Interview
Beast
Established 2009, Beast has produced more than 200 urban installations in more than 40 cities across Europe, United States and Japan. With his ironic and provocative collages, Beast deconstructs well-known faces of politics and the world of entertainment, recreating scenarios to the limit of veracity. At the beginnings his distinguished mash-ups, framed in gold and freely placed on the streets, have quickly attracted the attention of media, challenging the urban audience to question the truthfulness of the information, in a continuous play of references between the real world and the ideal world proposed by the artist. Since then he moved to bigger size artworks, pasting up giant posters on the walls of the main European cities, replacing advertising posters with his own artworks and creating giant murals on abandoned buildings’ facades in the countryside.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I started doing street art in 2009, at a time of great expansion of this movement. I came from a long experience in the advertising graphics and I was looking for a way to join this artistic community. I made the first pieces in Los Angeles and New York, where I lived at the time, I didn't have a well-defined style, but looking at them now I realize that I was already addressing one of today's themes, a satirical commentary on social dynamics.”
What inspires you?
“I believe in a mix of music, images and texts. Over the years, I have accumulated an impressive photographic archive, thousands of photos, newspaper clippings, useful for the creation of my collages, and when I immerse myself in this archive it is like overstimulating the brain with infinite possibilities of combinations. To this experience I add music and lyrics and it is like finding a meaning to each new composition.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“For about a decade, I have been running three series that are constantly updated: the first is called ‘Everyday’ where I tackle political and social issues; the second is called ‘The Lowbrow Chronicles’ dedicated to the world of contemporary celebrities, and a third is called "‘Old But Gold’ where I deal with great figures from the past revisited in a modern key. I believe that in each one my attempt is always to reveal or in some cases uncover the human, more personal side of the subject depicted.”
How would you describe your work?
“The simplest definition would be digital collages, but I think it's the subtext that makes the difference. I’m interested in bringing back to light archive images or parts of them, combining them with other fragments with the aim of creating a new image, a new reality that, however fake, may seem plausible to the viewer.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I have no particular references in digital craftsmanship, and as far as street art is concerned I don't think I've been particularly influenced. I don't come from the world of graffiti, and I don't have any painting skills. I'm interested in the gesture of artistic sharing, of public art, of adding something to cities that isn't just road signs and advertising. In this, I believe that Jacques Villegle was an absolute precursor of the genre.”
“ I'm interested in the gesture of artistic sharing, of public art, of adding something to cities that isn't just road signs and advertising.”
What is your creative process like?
“Indoor production consists of researching the photographic archive in search of the pieces needed to build the collage. I like to range between multiple sources, artistic photos, archive photos, magazine and newspaper clippings, everything can be useful for the formation of the new image. I then combine these elements with Photoshop and it is the part I prefer, the one I consider more artisanal, where the technical gesture becomes decisive in the creation of the work. Later, the subjects I prefer also become works of street art, and over the years I have used different installation techniques: from small frames, to paste ups on a human scale, up to large installations on entire facades of abandoned buildings.”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“I would trivially say showing an unusual point of view of reality; revealing the diagonal between two points. This is what usually excites me when I encounter a surprising work of art. And undoubtedly the role of the artist has changed over the centuries, from an illustrator of the divine with an extraordinary talent, to a provocateur of emotions capable of conveying an artistic message even with a simple ready-made. Today the challenge is with AI, the thought that becomes a tangible image, without a technical gesture, pure imagination of the artist elaborated by a server. It is an epochal change, a technological revolution that changes the game, it will produce some masterpieces and tons of waste, but it cannot be ignored in the artistic field.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“In these 15 years of activity, I have participated in many art fairs, street art festivals, group and solo exhibitions and all have taught me something in terms of relationships with the public, with galleries, with art curators. But my personal pleasure has always been, and I believe always will be, the spontaneous, unauthorized urban installation. A work posted in a crowded street is seen by thousands of people a day, a sort of open-air gallery, free, accessible to all. This is the place where a work of art should compete, be able to capture the gaze of those who are busy with their business, surprise someone who does not expect to see that thing in that place. And when a passerby steals your work placed in the street, it is the greatest attestation of appreciation.”
Website: www.beaststreetart.com
Instagram: @beastwalls
