Infiltrator
14 september 2020
Exfiltrator/Infiltrator
This blogpost is about what the real feeling of graffiti means to me and how it started.
Nothing is better than the feeling of Freedom, exploring unkowns, creating something new and kicking against a system at the same time.
Exfiltrator: Graffiti is freedom at a risk
I still remember super vividly up until this day, how I snuck out of my parental house at exactly 01:03 when I was only 15 years old back in 2005.
From my room, I lowered a backpack full of spraypaint into the darkness of our backyard. Attached to a string made of old shoelaces, I was praying the improvised knots would hold the weight of the spray cans, since a system failure would certainly wake up the whole damn neighborhood.
Once lowered to the ground, I tucked the end of the string between the window and the window frame. So I could hoist everything back up, íf my father would catch me trying to climb out of the kitchen window downstairs (a very real possibility for light sleeping ex-military).
I would then still be able to make up a story about seeing some neighborhood friends, or anything better than being caught with a backpack full of spray-paint. Since that would most certainly be a hell of job explaining without severe punishment.
Luckily no-one woke up during my “mission impossible.”
It had just stopped raining, and I can still smell the air and feel the raindrops in the palm of my hand while I closed the small kitchen window. When adrenaline pumps the way it did back then, you don’t forget, anything, not even the details.
It might be crazy, but even the worst (police) chases I witnessed after this first graffiti experience, never gave me as much adrenaline as the thought of my dad catching me at that very moment. At 15 years old it’s hard enough to explain yourself to an adult already. Let alone explaining why you want to make graffiti-art in a subway tunnel or trackside in the middle of the night.
Graffiti is a lifetime of memories and stories.
Ever since that first moment sneaking out of the house. I witnessed a lot more of let’s say… “very interesting moments.”
Infiltrator
For the infiltrator piece I entered an abandoned Spanish secret military base at the costa brava in 2020. And it felt like a weird mirror version of that first graffiti moment climbing out of the kitchen window.
The military base was specialized in radio reconnaissance during Franco’s time as dictator of Spain. And even though it is abandoned now, it is still considered a restricted area with barbed wire fencing all around the perimeter, and Guardia civil checking it out every now and then. Painting there is certainly not free of risk. Luckily everything went smooth that day. Walking and painting on the grounds of that base did give me some good old graffiti vibes.
Infiltrator
14 september 2020
Exfiltrator/Infiltrator
This blogpost is about what the real feeling of graffiti means to me, and how it started.
Nothing is better than the feeling of Freedom, exploring unkowns, creating something new and kicking against a system at the same time.
Exfiltrator: Graffiti is freedom at a risk
I still remember super vividly up until this day, how I snuck out of my parental house at exactly 01:03 when I was only 15 years old, back in 2005.
From my room, I lowered a backpack full of spraypaint into the darkness of our backyard. Attached to a string made of old shoelaces, I was praying the improvised knots would hold the weight of the spray cans, since a system failure would certainly wake up the whole damn neighborhood.
Once lowered to the ground, I tucked the end of the string between the window and the window frame. So I could hoist everything back up, íf my father would catch me trying to climb out of the kitchen window downstairs (a very real possibility for light sleeping ex-military).
I would still be able to make up a story about seeing some neighborhood friends, or anything better than being caught with a backpack full of spray-paint. Since that would most certainly be a hell of job explaining without severe punishment.
Luckily no-one woke up during my “mission impossible.”
It had just stopped raining, and I can still smell the air and feel the raindrops in the palm of my hand while I closed the small kitchen window. When adrenaline pumps the way it did back then, you don’t forget, anything, not even the details.
It might be crazy, but even the worst (police) chases I witnessed after this first graffiti experience, never gave me as much adrenaline as the thought of my dad catching me at that very moment. At 15 years old it’s hard enough to explain yourself to an adult already. Let alone explaining why you want to make graffiti-art in a subway tunnel or trackside in the middle of the night.
Graffiti is a lifetime of memories and stories.
Ever since that first moment sneaking out of the house. I witnessed a lot more of let’s say… “very interesting moments.”
Infiltrator
For the infiltrator piece I entered an abandoned Spanish secret military base at the costa brava in 2020. And it felt like a weird mirror version of that first graffiti moment climbing out of the kitchen window.
The military base was specialized in radio reconnaissance during Franco’s time as dictator of Spain. And even though it is abandoned now, it is still considered a restricted area with barbed wire fencing all around the perimeter, and Guardia civil checking it out every now and then. Painting there is certainly not free of risk. Luckily everything went smooth that day. Walking and painting on the grounds of that base did give me some good old graffiti vibes.
