Monk, ADS

Hare ADS

ADS at W4G 04

ADS at W4G 05

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tell me at first, who you are, what is your intention in the graffiti culture of italy, and why you provide a magazine like garage or graff zoo?

Garage: Ciao, here’s stefano, the editor of garage magazine and I run it since 1998, first as a fanzine and then like a magazine about visual amusement, particularly oriented to the street culture. Our intention is simple: to inform people, graffiti writers or not, about what’s going on in the subcultures world. This means graffiti and all the thing that surround them, like photography, graphic design, art, exhibition, fashion and everything that can be done by writers. In our previous issues, we had clear examples of what graffiti culture generates: an army of creative guys working for fashion brands, in the music and entertainment industry, without forgetting all the artists involved in gallery shows and exhibitions. Our aim is to push up realities that wouldn’t have any other possibilities because the art medias are fucking conservatives and the design/fashion scenes don’t know a thing about this culture. Garage is an open forum, evey one that has style, original ideas and cool projects to show is invited.

and what about the guy from the ADS Crew, participant at write4gold italy 2004 and 2005? ;)

ADS:  I am MONK from ADS team... we paint as a crew since 2000

what you think about write4gold as you heard about it in first time and when it was?

Garage:  I think W4G could be considered like a magazine, like Garage: it’s NOT the culture but it represent it in some ways. Of course, anything is fundamental, if you think the pioneers didn’t have nothing to grow up with… but I think graffiti writing needs some involvement from professional people, people that’s able to manage events or organize shows and exhibitions… it makes more effective the efforts made by the people involved in this scene. W4G speaking, I heard about it last year when Pietro, who actually is a Garage magazine contributor, managed the Italian date in Modena.

and you think it the developement go in the right direction?

Garage:  I think the event is going better and better, both for the experiences made by the German managers (you) and for the maturity of the Italian scene… consider that it’s something quite new for us… we are not used to get so involved in events… apart from Indelebile 1995 and few Street Attitudes editions, for young generations is something quite new. Big ups to all the guys involved in events!

what you think about the write4gold in rome on 14th of june? do you expect so many visitors there? explain in some sentences your impressions about the competition, the organisation and the quality of the concept walls in comparison to the italian write4gold in 2004.

Garage:  I think W4G is an opportunity, an opportunity to meet people, to chill in peace, maybe drinking a beer and painting a wall, nothing more. Personally, I don’t feel so much the aspect of competition, but I know is an important factor for someone else. I was pleased that in Rome there were so many guys and I think it’s because the event now it’s well mediatized. What I appreciated more last year, confronting to this one, was the wall aspect. Last year the location for painting was BEAUTIFUL, but there was a lack of other aspects such as live music in the afternoon. I think that it always depends on money, places, permissions and so on. Let’s say that everyone has done his best, during these two years, to make W4G a competitive event.

Monk, the question to you as participant. It was easy to convert the topic "Hot Spot"?

ADS: It was a GREAT event expecially for the location and the organization ... really well organized and I was surprised to see so much people :D. About the quality of the concept I think it was better than the past year in Modena...at least for us, cause 80% of the crew were new in 2005. HOT SPOT was not very easy... but we did it more for fun than for the competition and I think that you can see it from our carachter and our letters too ... cause it is our approach to writing.

but the ThrowUps word JUMP wasnt easy or?

ADS: JUMP throw up was easy ... only the J was a little bit difficult .

what you think about the categories and the weighting, concept painting 60%,copic sketching 20%, action throwups 15% and tagging 5%? 

ADS: I think that style can't be compareted to a number and nobody can't say if I 've got it or not ... at the end it is only an issue of taste.

Stefano, what you think about by yourself, personally, about the decision of the jury? you think people recognized the pointment of the judging system?

Garage:  I think the winners had great chances to win… they arrived 2nd last year, they’re skilled both in characters and letter design and, personally speaking, they rock all about tagging, throwups and lettering. What could we tell more….

you think VMD70´s are a good representer of Italy at the european finals and have chances to win?

Garage:  I think they’re one of the realities in Italy, THE is, for example, another one… to be sincere, I don’t think one crew could represent in full a nation, exactly like the W4G, Garage, and all the medias can’t represent in full the graffiti writing culture and scene.

we was very surprised about the high skills of all the participants in write4gold italy 2005, do you expect these high quality in all categories? Especially the JPEG Crew, the ADS Crew and the THE Crew surprise me personally..

Garage:  People in Italy is becoming skilled and skilled in graffiti writing, for sure. Italy has never been pushed in the right way in the past, not because the wack level of the crews (just think about CKC, THP, TRV, MT2 crews in the 90’s) but because the people in Italy, in the past, used not to link with the foreign realities, like crews nowadays use to do. I don’t want to esagerate but Italy can compared to UK for the extreme closeness it had in the past with the graffiti culture outside the borders. Only Milan and Rome had frequent visitors… but they, in most of the cases, used to hang with locals just to paint a couple of panels or walls and then go home.

Monk, you take care for the other write4gold eliminations? Example in greece, spain or slovakia? What you think about the quality there and the events? Especially the quality in greece surprised me personally a lot. 5. What it mean ,ADS? 

ADS: Yes Greece surprised me too, also if it is not the kind of style that I prefer. 5. ADS has so many meanings for us but I prefere that everyone gives to it the meaning that prefers :D

yeah, so in my opinion your piece was really nice, but it is only my personally, im not in the jury! It is easy to decide inside the crew, who should paint the styles at write4gold?

ADS: I'm happy that you liked our work ... It was strange to do cause in our crew we have different ways to do letters and the result was a fusion of 4 different attitudes. Personally I had more fun making the carachter and the ADShotshot.

you was disappointed about the placement of VMD,THE and JPEG? You think next year you will participate again? And tell me, what you think about the other walls, especially the VMD the THE and the JPEG Wall?

ADS: There is someone that can do it well and someone else not but I don't care :D No, about me VMD rules this year I have appreciated so much their wall ... letters, tattoo style, etc ... but THE and JPG have done great works too. Especially JPG have a really clean style but above all are very funky people :D and I thank W4G that give me the possibility to meet them. We'll partecipate next year with a larger crew , I think.

Stefano, you come from milano, very far away from Rome. Is there a big different between the graffiti scene in milano and rome?

Garage:   Of course there is. Each city has his own history and his own way of living. Milan was always considered as the capital of style and Rome the capital of bombing. There are too many differences in these two city I can’t explain in few lines… let’s say that Rome has always had a different approach to graffiti, something more connected with the first approach to graffiti in New York. They had the subway running dirty, Rome has the subway running super dirty! They care more about the name running on the lines and less about the sharpness of the lines and the complicated styles. In Milan, people developed what we can sincerely call the follow-up of wild style, they had masters like Phase2 teaching them what to do. In these days Milan is living graffiti in a different way, people is more concentrated on subway and so the styles are more simple, you know the reasons: few time, simpler way. Rome has never lived a period like this… they never had the urge to move themselves on the walls.

do you think write4gold can help to build a more positive image for the topic graffiti for whole italy?

Garage:  I think that the event in itself could be associate to a positive thinking of the graffiti culture towards the autorities and the society in general. I think we need event like this to keep the community unite and to demonstrate that writers are transforming what they paint, not destroying.

Monk, Which kind of graffiti you prefer, walls, streetart, trains, bombing? And what you think about stickers and streetart at example?

ADS: We prefer trains above all but we do all if all means paint and havin fun. Personally I am not so intersted in street art cause we are not artists.

what are the plans for the future with ADS Crew?

ADS: Nothing ... we'll continue to paint like we do and ... we'll see

many thanks for the interview! Greetings? you want to add something?

Garage:  Thanks to you! Just want to say hello to the W4G event managers for the nice welcome they reserved to us in Rome. Thanks also to “The Spot” skatepark owners for their kindness, especially Doppio. I’d like to say hello to all the people that usually help us in managing garage magazine but they’re too many to mention. Stay Kool! Stefano

ADS: I would to thanx all the people I met in Rome, you and all the W4G staff , bye

check: garagemagazine.net