Blanquet, de Crécy, Larcenet, Requins Marteaux, Le Dernier Cri…and in the Swiss scene: Silex, Elvistudio….well and many more. My brother started a real collection and i add a few pieces now and then.
So you´ll say comic books are your most important source of inspiration.
No, I would say its a big one, but its hard to say if its the main one because i am also a TV kid, and an early video games kid…and i am (still) a kid. I am always searching for this forgotten childhood memories. This is now one of my strong inspirations.
At the beginning I believed that when I said childhood, it was the same for everybody, but after my last four shows I realized that our childhood (my brother and I) was pretty different from most people I meet.
Why?
We were so much in the nature, we lived on the border of a big and dark forest at the end of a street in a small village in the moutains. Our best friend was the forest. In the same village the other kids after sunset, hey were scared of this forest. We were not.
Did you go in there?
All the time, it was our favorite room. My mother had to come late in the evening sometimes to tell us to come home.
Does this has something to do with your nests proyect? Going back to that secure place? The first nests you did where made out of tree branches, rigth?
Yes, this was our first piece together as brothers. It was a revelation.
Your common place.
We are brothers and its not always easy. Little bro wants to define his independence, big brother is overprotective. So it was hard at the beginning to find what we wanted to talk about as artists that could fit both of us, and i think this first cocoon was like the best thing. We realized what was our common subject, it was stronger. After this moment there were no more brother conflicts (ok! there is always brothers conflicts, its part of the challenge!).
That´s nice…This realates to this other question I had ready: What is your way of working together…is a dialoge or a fight for your rigths (like all brothers do!)?
But not when we did this piece, we dint need to talk about it, we made it naturally. It’s funny because we were talking about it yesterday…we are very different, i am more extroverted. I will pull at the beginning of a project, i have this strong ambition to transform an idea into a project, and during the production, my brother will start to push me into the details and into finishing the project because i am already thinking about the next project.
Is this the same when you do posters for the streets and illustrations, or because that is more quick and inminent, your method of working is different?
It’s very different with the drawing and painting medium. we decided two years ago to mix our drawings more and more, because we had a similar style, we decided to go even more in this direction, to almost steal from each other, to make the borders even more blurry, between who is drawing what. It has a strong action reaction quality…its a real ping pong game.
What are the projects you have between your hands at the moment?
We just finished a big installation. We are moving into the installation tomorrow and we are going to live there until Christmas.
What!?
Yeah!…we made a sort of laboratory inside the art space. It’s like a mad lab, and we are going to work with latex as a medium. Half of the lab is inside the gallery and the other half is on the balcony, and the part inside the gallery is splitted into two half floors. We are going to work in the installation during the off hours, with the gallery closed, so people will see this space evolve. Our work is going toward the concept of atelier as an art piece, but where people are not sure if its a fake scenario, a setup for the show or if its real. At the end we come out with a finished product made in this atelier. Our next show in 2006, is going around the idea of building a spaceship to transform the gallery into a crazy atelier where we are getting ready to go to space with some movies references, political references and all. Junior bush and his new moon race.
Hahahah.
We are in the race too…watch out.
Who is the peole who did the poster you sent me of your first nest show?
The poster was made by Flag.
I think their work is great. I know you do some graphic design and screen printing…Are you in touch with that strong community of really good designers?
The real design community is in Zurich because this is where the money is. In Geneva it’s just 4 designers that have all the contracts. The people in Zurich are great, we met them this summer after our show (near Zurich)…my girlfriend is one of them. People like Norm, Flag, Hektor, Electrosmog, Cornel Windlin ……they are all part of the same big family and we spent our best summer there.
Ok…now to finish things of a little, tell me something you would like to do that it hasn´t been proposed to you yet?
We want to do a installation over a few years in a warehouse, financed by a gallery or sponsors. We would create a chaotic world, mix between an atelier, a labyrinth, a experimental living space. Something between Andrea Zittel, Gregor Schneider, Tomoko Takahashi, Christoph Büchel and Jason Rhoades. Mmmh. A lot of damn references, I don’t normally do that but here we are on the www, so you can go Google for it. We would have guest artists and organize special events in the different spaces. We want to start this in 2007 and we are looking around Europe for the best place to do this. All propositions are welcome!
Shout outs…
Flotte y Burnhard, Salami and Dimi , Julien and Sébastien, Aude , Manu, Heinz , Isamu, Sasa, Bili, Kiss, Anne , Seb, Dave the Chimp, Pmh, Ichi Bunny and Kabe, Nano4814, Boris Hoppek, Empty and G1 (Freaklub), Sune, Lennard, Daan, Leylagoor, John (Fecalface), Matt (Upper Playground), Xandy, Tanga, Gizmo, Ursul and all the others and to the people who have the ambition of their ideas and a final advice: “Don’t do art!”.
November 29th, 2005 05:17pm
Administrador
