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- Promotion 2007
- Training Graphic Design
- position Street artist
- location Montpellier
After completing a BTS in Graphic Design, Salamech opted for a lifestyle choice: to make a living from his passion, street art. He practises his Art, with a capital A, where colours and curvilinear shapes intermingle in an inimitable style. Maintaining close links with ESMA, he is a regular guest speaker at the school, introducing students to the art of graffiti. Discover his portrait and his vision of street art.
A look back at your ESMA years
WHAT DID IT TAKE YOU TO THE WORLD OF GRAPHICS and WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO JOIN ESMA’s graphic design course?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always drawn and, more generally, been fascinated by the power of images. At the age of 15 I instinctively started doing graffiti. I knew that after high school I wanted to study art. I chose to enrol at ESMA because the preparatory year (MANAA at the time) enabled me to study different subjects related to the applied arts and thus clarify the direction of my training.
WHAT DID THE COURSE OFFER YOU?
A lot, because ESMA offers a fairly comprehensive course. In the Graphic Design – Publishing – Advertising option, we had courses in the plastic arts, drawing, semiology, communication strategy, art history, English and even a bit of science. I learned how to organise myself, analyse images, develop visual concepts, present projects orally, be more curious and sharpen my artistic eye.
WAS THERE A SUBJECT YOU PARTICULARLY LIKED?
Yes, art history, because the teacher was excellent and the subject was fascinating!
DID YOU HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO WHEN YOU LEFT THE COURSE? WHAT DID YOU WANT TO DO? DID THE COURSE OPEN UP NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR YOU IN THE WORLD OF WORK?
Yes, I wanted to be a print graphic designer, designing visual identities for companies, brands and institutions, doing communication campaigns, designing posters, etc. The course gives you the tools to be able to do that. The course gives you the tools to be competent in the world of work, but you also have to put in a lot of personal work and build up a solid social and professional network to get there.
HOW DID YOUR IMMERSION IN THE WORLD OF WORK GO WHEN YOU LEFT THE COURSE?
My professional immersion was a bit special because my passion for painting and graffiti took up a lot of my time and energy. So I combined these two skills to earn a living, set up my own business and gradually built up my client network, which enabled me to develop my artistic activity at the same time.
Your career path
ONCE YOU HAD YOUR DEGREE, WHAT WAS YOUR CAREER PATH?
When I graduated, I went to Barcelona to do a year’s artistic residency. The idea was to do intensive graffiti work in a new environment. So it was another year of very instructive training at the ‘school of the street’. Back in France, I set up my own graphic design business and continued my alternative artistic practice, which was shortly afterwards interrupted by an arrest and the legal problems that go with it…
I redoubled my efforts and after this episode, I seized the artistic opportunities that presented themselves to me and launched my career as an urban artist.
Today you’re a street artist. Is that your full-time job?
Yes, I’m a full-time artist.
What does your day-to-day work consist of?
My work involves four main activities:
- Writing projects and artistic direction
- Creating works of art in the studio and exhibitions
- Creating murals
- Running workshops in schools, medical centres and associations
I go to the Parcours studio every day, which I share with four other artists, and work on my projects for 9 hours a day. I travel to events of all kinds and create murals when I’m asked to do so.
All this is possible thanks to the partners I’ve met along the way, a solid network strengthened by the particularly strong artistic vibrancy we have in Montpellier.
How did you become a street artist and start doing graffiti?
It was life that led me to art, it was a natural progression for me. I embraced the hip-hop culture in which I grew up, and my codes and origins were expressed through graffiti. I’ve evolved, travelled and pushed back my limits with it. There’s still a long way to go, and today painting remains the central element of my preoccupations.
what characterises your work as a graffiti / street artist? The Salamech ‘signature’?
I’m going to concentrate here on my work as a street artist, as graffiti remains a personal and subversive practice for me.
My work revolves around several elements:
- The production of my creative supports from materials salvaged from the street, which I call ‘Urban Matter’.
Billboards, metal curtains and torn posters form the basis of my work.
- Words take centre stage. Lettering and colour are brought together in a composition that combines complexity and balance.
These words are combined with evocative and nostalgic popular iconography.
My work illustrates thought as the boundary between image and words, all linked to an omnipresent urban environment.
What do you like about graffiti? Are you trying to express something or convey a message?
What I like about this creative process is that I’ve managed to maintain this exchange between the outside (the street) and the inside (the studio). I transform urban materials in the studio and in the same studio I produce works intended to be installed in the street. It’s a constant exchange that I see as a coherent extension of my traditional graffiti practice.
My work highlights the importance of words in a society that is losing meaning. Today’s urban environment is an ambivalent space that is both fertile for human innovation and a creator of entropy. Being an artist in this context gives you the role of observer and consciousness-raiser.
Do you collaborate? Do you work with other artists, associations, etc.?
Yes, of course, I’ve done a number of group or duo exhibitions, organised collective projects and combined my artistic skills with many different professions. Every project is a collective adventure! It’s only in the studio, in front of your creative medium, that you find yourself alone at the controls.
how do you see graffiti evolving in society? is it better perceived or understood?
I’m divided today about the evolution of urban art. On the one hand, there’s a huge amount of creativity, talent and meaningful ideas and positive initiatives in this movement. On the other, there’s excessive commercialisation, a rather vulgar consensual tendency in search of the easy ‘like’. I think it takes all kinds to make a world!
You give workshops at ESMA. Why is this important to you? Does it raise awareness of this art form among students? Do you raise awareness in other schools/structures/associations?
It’s important to me because it’s a question of transmission, it’s even essential. It gives students concrete experience in this field and adds it to the rest of their training. I offer initiations and workshops at Line Up, an organisation specialising in the dissemination of urban art, as well as in elementary, secondary and high schools, in companies as part of team building and in medical facilities such as IMEs, psychiatric hospitals and others.
Is there a project you’re particularly proud of that you’d like to share with us?
There are a few that have worked well. Among them, the citizen project carried out with the PACIM association ( passeurs de cultures, passeurs d’images) which gave rise to my most beautiful mural, entitled ‘Héritages’, completed in May 2017 and still visible just before the terminus of the L1 tram in the Mosson district of Montpellier. It is the result of numerous meetings organised by this association with local residents around the issue of their relationship with the police, against a backdrop of a great need for consideration. These projects give meaning to my practice, and are both aesthetically and humanly useful. That’s what I enjoy most!
To conclude
Any future projects?
Of course, I’m currently working on my first series of sculptures in raw concrete for a forthcoming exhibition in Montpellier. I’ve also created an 80m2 façade for the latest student residence built by Bouygues Immobilier in Montpellier. The release of a special folio with the Balthazar circus and my participation in the prestigious 800th anniversary of Montpellier’s Faculty of Medicine.
I’m also preparing a solo exhibition with my gallery, La Villa Tschaen in Colmar, scheduled for the end of the year.
How do you see yourself in a few years’ time?
In a few years’ time, I see myself still creating, but also increasingly involved in the role of artistic director and writing projects for the new generation of artists.
Any advice for students and future students?
Yes, follow your intuition and give yourself the means to implement your projects, whatever they may be. Don’t follow the system, let’s invent a new one that’s more resilient and sustainable.
And for those who want to get into graffiti/street art?
Be casual and subversive!
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To follow Salamech and discover his work
Website: salamechgraffiti.com
Instagram : @salamech_art