Nano4814

January 11th, 2007

He is a close collaborator of our submarine base and we see him around our premises very often but Nano is quite an slippery subject to get a hold of. It wasn’t easy to out and ending point to this interview conducted during three busy december days. But truth is that this was a long overdue interview, not because he asked for one, that he certanly didn’t, or because he’s a friend but because we’ve truly admired his work since we first met him a few years ago for the “ Atlantis Phase I” DVD where he was featured. And despite the fact that he is known outside Spain and he’s always terribly busy with more projects that he can handle, the success in capital letters he deserves hasn’t arrived yet. It’s probably because he’s doing a terrible job with his self-marketing and he doesn’t even has a proper website under nano4814.com so in the meantime his myspace: www.myspace.com/nano4814 or his fotolog: www.fotolog.com/nano4814 along with this interview will have to suffice.

Well, before anything else, tell us when, where, why and how did you get into painting on the streets in the first place

The first piece I did was back in 1991 in a small town where I was for the summer. We were just trying to have some fund and me and some other 5 friends did this piece that read: “SEMEN BOYS”.

Semen boys… ¿is that the origin of Los niños especiales (www.fotolog.com/los_especialitos)?

Hahahahaha… I’m the only member in both crews, that one, my older one and (well, it was more a bunch of summertime troublemakers) and Los niños especiales (that it’s my crew now but that I would rather call the anticrew!)

Ok but you were living in Vigo back then. Was there a lot of Graffiti there at the time?

Back then in Vigo everybody had a tag name and I had mine. I used to sketch a lot and didn’t really tagged much around. I’ve always liked drawing since I was a kid. I used to skate a lot and slowly Graffiti took over skating since when I did that first piece until now. That piece in 91 was more of a one time thing. That summer we were more into breaking into closed discos and places and building skate ramps inside with things that we “found” around town and that we stole from the hardware shop. And when we went there the spray paint was right there, hard to resist to take some cans so it was only logical that we started messing around with them. My more regular productions on the street would start later, around 93 and 94.

But you weren’t a typical b-boy but more of a skater, right? Were there a Hip Hop and Skate scene in Vigo at then?

I did listen to rap but wasn’t much of a b-boy even though I was promoting Hip Hop parties in Vigo for a while… in the skate scene we were just a bunch of people and the music we used to listen to the most was melodic hardcore and things like that but I also listened to some rap and noise rock such as Dinosaur Jr and so on… In 91 I remember I listened to some Public Enemy, Dream Warriors and also Beastie Boys a lot and some Kortatu, Distorsion, Bad Religion or La polla records.

So, how would you describe the “urban tribes” scene in Vigo? I would like to hear a bit about how things were in the place and time where you started doing art on the streets.

In Vigo, as far as I can remember, music and nightlife were right there in my life through ny parents or my uncles. In the early 90s people were still just coming out of the whole “movida” hangover. I didn’t live that period because I was just a kid but I do have some memories of some situations… I remember being shocked (don’t really know why right now) with a installation of very tall figures representing politicians that were hang in Plaza de América. I also remember going to the Manco with my parents and playing 5 balls pinball while they were having a drink. The Vigo Scalextric de Vigo, that was a elevated highway that crossed Gran Vía and created a very postindustrial atsmosphere right there in the centre of town… very New York! Hahahah… I have the feeling that it was very different from how the city is now… it was rougher. Less nice but somehow more attractive. Later on, when I started painting, it was all quite different already. There wasn’t that much going on besides some shows at the La Iguana club, or DJ sessions at the LSD with a different musical style (Rap, Electrónica, Noise, Acid Jazz, Rock…) each night of the week. A while later the Vademecwm opened (from the ashes of the Ruralex) but in general we had to look for what we wanted pretty much for ourselves, like everywhere else bak then. But I think that the different people would mix more between each other in Vigo compared to other similar cities, or at least that the impression I had. maybe because the people that skated in Vigo formed quite a diverse crowd, hahaha… I think that this has been fundamental to the way I see things.

I see, but your intereste for Skate and Graffiti must have come from something other that your parent’s generation so where did you get all that information from?

I don’t really know why I started skating. I guess it’s all a game that leads you to meet certain people and it starts being a part of your life and a need before you know it. Some things lead to others and you are in trouble! I’ve never approached my life with a long-term perspective and things have happened to me one way or another. Most information we used to receive from Skate zines and magazines such as Slap, 360 or Trasher. To me Slap was the bible! It was published in San Francisco that back then was the Mecca of the Skate scene. In this magazine you wouldn’t only find Skate but also music, art and many other things loosely related to Skate. The Nevada comic books there were amazing and the first pieces from ,Twister that I can recall I saw them at that magazine or the first posters from Revs or Cost, or Shepard Fairey’s work, same as many other stuff. I ended up being more interested in what was around it on the picture rather than in the Skate trick itself. Videos were also important. From the time when I started painting I particularly recall the one called New World Order from World Industries, the first one from Real or one from Underworld Element. Also the first one from Alien Workshop was the bomb, with music by J. Mascis.

Wasn’t there a proper Graffiti scene with older writers that you could get information from?

Yes, there were some but not that many and since I wouldn’t go to the Charol or Sol clubs, the two venues where they would play some rap, I wasn’t that much into that scene. I think the first pieces in Vigo were done by Peón from Def Con Dos in the middle 80s. But there were thousands of tags.

Hip Hop style tags?

In the 80s there were tags from Muelle and a couple of “flechero” style writers (there was one that would tag Pincha with a really cool drawing next to it) although I guess they were from out of town, there were some stencils and not much more. Later on, around the late 80s and the 90s there were a lot of Hip Hop style tags. Everyone had his tag. There were a lot of writers and crews but to tell you the truth I would go my own way.

So if you seriously took on doing pieces around 93-94 and I met you in 2003, it’s been 10 years in between. What’s up with you during all that time?

Hahahaha…. what do you want? Do you expect me to explain all my life during that period? I was basically into the same few things: travelling, painting and skating.

No, man, I just would like you to elaborate a little bit on things like how you went from doing Graffiti to pasting huge squid-like characters and why did you get into Fine arts at university, if it was something you had always planned or if you decided to study that after you were into Graffiti…

I never intended to go from one thing to another. I was doing it all at the same time. I was simply adding elements to my own particular formula of interacting with the streets. I guess studiying Fine arts at the university was an influence in my way of seeing things and it’s something that makes you evolve but it’s not like I’m that sure about it. Keep in mind that I started university in 97 in Pontevedra and wouldn’t finish until 2006 so you can see that it’s not like I cared about that much… hahaha. I was doing a thousand things at the same time and I’ve never actually lived in Pontevedra long enough to blend in the whole university atmosphere 100%. I’ve always had to work to pay for university and at the same time I’ve paid more attention to other things rather than my grades.

So you are saying that you never cared much about university but you kept studying while not living there and at the same time you were working and even continued for 10 years until you finished… why?

Well, the Fine arts school belongs to the University of Vigo but it’s in fact in Pontevedra, 40 minutes away. I tried living there but didn’t like it. And I worked in Vigo during the weekends so I would live in Vigo and go to the university by train. Then I moved to London and would come back to take tests once in a while until I finally came back and tried to finish before moving to Madrid but I couldn’t and it took me three more years to finish.

So you finished out of pure stubbornness. right?

Stubbornness 100%. You have to finish what you started. At some point I was told to quit but I don’t like following other people’s advices.

And about London, why and when do you decide to move there and to do what exactly?

I knew the city already. I had been working there during a couple of summers in a row, in 98 and 99. I liked it and me a my girlfriend back then, Carla, decided to move there for a while. I just wanted to work there and get away from Vigo and working in clubs during nights, which I had been doing for 5 years.

And as an artist, what did you expect from moving to London and what did you finally got from that?

I wanted to study there. I couldn’t afford it so I had to settle for some courses and enjoy with what the city had to offer. I had different jobs, one of them packing flyers that would allow us to get in for free to many parties and shows. That was cool because I had a chance to see and hear many things that were very interesting music-wise. I also worked as a graphic designer and that was fine too. What I did there was basically work, skate and buy vinyl records through any legal or ilegal method. I also met a lot of interesting people… and also painted everyone in a while.

Now that you mention it, how you were exposed to a lot of interesting music while in London, before proceeding with your life story, I know you are a music junkie and I guess that your art has to reflect it somehow. Tell me a little bit about the soundtrack of your art.

I think music is the one thing I cannot get rid of the addiction. I’ve been listening to many different kinds of music since forever and one leds me to another and so on no stop. There isn’t a soundtrack for my life but more of one for each moment. I cannot tell you about every single one of them… too complicated. I do have to buy some vinyl every week… that’s my only vice.

So, after you come back from London, what do you find? Did the whole experience there give you a new perspective and how?

During my last few months in London I met people like Tristan Manco, that would later include my work on his book “Stencil Graffiti” and through him I also met Rick Blackshaw, from the Scrawl collective, with whom i work every once in a while. This, and also the contact, through Roty340, with the people from Serie B magazine in Madrid, starts making more people aware of my work internationally. When I get back I find things are pretty much the same but at the Fine arts school there is a new generation, a couple of years younger and I connect with them very well. It’s from that period when I started befriending Wom aka Tay One, or I met Tiñas and Pelucas and many other people. >I could list a lot of peple that were very important to understand what I do now. The activity was pretty intense during those years in Pontevedra. And I also started travelling around Spain more.

Nano4814 and Niños especiales in action

And it’s them when the Los niños especiales (The special kids), the collective you still have with all those guys is born, right? Tell us about that and why are you so special.

Yes, I guess it was then when Los niños especiales was born… as something spontaneous. We are the anticrew. We are not that special and we just love each other and paint together sometimes. I think the name came from how Tiñas used to say that his brother Pelucas was an “especialito”. There are many special kids: Kikon, Avione, El Liken Tiñoso and the Peluquero, Wom Womer, Paulovich and Guasa are special as well, no doubt… Elisergico, Elara, Epidemian… It’s a long list. All the people that was involven in the “Expomiccion” thing. Also Jorge (Perianes)… I think is a special kid but he just doesn’t know it yet… althought maybe he is too… no, Jorge’s mind is not special enough. So… he’s not included!

And during all this time since you came back from London, how’s your work changing

My work, on one hand I think has been turning more instrospective and self-concious and also less anecdotic but I also started working on different media and disciplines: Installations, mural painting, drawing, sculpture… Right now I think I’m at a point where 3 different lines of work meet: first my commercial work as illustrator or designer, that doesn’t always follow a coherent style with my personal work. There’s also my work for galleries that is increasingly focusing on things that I’m concerned about on a personal level. And there’s also my work on the streets that it’s becoming more of a scape valve that helps me survive in a big city and that’s it’s more and more just tags and throw-ups and not so much big murals and productions anymore. In fact that’s what I used to do in Vigo: simple iconic characters in a few basic colors in the downtown area.

And about how your work on the street has evolved: I might be wrong but it seems as if you didn’t feel as limited by the Hip Hop Graffiti style because you have never been a B-Boy so it wasn’t that hard for you to explore other techniques and approaches.

I’m very influenced by the spirit of Graffit. I know its history, I’ve lived it and I do share many of the point of views it implies but I don’t like fundamentalisms of any kind. It simply doesn’t fit my personality. I’m not going to play the part of the real writer because that’s not what I’ve lived. I cannot stand the feeling of repeating myself either so I need to experience new ways on every level. And I say this from a lot of respect and admiration to all those people that have stayed true to that game but that’s not really my league and therefore I don’t expect to win it.

In any case, due to your personal circumstances, and because of your art you have been labeled as one of the main examples of street artists in Spain. Since your work was featured on “Stencil Graffiti” and because your connection worldwide, you have achieved some international projection.

The term “Street art” give me the creeps and deep down it makes me uncomfortable to be labeled that way because of the way the whole thing is portrayed on the media where different things are all labeled the same while I don’t feel very connected to many of those. Besides, all this you mention is more of a by-product of pure chance. My attitude during all these years of street activity has always been the same: Do what I pleased and ignore the rest. I never worried much about documenting or promoting it. The important thing for me is the action itself: Doing and being there at a precise moment, alone or with others, and being able to display on the wall what’s on your head. The contact with Tristan Manco came after I saw an ad in the Graphotism magazine where it said that they were looking for people doing stuff with stencils for a book. The whole thing with books about it and so on wasn’t as saturated back then and I think it was one of the first times I felt like showing other people what I was doing and also I was in London and felt like meeting people. It’s all because of that when I start to exist to other people although back in Galicia some people knew about what I was doing out of seeing it around. All those international connections came also after travelling around and meeting people that you relate to. I’m not the type that spends all days sending e-mails here and there promoting myself. I prefer face to face contact and if there’s feeling, things start to happen and if not, let’s move on. I don’t really want to become famous or get rich selling out. I’m just looking for an optimum balance betweenb my comercial and personal work and hopefully one day I will be able to do only my personal work.

So, at some point you decide to move to Madrid. Why did you choose Madrid as opposed to Barcelona, for instance, where a lot more seemed to be going on?

I decided to move to Madrid around 2004 because it’s a place like felt that I could do what I wanted. I had been coming to Madrid very often, to skate mainly, and knew a lot of people here. I also felt like a place where there were many things that still needed to be done (still are) I always felt comfortable here. Barcelona back then was going through a golden era in terms of doing art on the streets. I knew that city too and had friends there and in fact lots of people were moving there and I guess that there’s more money but I don’t care about it that much. Now that I think about it, from a purely profeesional perspective it didn’t make much sense but that’s how I am: I like travelling through the less travelled path and in Barcelona all paths seemed too busy. Besides I had the oportunity to work with you in Subaquatica and I liked the idea.

Had you been in touch with Eltono before that? Because you seem to have develop a good connection with him.

Tono and Nuria are two good friends. With Tono I’ve been sharing a workplace for some time now. I don’t remember exactly how I first met him but I do remember seeing some pics on his website of something I had done in Madrid back in 99 and contacting him. I also remember working with them for some event Antonio from Serie B coordinated around 2003. We painted on a panel with HearOne. I had already met Hear before from coming to Madrid and going out bombing with him and there was always a good connection there. Now he’s someone important in my life too.

And now that you’ve been living in Madrid for a couple of years already, it seems like the nicest offers don’t come from Madrid. How’s your relationship with the city? How do you feel it’s contributing or affecting your work?

Right now I’m in Madrid but I might move. You never know but I feel good here right now but I also feel it’s quite a harsh city, at least compared with others I know. But I’ve always felt attracted to that. On an artistic level it’s the city with more opportunities in Spain where all the important galleries are and where you can find many museums, alternative spaces and you can do stuff on the streets more easily than most people realize. Things are happening here and I think or at least I have the feeling that something is going on.

I have the feeling that artists with a background with Graffiti or Street art share a series of experiences that are not that common for other artists, working together, in front of an audience, having to work fast… How would you describe your experience in that sense and how has it enriched your evolution as an artist?

I think that what has affected me the more about doing art on the streets is how unattached I’ve become with the actual pieces of art I make. I mean, I’ve gotten used to not worry much about what happens with them after I’m done working on them. Like I said before, what I value the most is the creative act. The way I relate my work I usually feel more comfortable doing something that I know is going to disappear rather than creating an object that maybe only some righ person can afford to buy. That makes it complicated to work with an art gallery where their business is precisely selling art pieces. All this also relates to working with other artists. Although the Graffiti world is pretty much about ego in its purest form, the artists collaborations is very common. I also appreciate very much when people can watch the creative process and working together with other artists. This is something I enjoy very much both on a creative and a personal level.

About what we can see by looking at your work, I would say there’s a balance between a colorful aesthetic and more criptic and sometimes even dark elements. How do you see that duality?

I think that that dual nature of what I do is also a determining factor in how I am. Reality, or at least, my own perception of it, is grey meaning that it’s not completely black or white. That reflects in what I do. Maybe there’s a naif feel to it but behind that there’s something else. Like in life itself. I consider myself an optimistic person and I guess that my pesimistic side, mostly towards how we are as a society, reflects very much in my work. Usually is not a concious process though but when I do think about what I’ve done, there’s clearly a sinister side to it.

In your universe there’s a series of elements that keep repeating themselves. The bearded guy, the head with the balaclava, the squid, the broken pieces of wood… Is there a coherent code that gives meaning to these elements?

Those elements that you mention are a synthesis of the things I worry about. For instance I use the wood panels as barriers. Doors between an inner and an outer world that block the passage showing only what I want to. The squid is an icon that I use on the street, like a throw-up. I’ve been trying not to use it for my other work for some time now. The only purpose of the squid is to represent myself and that’s why I don’t use it in art spaces. On the other hand, I don’t see all those elements as pertaining to a particular universe except for the fact that it all comes from me.

What have you been doing lately?

Truth is I’ve been very busy with different projects but right now I’m mostly trying to focus on what I’ll be showing at the upcoming ARCO art fair with my gallery, Ad-Hoc. And I’m also trying to organize my studio a little bit and survive in a city .

Any plan in the future that you want to share with us?

2007 seems like it’s going to be a busy year. For starters I will spend a whole month in Toulusse (France) painting for the Río Loco festival. We are also preparing a show with the Equipo plástico for Seattle. There’s something with the Cultura urbana festival in Madrid in may… I don’t know now… and many more things.

What project you would like to do but still didn’t have the chance?

Too many but I would have to say a pop-up book. I used to love those when I was a kid. Those are the bomb!

Any particular artist or thing you want to recommend?

Many but right out of my head… Espaun and Hear, two very good friends with a lot to say. Be watchful with www.sintevision.com. I try to be aware of what’s going on and what other people is doing (mostly to avoid repeating it) and there’s always something new and interesting to look at. I also like the www.tinyvices.com website. Or my man Xabilin that takes this fucking amazing photographs or Mundo Grúa, the best live band I’ve seen recently!

Entry Filed under: Artists