SAYPE with BEYOND WALLS in Berlin for the “30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall”

From Graffiti Writing to Land Art through painting, faithful to the spraying technique

From Graffiti Writing to Land Art through painting, faithful to the spraying technique

Mit 14 Jahren fing SAYPE (geb. 1989)an zu taggen und Graffiti zu sprühen. Das Lettering, die Buchstabenästhetik, legte er nach einer Weile ab und konzentrierte sich auf die Figuration. Er bemalte mit verschiedenen Writern und Künstlern auf Festivals einige Murals und malte zuhause auf kleinen Formaten weiter. Neben seiner Ausbildung als Krankenpfleger investierte SAYPE dann vor allem in die autodidaktische Arbeit im Atelier. Er experimentierte mit Sprühlack auf Leinwand und wechselte zur Airbrush-Technik, die er auch heute weiterhin anwendet. Seine technische Geschicklichkeit führte ihn zum Photorealismus. Landschafts- oder Stadtansichten als Hintergrund, auf die durch eine zusätzliche unscharfe Plexiglasschicht, wie durch eine beschlagene Fensterscheibe geschaut wird, und auf der, wie mit dem Finger in Dunst wie ein Kind gezeichnet, geschrieben oder getaggt wird. Wie der Blick aus dem Auto-oder Zugfenster an einem regnerischen Tag. Manchmal entdeckt man Graffitielemente im Hintergrund. Eine Art optische Täuschung und Hyperrealismus zugleich mit einer romantischen Note. Seine Malerei, die sich auch mit philosophischen Fragen rundum den Menschen und seiner Existenz beschäftigt ist für den Künstler “existentiell”.

SAYPE’s painting has been represented in urban art galleries for several years, such as the famous Speerstra Gallery in Geneva and Paris. SAYPE owes its roots, its approach to art, to graffiti culture, and despite a certain success in galleries, his studio work was no longer enough for him about five years ago. Grown up in the mountainous landscape in the Jura in France, in Belfort, SAYPE has a very special relationship to nature and the mountains. And so he came up with the idea to work with nature without having to give up his spraying technique and developed a new technique that allows him to paint meadows with harmless paint to create large-format temporary pictures, frescoes, mostly in grey tones. His recipe: a biodegradable paint mixture of lime, milk enzymes, coal and water, applied with the help of high-pressure cleaning devices. developed in his mother’s garden, which has supported and accompanied him for years. After about 3 weeks, the colour grows out again, leaves no traces and does not damage the grass or soil. Thanks to the drones technique one can admire his monumental frescoes from a bird’s eye view. The result is a temporary monumental Land Art artwork which can only live through photography and in its context of nature unfolds all its beauty, in the valley, next to woods, next to waters, in parks in the city seen from above, creating poetic images and a kind of “landscape art photography”.

A giant biodegradable landart painting by French-Swiss artist Saype is pictured in Treptower Park, Berlin, Germany, Saturday, November 2, 2019. This fresco and a second one in a neighboring park have a combined surface of over 3000 square meters and were realized using biodegradable pigments made from charcoal, chalk, water and milk proteins. These art pieces are the fourth step of the worldwide project “Beyond Walls” aiming at creating the longest symbolic human chain around the world promoting values such as togetherness, kindness and openness to the world. (VFLPIX.COM /Valentin Flauraud)

Positivism and call for solidarity

Seit einigen Jahren lebt SAYPE nun in der Schweiz, wo er in der Berglandschaft experimentieren und viele Werke umsetzen konnte. Seine Motive der Fresken sind sehr unterschiedlich. Ob spielende Kinder, ältere Männer oder aktuell die sich haltenden Hände. Fotografisch figurativ erhalten sie durch die reduzierte Farbpalette und den Stil einen “modern-antiken Character”.
2016 war ein Schlüsseljahr für seine Arbeit, er realisierte die größte biologisch abbaubare Arbeit auf Gras in den Schweizer Alpen: 10.000m2 und ein medialer Erfolg.
SAYPE merkte aber auch schnell, dass ihm die Schönheit der Bilder nicht ausreicht, sondern, dass er mit ihnen positive Gedanken und Botschaften verbreiten möchte.

In Geneva, in 2018, he realized “Message for the future”, a large picture of a sitting girl who lets a 15 meters big paper ship into the Lake Geneva. The artist did this project together with the ONG SOS Méditérannée, which supported the rescue ship Aquarius for the distress of refugees at Mediterranean Sea. This impressive fresco helped to get some help from Switzerland, which gave the artist hope and a new idea: to paint a pictorial human chain around the globe, as a call for solidarity, the project BEYOND WALLS.

With the motif of holding hands as a sign of mutual help and support and cohesion, which he has photographed from thousands of people – whether celebrities, friends, colleagues or strangers – SAYPE then takes it as a model for the next monumental picture, reduced to grey tones. After that the artist can no longer assign the hands, they become anonymous and a universal sign for solidarity, an appeal to mankind.

At the beginning of 2019, SAYPE was voted one of the 30 most influential personalities in the world in the field of art and culture under the age of 30 by the renowned magazine “Forbes”. Now he is 30 years old and is embarking on a long journey.

Start of BEYOND WALLS 2019 : Paris, Andorra, Geneva and Berlin

After the first station in Paris, at the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower, with seven frescoes in June 2019, the project BEYOND WALLS went to Andorra and Geneva before it could be realized in time for the “30 Years of the Fall of the Wall” in Berlin.

At an art fair in France earlier this year, the French owner of the Urban Spree Gallery in Berlin gave SAYPE the idea to offer BEYOND WALLS to the celebrations of the city. It was to take four months until a district in Berlin agreed to participate, although the project was fully financed by the artist and supported by a letter from the senate of Berlin. Grün Berlin GmbH for the Gleisdreieck Park denied after weeks. For the Mitte district, an application had to be submitted to the art commission for public space, which was not accepted by an unknown jury and gave a negative answer after five weeks of waiting. The green strip at the Bernauer Strasse memorial and Schöneberg for two small parks were also not possible.

At an art fair in France earlier this year, the French owner of the Urban Spree Gallery in Berlin gave SAYPE the idea to offer BEYOND WALLS to the celebrations of the city. It was to take four months until a district in Berlin agreed to participate, although the project was fully financed by the artist and supported by a letter from the senate of Berlin. Grün Berlin GmbH for the Gleisdreieck Park denied after weeks. For the Mitte district, an application had to be submitted to the art commission for public space, which was not accepted by an unknown jury and gave a negative answer after five weeks of waiting. The green strip at the Bernauer Strasse memorial and Schöneberg for two small parks were also not possible.

DIY – Mentalität

SAYPE’s Land Art ist gar unsichtbar, unfassbar vom Boden aus gesehen. Man erkennt nur dunkle Umrisse und helle Flächen auf der Wiesenfläche. Mit seinem Sprühgerät schafft er es auf großer grober Fläche feinste Schattierungen mit weiß, schwarz und drei Grautönen zu zaubern wie kein anderer Künstler. Nur er beherrscht das Rezept und die Technik. Er gilt als Urban Art und Land Art Künstler zugleich und man spürt, dass SAYPE’s Wurzeln in der Arbeitsweise in der Graffiti Kultur liegen, mit einer gewisse DIY-Mentalität: draußen malen,  Sprühtechnik beherrschen, experimentieren, Werkzeuge selbst bauen/umfunktionieren, schnell und gut auf großen Flächen arbeiten und natürlich immer größere Bilder schaffen wollen, Menschen erreichen und Anerkennung schöpfen.

At the end SAYPE realized even two wonderful temporary works of art in Berlin for the “30 Years Fall of the Wall”, never giving up hope, with the symbol for more solidarity and cohesion, between East and West and across borders. In 2020, the artist travels on with BEYOND WALLS to Burkina Faso, the cities of Rome and NYC are in discussion like many others. The plan of this young, dynamic great-thinking artist is to leave behind his symbolic images in cities and diverse landscapes all around the globe in three to four years time.

Credits

saype-artiste.

Fotografie:
Kevin Schulzbus // @kevin_schulzbusy
Valentin Flauraud // VFLPIX.COM

Text:
K. Hermann