108 Interviewed by Rocketclowns.com

Read it with pictures here:
http://blog.rocketclowns.com/?p=603

What is your best childhood memory?
Fantastic question to start with. Hum, I have many nice childhood memories, it’s not easy to remember and to decide. Surely I had my best times when I was a little child when I was with my grandfather. At the time houses were not so expensive and the houner of my grandparents house let my grandfather using a room and the first floor as laboratory. He was retired and he worked inside a metal factory for all his life so he was very good with hands… He built a lot of stuff, also small castles, houses, models for his small train system with woods. He also told me a lot of things about old times, old legends, war times… Untill when I was 6-7 I passed most of the times with him and these are my best memories.

When did you know you wanted to make things, how did it evolve?
I can’t remember. I think I never decided to make my things… I allways needed to do stuff. To draw or to make things in general. When I was a child I was living with my grandfather, he was a worker but he was very good with materials and he was a special person. I strated to make things with wood for example. Another important thing it was my primary school. I had the real bad luck to go on a old school with an old teacher… when I think about those days, It’s like I went to school during the 50′s… or something like this. This teacher never ler us drawing for example, but I was drawing all the times on my copybook. My fixations were trains and dinosaurs: when my teachers cought me drawing dinosours for example she was very angy… for her I was drawing monsters (I liked monsters so much too!). Maybe with a nicer teacher today art shouldn’t so important to me. Anyway, I never studied inside any artschool. My city have a military and industrial history… and my parents were normal workers, so I had to go to normal school. In my city there was some “primitive graffiti artists” but I wasn’t so much in to them at the time. I was more fascinated by some very old writings… for example fascist slogans in some old houses… strange slogans that I wasn’t hable to understand. Or most of all some very old writings made with white paint and a big brush on old farms from the 40′s and the 50′s: W COPPI. Fausto Coppi was the greates cyclist of all times and my grandfather sometimes told me about him… it was like if he was talking about a real hero (and he was a real hero). It was not only the ahesthetic… it was something deeper with these writings. I have a swiss uncles, so when I moved to Geneva in 1990 I saw the first real graffiti pieces and the first nice tags. I became crazy with that… and I started to make my first tags with a marker. I never stopped to make letters for all the 90′s… than I wanted to make something different and I changed my “tag” in to the number 108

Are you a future or past orientated person?
I think that I allways think about future project, but living here where I live today killed most of my hopes and made me very disenchanted. So I think that my thoughts about futrure are more like dreams than real projects. I’m really interested about the past. I mean, I use a lot of my times reading books of ancient history or anyway anthropology. I fascinated about old times, I allways think about how a place was maybe 2000 years ago… it’s not easy to explane, but I’m very fascinated by the past. Most of the times cemeteries are my favourite places inside the cities. Finding an old engraved stones in a forest or a old rails inside an abandoned factory open a new world in my mind. Also my vision of a “sci-fi” future is related to the past: I’m still dreaming about a 80′s-early 90′s cyber-punk / psychedelic future… so I think I’m a past oriented person.

Do you think the environment is important does it form you, keep you stuck or going in later years?
Environmet is very important to me. I was telling you about my city… and my area too. I think it’s very important for what I decided to do. I live in northern Italy, my city is in a hole between hills and mountains. People think that we have just the fog. I love the fog. There is this strange feeling here… expecially when I was younger. Most of the people feel guilty for their lands, because you are in Italy and you don’t have the sea or the sun… only warm and grey in summer, hahah. Anyway it’s the typical place where people want just to escape. Anyway… in the 80′s and in the 90′s there was a very interesting underground scene. So we didn’t had big rock festival or stuff like that, but I saw most of the best bands just taking my bike on saturnday night and going to one of the two local squats. That was my word during my youth. I found many books, records, vhs, zines about any underground movements. I’m telling you this because I think that’s very important for me and what I’m still doing. There wasn’t a real alternative scene here… like in Milano for example. Here there was the underground and the “normal people” with a wall between. This way of thinking it’s still inside me. I never wanted to be part of an “alternative” movement… I’m afraid of it. And probably it’s for that I’m doing black shapes on the walls and strange music. Something I want to change my mind… because I allways chosen the most difficult way, and many times I took the wrong way. I moved for some years to Milano and than I’m here again.

What is the best place for you to work? Phisically, mentally and spiritually.
It changed during the years. Years ago the best of the best it was working during the night on illegal walls out of the city. It was a real trip, I liked so much the situation, the air, the smell of the fields mixed with paint. Now I’m older and I’m also becoming lazy. Or better I think I like so much to be relaxed. Anyway it depends: sometimes I really need to work alone at home. I really likme when cats assist me, I don’t know why but they really like to see me drawing and painting. They help me to concentrate. In other moments I like to paint woth oter people… but not with anyone, some people makes me sick. It’s like they stole my energy… It’s fantastic when I travel to meet new inspiring people and to paint and talk with them for example. I think that art in general is a magical thing, it’s allways been like that since ancient times. I feel like a shaman, it’s not possible to do something nice or to find new ideas in some days. You know inspiration… hahaha. For me it’s not a mechanical thing. When I’m very ok, I mean happy, I cannot work. I don’t need it. When I’m too bad sometimes I found new ideas, but it’s better for the music I think, or maybe to go out and observe, taking pictures. I need to be in a strange mental way to find the best moment to work… and it’s not easy.

How does the making process unfold for you?
Hum… the making process for me is something very istinctive. I have so many influences that I take from evevrywhere and that I conserve inside my mind for months, sometimes for many years. Most of my ideas comes directly from my subconscius… for example through dreams or visions. This is true… most of my shapes comes from images that come to my mind withouth any reason. During the years I minimalized my work, because I think that I must find the final shape, maybe in future I’ll start again to make complcated stuff, or figurative stuff. For example in the last year I started again to use COlors, because I think that evevry color have a special meaning. And I’m experimenting a lot with the links between colors and shapes.

Do you ever feel blocked? If so how do you deal with that?
Yes, most of the times. It’s very hard to work with very simple things, in general. You cannot hide you work with any layers and you can’t find a new shape or a new sound, for example, everyday. This is something tecnical, I think. But anyway, the worst moment is when I loose the inspiration… you know, it’s typical for artists. You can sell your soul to satan maybe for that. For many people painting or playing or… producing art is something more mechanical, for me it’s not like that. Many times when I have no new ideas I paint again very similar stuff, so I can make it better. But in the end when it happens I’m very frustrated and to be honest I don’t know how to deal with that. I think I just can wait.

Do you need outside or inside inspiration?
I need both. I prefere inside inspiration, I mean I would like to express what’s inside me. This is something spiritual you know, I think that painting or playing is a magical discipline. It’s something very far from science for example. There are no laws for that. You must understand that you will never be able to understand what art is and why you need art. So… when I watch an art piece I try to see what really is inside it. Maybe the ideas, or I don’t know, the colors, it can be everything but when I watch it (or I listen to something) I want to enter inside the world of the artist. This is why I like some artists and I really can’t like some other stuff… I mean my tastes change a lot, but… Anyway I need outside inspiration too, because I need a tool to express what I want. Ok, I think that’s too complicated, this is a poor explanation.

What is most important to you? The idea? The actual making process? Bringing it out there? Recognition?
I think that I told you something on the replyes above. Anyway, I think that it’s all importnat, but the most important thing it’s the idea. If you don’t have an idea, you are doing nothing. The making process is important too, because, hum… if art is a magical thing the making process is like a ritual. For example, talking about visual arts: I made many big works, I mean very big wall, sometimes more than 10 m… stuff like that. But, I don’t like that… I like to experimenting with everything, but I think that the best size to work is when you have a phisical connection with my body and the surface, for example something like 3×3 meters… not more. I can’t understand artists that let other people make their works, and I’m not talking about helpes, this is meaningless to mee. Recognition is important too. I really don’t care about fame or stuff like that… but I must be sincere: recognition is important. Sometimes to be too much modest can be frustrating…

You also are involved with music? How did that happen?
Yes. I think it was natural because I allways liked music, some songs are part of my life and music allways influenced my mind. Anyway, I allways wanted to play something, but when I was a child I wasn’t able to play anything. You know you think that you must be a real musician to play… when I was 13-14 I was a skater and I went to some punk shows. In my town there is an old history about hardcore/punk/diy scene… so I just used few money I recived for christmass to buy a cheap second hand guitar and with some friend we started a band. I had many hc bands in the years. Anyway, with music it was the same as for the visual arts. I’m allways been curious and I allways like to experimenting. So… in the 90′s I was also very interested in many underground movements, and I saw many strange bands in the local squats. Probably the most important moment was when I saw DECODER by Klaus Maek. With einsturzende neubauten, genesis p.orridge, burroughs… I was very young so I wasn’t able to understand noise music very well, but that kind of movement was too interesting. In the same way of graffiti, in the last 90′s I started to use my first computer, and my friend Pira gave me Fastracker… a dos software that I started to use in the wrong way… I mean I started to use it as a sequencer for sample that I was recording with guitar or anything else and to add effects… so I made the forst drones and strange melodies.

In what medium can you express yourself best?
It depends: sometimes I prefere to paint. In these times I like expecially take some black paint, a small roll and my bike and to go on the countryside to find old walls. This is what I like more. So I tryed to make some videos to document it… because it’s something that really rapresent myself and that’s very different from painting a canvas for example. Sometimes I like also to paint a canvas or to draw on paper anyway. In some times I really cannot paint and I want to compose melodies…

What drives you to make art/music?
As I told you before it’s my research about making something that can communicate some ideas, but “ideas it’s not the right word… maybe some feelings, hum. It’s a problem of communication. Some artists (painters or musicians…) create works that open in my mind new doors. When I listen to some tracks for exaple I’m taken to another landscape and I’m trying to make something similar. In fact few years ago a friend told me that my shapes are someting like a black mandala… I think that’s true, I like to be lost in it and my music is the soundtrack for it.

What is it to you to be an artist? Can you define it?
I think that first of all, you cannot decide to be an artist. You are an artist. You can see it when you cannot do anything else… I mean it’s not a good thing. All the times that I met another artist (I have to be polemical I’m talking about real artist, not workers of art…) I met people that see things in another way. This is the most complicated question… I have my own idea about being an artist. You know, I think that all the art forms (visual arts, music, theater, dance…) are allways been magic disciplines. I see the artists as something like a shaman. In our society in the last thousands years we lost every direct contact with anything else than “real world” I mean monotheisms destroyed our spirituality, and capitalysm finally killed it, something survived maybe in the small villages in the countries but… You see that, if you try to explane why people today need art or music it’s very hard to be understood. Also big musicians are usally people that just sold records, and also artists. but you see that people need to go to dance or to see art exhibitions or to watch movies… We need it… we still need something to trascend everyday “reality”, a scientist can give you cures for many things, can give you machine, but they cannot give you something like a nice song.

Do you feel things are fated in life or can we control things?
I think that we cannot understad it. Religions try to explane thi skind of things but are just humans (very dangerous) ideas. Anyway I think that we can decide a lot of things… we can decide to kill someone, or what kind of food to eat today. But you see, we cannot decide a lot of things… I’m fascinated about the possibility of understanding some signals: for example numbers and coincidences.
Where would you like to see yourself in the future?
I allways thought: “I want to escape from here”, but anyway, something want me here I think. I think that I’m chronically dissatisfied, so… the best thing would be to have the possibility to travel most of the time. There are many places that I like. I must admit that I’m also very connected with the ground where I’m born. Not so much about the city, but about the hills and the mountains for example… I really don’t know. I’m not strong enough to decide and in my life I allways let fate decide for me… it’s not so good maybe but it’s easier.

What keeps the fire burning?
I need to do it. I’m 33 and I’m almost sure that I simply need it. When I have to work or anyway I cannot do my stuff, I start to be so distressed and dissatisfied that it’s simply the reason of my life. Maybe in future I’ll stop to make art and I’ll turn in to a witch… in fact what I do is simply witchcraft, and I cannot stop it!

Ineterview: UK final dissertation.

These questions where for a final dissertation entitled Reading Graffiti, at the University of Bristol, I am conducting interviews with numerous persons involved with graffiti from Europe, the UK, and the States.

1. What do you write, and for how long have you been involved with graffiti? Are you able to verify your Identity?

The "tag" I used in the last 12 years most of the time is a number: 108.
I started to write my names (i chenged tags too many times) in '91, when I was just a little skater and I wanted to leave my name in the spots. I'm been a tipycal writer until the end of the 90's, making tags, silver pieces... my work as 108 started in 99.
"Are you able to verify your Identity?" - what do you mean???

2. How are you feeling today?

I'm a bit frustrated as most of the times, but anyway I'm not so bad.


3. Can you describe your first piece? Your most recent piece?

I remember very well my "first piece". I have a picture of it. It was summer, I wanted to make something bigger than a tag... so I went to a ugly place along the railway line, under a bridge. This place is still a typical place wher writers go to paint today.
Anyway I found 2 spraycans, black and red and I made terrible thing.

4. What sort of pieces do you usually do, and how often do you do pieces?

I'm not a writer anymore, I mean sometimes I need to do a silver lettering, or stuff like that. But it happens 3-4 times for year right now. Anyway, I'm changed: my work now have nothing to do with what do you call "graffiti". Or better with the kind of graffiti that started in NY. I paint black shapes. My work is closer with magical prehistoric graffiti than to writing.

5. Do you consider your work to be in the graffiti style, and why? Do you consider yourself to be a graffiti artist?

It depends. As I told you if you think about graffiti as something spontaneus, without a commission, made in public spaces, than yes, I consider myself a graffiti artist. But I do other stuff too. If you think about graffiti just as a style of lettering or something to do on snickers or stuff like this than: no, absolutely I'm not a graffiti artist.

6. Is graffiti art? If so, since when and for what reasons?

I cannot reply to this question in few words. Sometimes graffiti is art, awesome art. Sometimes absolutely not.

7. What in your opinion differentiates ‘graffiti’ from ‘non-graffiti’? Could graffiti be broken down into subcategories (e.g. stencil vs. freehand etc.)?

I think about graffiti in a good way when I think about something painted, or scratched or I don't know... when I see something spontaneus, in public spaces and without a commission. In graffiti the aesthetic is just a port of the "thing". The division in to subcategories is not very important, it's just a media, you can do the same for any kind of visual art.

8. How would you describe your own style, and how would you say if differs from other peoples’ style?

Usually people call my style "abstract", that's right. Probably I prefere to call my stuff as non-figurative than abstract. The fact is that I create shapes, I'm searching for the perfect shape, I'm not reproducing something. Anyway, this is what I did in the last 10 years more or less, it's part of my research... I never stop to experimenting, so it's not something final. My "style" is not easy to be undesrtood, I'm sure that some people hate it, I don't care, this is my own research. Yes probably it's very different from the most of the other graffiti stuff.

9. What is the relationship between image and word in your work?

I don't paint images. Sometimes I write words in my works. Words and letters usual are part or the shapes. I really like the shapes of the letters. I hide messages between letters and numbers sometimes.

10. What is the relationship between form and colour in your work?

This is very important: all my work is about forms and colors. In the last years I found the black as the best color possible, expecially in public places. During 2010 I started again to experiment with colors. Black and colors have different roles. For example black is used for the main/regular shape, for the structures, it have a more rational role. Colors are for the irregular parts, the irrational, the connection with other kind of reality. It's not easy to explane... gods like Kandinsky wrote aboute these kind of stuff in Concerning the Spiritual in Art, and he was very better than me.

11. What are the steps involved in making a piece? How is working on a piece alone different from working in a group?

To be honest, I'm an individualist. Usually my shapes comes from an idea, an image that comes to my mind. Than I have to go out to find the right place and to paint it. It's like a magical ritual. My works are better when they are alone in a place. I don't like too much to work in a group, when I paint a wall. I really like to be influenced and to work in a group in an other way. I really like to work with many artist and friends, but to be honest I don't like to divide a wall.

12. What are the steps involved in looking at a finished piece?

Sorry I don't understand this question.

13. What makes a piece good or bad?

I can't tell exactly. Proportion I think, but in art for me it works in a different way. Again it's not a rational proces, it's something instictual.

14. Is there a significance to the design, colouring, shapes, and location of a given piece?

Absolutely yes: the first thing for me is the location, the connection between the location and the piece is too important.
The shape (the design) comes by it self, or better when the work go well... I must be very good to do the right shape in the right place, most of the times I'm not totally satisfied about it.
The colors are something different. As I told you I chosed the black as main color, other colors have different roles.

15. What factors in your life have most influenced your work? How do you feel your own work has effected others?

Too many factors, I can name just a few. Right now my work is me. First of all I think that the main influences are the place where I'm born and where I live and the time, I mean this age. Year after year I saw that my city and the region where I live influeced me so much. I mean old rural graffiti, or strange enigmatic drawings that sometimes I saw in the walls here where more fascinating to me than other graffiti. Same for some prehistoric art I found on the mountains and the hills here in my area. They are not just aesthetic... thay have something else. I can't explain. Same for this age: one day it was natural to me to go out and to paint on a wall.

16. What art, books, films, artists, games, or magazines have most influenced your style? What advice would you give to someone looking to learn more about the graffiti movement?

Art/artists: Primitive art, prehistoric art, Hyeronimus Bosch, Malevich, Kandinsky, Burri, Fontana, Stak, Peio................
Books: Euripides - The Bacchae, H. Hesse - Die Steppenwolf - W.S. Burroughs, Antonin Artaud - Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society, Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception..........
Films: Fellini: Giulietta degli spiriti, Casanova, Satyricon... David Lynch: almost everything, David Cronenberg: expecially from Videodrome to Existenz, Tarkovskij: Stalker, Myiazaki: everything, The Wickerman (1973).................... I don't like games, magazine, I don't know... maybe Underground Productions in the 90's, I'm allways been influenced by diy fanzines.
I don't know about giving advises, maybe to lookwhat do you see around your home, to check everything you see when you walk... it's the best thing about graffiti.

17. Any further comments?

I think not!

108 Interview on XFUNS magazine (Taiwan 2006)

Interview made in 2006 for the XFUNS magazine # 28 (Taiwan).

Scanned pages:

INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Please briefly introduce yourself for XFUNS readers.

Hi! I’m 108 from Europe, I live in a little city called Alessandria in the north west part of Italy. Here the weather is not very “good” winters are longer and the most famous thing is the fog. This is a big influence for me. I started to drow when I was a child and I never stopped. I did the first ugly tags in 91 and the first “good” pieces in 93-94. I never been in to Hip hop or stuff like that and I allways tried to do my own stuff. It was the end of the 90’s when I started to do new “abstract stuff” both in visual art and in music...

2. Did you choose, or were you chosen to create street art?

...................................

3. Where is your inspiration come from?

Most of my inspirations come from the stuff I see around me. First of all natural landscapes, mountains, trees, stones, roots, old walls and stains are probably the biggest. I’m very influenced by animals like cats, slugs and wild boars... not just by their shapes.

4. Please briefly share with us about your childhood influence and how
this shaped your creation?

Yes, before my birth, in the 70’s my mother made a lot of paintings, most of them was copies but she also did a lot of abstract stuff with glue and oils... a strong influence for me. Also my grandfather, he was a worker in a metal factory for all his life, and he was very good to buils stuff... at home he was creating a big landscape for train models with a lot of hand made mountains, it was like a big sculpture. I learned a lot of things from him!

5. What are your methods of graffiti? How does the process of creating
an object begin?

For me it’s the same when I do a painting, graffiti, a sculpture, a song or a video: I try to express my purest ideas, I must search in my unconscious, I wanna forget about all the trends and useless stuff... so usually I try to draw without thinking on paper. I found most of the ideas in my dreams and nightmares, or in my deep thoughts (the wheel for example), and sometimes I recognize the meanings of them only after years.

6. What is the main concept and key element of your work?

As I told you before, most of my works come from my unconscious and are totally irrational. You can see the abstract, soft and gloomy shapes... My works are also very symbolic. The same old example of the wheel, I found it in my unconscious, it was a big fixation for me... usually I have drawn it with 8 rays inside... In fact it was the sun wheel, one of the most impirtant symbol in ancient indoeuropean cultures (you can find it in a lot of indian and celtic stuff). This is just one example.

7. Have you ever confronted any difficulties when creating works?

The biggest difficult is in myself. When I can’t find any ideas or inspiration I feel very frustrated and nervous in my life also. I hate that. About the public works, obviously, the biggest problems is he police and the ignorance of people. I had some problems with them a lot of times... but luckily the problems was never been too serious. Another problem is about exhibitions, pubblications and the ART world: everyone today looks to the last trend come from the USA, and if you aren’t american and you are not following any trend, hardly you can find place to expose your stuff, expecailly in Italy. But I don’t care too much, I allways made stuff for myself first...

8. How did you select subject when you are creating?

This is an important part of my work. Usually I work in public spaces, you know, and the background is the most important thing. I must find a good shapes for that place, usually I prefere old walls and abandoned places, and my “thing” grow by it self, as a tree or moss did, but I know nature do that really better than me! It’s very hard for me to work on a blank white surface... in that situations I must find a good inspiration elsewhere, maybe in another work I did before or working with a good friend with good ideas.

9. Why aren't you working on an graffiti now, instead of answering questions?

Haha, at the moment outside is raining and it’s too cold! In fact I like to reply to some questions sometimes, expecially if they come from very far. I like to confront myself with new people and trying to explane my works to others. Sometimes I also understand unknown part of my works when I try to explane it.

10. Please share with us your view on "love"?

It’s very hard to reply to this question. I don’t know what do you exactly mean... anyway there are different kinds of “love”. I think it’s allways a good thing...
...

11. Who do you admire most? Why?

....................

12. What do you expect to accomplish in the next 5 years?

Onestly I don’t know, when I think about my future I feel very distressed. But anyway, I hope to have the possibility to travel around Europe and if it will be possible the world more and more than now... In the end I hope to be really happy and to finish to try to survive.

13. If you won the lottery, what will you do?

Hahah... I never play so it will be very hard to win the lottery. But anyway. If I won a lot of money, I want to buy some ground and fill it with woods... build a little house inside it and live and work on my stuff there when I’m not travelling... Ok, It would be great also to make a shelter for animals, from the cats to the slugs, doing everything I can against industries, maybe promote artists that I like, and stupid stuff like that...

14. Please drop some suggestions to the people who want to join graffiti.

[Artists' File]

Age: 28
Horoscope: Aries (Hearth Horse in the chinese one)
City: Alessandria (North west of Italy)
Agent: ?
Personal Website: www.108art.tk
Art Tools/ Technique: Everything!
Specialist: ?
Favorite Color: Black and dark deep colors in general
Favorite Artist: Too many... I need 10 pages!
Favorite Fashion/Trendy Brand: 2nd hand stuff or handycrafted stuff.
Motto: Save the planet, kill yourself!
Editorial Clients List: ?
Commercial Clients List: ?

Interview: USA?

This questions was sent to me by e-mail for a fanzine, but I forgot the name of it! Sorry.

1. Who are you and where are you from?
I'm 108 (birth name Guido), I'm an artists, I don't like to label myself, but I work with many kinds of art... expecially visual art, but also with sounds, and any kind of media. I'm from a small city called Alessandria, situated in the north west of Italy, but I don't care about countries, so I prefere to think that I live at the feet of the western Alps.
2. Do you think that all forms of graffiti are artistic?
That question it's not easy, before we have to decide what's art, but I think no one in the world know what art is exactly. I think that most of the times graffiti are very interesting, in years I changed my view and sometimes I prefere a raw writing with or without a sense, than a well done mural. I think about graffiti as something total spontaneuse, without a commission. It's something very interesting, and we should talk about that for years... anyway when we talk about ancient graffiti on the stones we talk about "rock art" so I think in a way mosto forms of graffiti are artistic in a way.
3. What other artists inspire you?
My inspirations comes from many directions... graffiti are just one of them. I think that my main inspirations (in graffiti) come from french/eurpoen artist of the 90's like Stak, something really new, with a sense, and a real study about public spaces, and many other things. In the last years I think the best things are coming from eastern Europe, where there are many different interpretations of graffiti, a lot of new ideas and expecially a lot of studies and discussion about the public art, the aesthetic it's just one of the things.
4. Do you think graffiti lacks both recognition and social approval? Why?
I think that in the last years graffiti are everywhere in the overground, but most of the times they are just a stereotypes. I mean, I'm interested about the "artistic" side of graffiti, the research about them... so the problem is not the lacks of recognition and social approval, because you can see graffiti on the Nike or Adidas t-shirts or places like that, and people like that. The problem is that I don't care about that kind of "graffiti", I think there is a real hole between waht's the real graffiti/public art movement (that's strictly undeground) and the real "art world", probably it's just because right now also ART is a big business, and not so much more.
5. Being that gangs are within the graffiti culture, do you have an opinion on the crime over territory?
Ok, I think that the connection about graffiti and gangs/crime it's an american thing. Here graffiti it's allways been something more politics, since the '800 and popular since the prehistoric times... If we talk about graffiti writings, it's something beetwen ther crews... but it's not about true crime. I think that things like sicilian or russian mafia have nothing to do with graffiti. I live in Europe and I think that the thing it's totally different than USA. I can't see nothing good in crime, mafia or gangs, and I think that people who want to be a "gangsta" is totally brainwashed and stupid.
6. Where you ever arrested for doing graffiti?
Ok, I'm 31 now, in the last years I'm painting mainly inside abandoned buildings or on canvas, paper stuff like that and I have no problem. In the past I painted undreads if walls and not only, 99% in illegal places, I'm been caught few times, but I'm never been arrested. In the last years things are becoming harder, but as told you I'm no more interested about painting in dangerouse places or walls with a value, I don't care about that kind of respect.

Interview: Sounds Of Battle And Souvenir Collecting

Interview for SOBASC website by Mike Bjella (USA).

What inspired you to move away from "traditional" tagging and writing to those first yellow forms that later progressed to the large shapes?
It was during the end of the 90's. Graffiti was my biggets fixation, but I started to think that just making the same old letters for years was a bit boring... In the last years with some friends started to make strange freaked out letters, ugly... at the time we where very influenced by some punk stuff coming from scandinavia! Than I decided to find my own style. I was also interested in some strange kind of art, for example the work of Richard Long... it was very interesting. Making artworks in public places... not just writing your name. And I started to think that there was something very interesting inside "public art", more than just the aesthetic. Anyway probably my biggest influence was the french artist called Stak. I was a fan of his pieces... and around 95 I think, it started to make strange abstract shapes on trains and walls... when I saw this stuff the first time on a graffiti zine I was almost shocked! That was something really new and totally european! Something fascinating... I wasn't able to understand exactly what it was, it was great.

When did you start bringing your work into galleries? Was this an easy transition?

This is another important question. It was (it is) not an easy transistion. I allways made my works for myself mainly, so, I think the best thing for me is making my stuff in a good place, looking it, maybe taking a nice picture. The problem is when you see that day after day art is becoming the most important thing in your life you only want to do that. Doing stuff ouside galleries it's awesome, you are really free in a way, but, I don't know how to explain... you are like in a cage also. Making art for me it's a way to survive... I'm very poor, but I need to do this stuff. I'm allways searching a way to do that... I like to experiment, and it's not easy to do that in public spaces only. I'm 32 now and things change during the years. Anyway I allways liked also making drawings, prints, sounds, zines... not only public art.
You've mentioned being inspired by spirits and heavy anxiety, for one of your zines you created. Is there a unified emotion or something that inspires you in all of your work?
Ok, you are talking about the zine called KAMI, I think. This winter I had some problem with anxiety and I was alone most of the times drawing shapes on paper and reading. I was also going often to walk on the mountains and the hills near my hometown. I was reading some books about shintoism (anthropology is a bg interest for me) and I found many interesting things: first of all it's something very similar to the old european paganism. For them spirits and gods are everywhere, in a tree, in a river, also in a stone... I like d also how they see these spirits: without a shape, sometimes people put a frame on their shrines or a origami, because spirits don't have a real shapes. Ok maybe a dragon or a fox, but the human shape of the spirits came in japan with buddhism... later. It was fashinating and I saw on it many connections with my works. There is allways something spiritual in my works. I think the real artist must be someone special... like a shaman. It's not easy to explain again. Art it's something useless, but people need it. We know few things about our ancestors of the stone age, but we know the awesome art inside the caves. Art (I mean visual art, music, poetry...) it's allways been something spiritual and magical.

Any 108 visits to the USA in the future?

I hope to back in USA in the future, but nothing is planned. I'm travelling a lot but usually I go where they invite me. Obviously I would like to make exhibitions there, maybe also to play live somewhere but it's not so easy to manage things like that right now. I'm also dreaming about coming to walk on your mountains, but for the moment it's only a project.

I loved that you used "Jesus Tod" in your winter video. What kind of music if any is playing when your out painting or in the studio? What have you been into lately?
Yeah, Filosofem is one of my favourite album ever. I'm not talking about Varg ideas, but artistically Burzum is surely a big influence for me. I'm glad you saw that video, it's just a fast, dirty clip, but I think it rapresent very well my work. I used that song not just because I like that album. The last winter in my town was very long, I think the longer I remember since when I was a kid. We had snow for almost 3 months... I like snow so much. Anyway as I told you it was also a bad moment for me, my mind was totally black and I was painting most of the times alone in abandoned places using only black paint. I think that song fits perfect with that... Anyway I allways listen to music, allways! I like many kind of music. Now I'm listen expecially to slow stuff, gloomy stuff, psychedelic stuff... here is a list of bands I listen to in the last months: Alog, Sonic youth, Aphex twin/AFX, Joy Division, Nadja, Death in June, Wooden shjips, Labradford, Concrete, Slowdive, Eyehategod, Morrissey, Depeche Mode, The Knife, Fursaxa, Dopplereffekt, Psychic ills, Brian Eno, Integrity, Current 93, Amon Düül, Matt Elliot, Nurse with wound, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, Fever ray, Kuupuu, The Field, Flying Saucer Attack, 7 Seconds, Fall of Efrafa, The Cure, Iliketrains................ hum, and more!

Tell us about your band Corpoparassita and Larva? New releases?
Ok: about Larva now it's called Larva 108 because there are too many bands called larva. Larva 108 is just the music a make as 108. Sometimes can be electronica, ambient, sometimes nois, drones... In these days finally it's coming up the first real CD. It's something like a "best of" (hahah) of songs I made between 1999 and 2009. In these years I made some tapes and CDr usually in few copies not easy to find.
Corpoparassita is another project I run with some friends. we started in 2002 (from the ashes of Haselwurm) inspired by Luigi Russolo, DADA, Antonin Artaud, Lynch and many other things usually people labeled us as Death/dark ambient. We released a lot of CD, tapes, CDr with many underground labels around the world. Our live performance are more noisy with something psychedelic I think. We just released some splits and we are waiting for a tape and a new CD...

Interview: Ekosystem 2001

This is one of the first ineterview, made for Ekosystem by Eko in 2001.

http://www.ekosystem.org/0_ITW/108/108_itw.htm

Name : 108 (prC_Ok) / ABX3000
Location : Alesandria/Italy

Can you describe us what 108 concept is ?
Experimentation, discussing all the rules of art and writing, putting my "works" in a suitable place without asking for permission, doing something which satisfies me.

Why such a name, 108 ?
Numbers instead of letters. 108 has an important meaning for Hare Krishna. It's a line with 3 circles or a rectangle with 3 squares. It's divisible by 3.

Felton or Montana cans ? Montana.

French TGV or Milano Subway ? French TGV (I prefer the long distance).

Daylight or Nocturnal action ? Daylight.

Xplicit Graffx or Underground Productions ? Both: they're the best zines!

Barcelona or Berlin ? Berlin (but I'd like coming back in Barcelona too).

Obey or Space Invader ? Space invaders.

Honet or La Mano ? I love them both.

80's ironic revival or punk graffiti ? 70's revival!!!

Spontaneous or planned painting ? Spontaneous.

Quick with drips or clean & careful painting ? Quick with drips.

Internet or Interail ? Interail.

Hip-Hop or Hardcore punk ? Hardcore Punk!

Madonna or Michael Jackson ? Madonna ('80).

"Too drunk to fuck" Dead Kennedys or "Fuck the police" NWA ? Dead Kennedys are always the best!

"Life is a bitch" Nas or "Good life" Innercity ? "Life, love, regret" Unbroken

Mc Donald's or Mc Enroe ? None of them

Weed or Champagne ? Sorry, I've got the straight edge.

Starsky or Hutch ? Hutch.

Pedestrian or Pederast ? Pedestrian!!!

Interviewed 26/10/01.

Interview: Dragolab/Urban Contest

Interview for Dragolab website for the Urban Contest in Roma (2010)
http://www.dragolab.com/en/news/posts/uc-108

1 // What was the first piece that you created, when and where?

Hmmm, that is a complicated question. As the first work ever I cannot remember because I would consider it to be the first drawing I did in my life, and who knows where or where that was. My first “graffiti” piece I did on a wall under the freeway in Alessandria, I have a photo but I don’t know if it was in ’91 or ’92, it was horrible. As 108 the first work was a series of yellow forms on plastic adhesive that I put up in various spots throughout Milan and Alessandria and then gradually in other cities around the world. It was absolutely an experiment, at the time there was no one making adhesive stickers or posters like that, the advertisements like the Enel cassettes or things like that were all free, it was a natural thing, but I never thought that the “108 Project” would ever become something important.

2 // What was the most recent piece you made, when and where?

The last piece that I created in the public vein was a black form painting under a quasi-abandoned freeway bridge in Alessandria. I am also working on 5 to 6 new canvases in my studio… In this period I am working with black circular forms and colorful inserted angular shapes.

3 // What is the work of which you are the most proud/you feel the most attached to or that has particular significance for you?

Difficult also here: usually I work exclusively to satisfy myself. This always brings me to experiment and to create things that are often incomprehensible to the viewer. Many times these works come out of wonderful experiments, which are important for my personal career path, but do not fully satisfy me. I believe the work to which I feel most attached is a black triangle (like a hanger), which took about 10 minutes, that I made in Saragozza in 2007. That piece came out of nowhere, without thinking, and I continued to make it for years. In that instance, everything was perfect, the destroyed white wall, the sagging, the demolished neighborhood, and the black cats that appeared on top of the wall as soon as I had finished! It was truly something magical. However, the work of which I am the most proud is probably that which I made in Arsenale during the Venice Biennial in 2007 for a number of reasons less magical and more practical.

4 // Which artist or artists do you believe contributed the most to stimulating your imagination?

I could never list the large quantity of artists, animals, trees, and visions contributed to the creation of my imagery. Like I always say, if I had never seen the work of Stak in the mid 90s I never would have started what I do. I owe a lot to him. Then primitive art, rock carvings, and non-monotheistic sacred art in general. Insofar as purely visual artists, I can say talents like Malevich, Schiele, Fontana, Richard Long, and then even if lesser known, the work of visionaries like Redon, Kubin, and Segantini for example. It is difficult for me to get excited about contemporary artists, but sometimes it happens. The larger part of my ideas come from cinema, by the way here I would have to site David Cronenberg, Lynch, and above all Fellini. The same thing goes for literature: W.S, Burroughs and Antonin Artaus… I would say that I need to stop here, otherwise I will go on forever.

Interview: Chain DLK

Interview by Andrea Ferraris for the Chain DLK website:
http://www.chaindlk.com/interviews/108-ARTS-Guido-Bisagni

Chain D.L.K.: Guido, I know that you’ve been involved with the punk and skateboard scene since your teenage years. How did this influence you to becomeinvolved with visual arts and when exactly did you begin considering it as acareer?

108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yes, at the end of the 80′s my sister had this plastic “banana” skateboard, but I thought it was something for girls. I think it was in ’89/’90 when I got this Variflex deck and I started to skate with some friends. It was the end of a little good time for skateboarding here, but it was also different if compared to the contemporary skateboard scene now… it was a real street thing with dirty ugly people, violence, stuff like that. I’ve been skating especially between ’91-’95 during the worst crisis of skateboarding. It was awesome we were just few people in the area, we dressed like clowns buying XXXXXL clothes in cheap market. We skated only the streets and we were hated by all the people and we hated all the world…we had a lot of fights, daily problems with police. It was a problem at the school too, everybody was playing football…Anyway today the situation would be a bit different. I usually talk so much about skateboarding because thanks to it I met some of my favorite punk music (but also other bands like Sonic Youth or Dead Can Dance) I have read the first infos about animal rights and I decided to be vegetarian when I was 16-17. I was listening a lot of hardcore-punk at the time…I started with fast old school bands than I was into typical ’90′s HC stuff, also because in the squats of Alessandria I saw a lot of good bands (you know Andrea…), some of them are still on my playlist. About the visual arts: I started drawing when I was a child and I never stopped. I always watched everything around me, searching for inspirations…during my skateboarding days I also started doing tags, and I’ve been one of the typical writer painting letters everywhere for all the 90′s. In the last ten years I searched for something new, experimenting daily, I tryind to forget all that influences coming from the U.S.. I’ve never seen art like a career, I just needed to paint, to play, to do something…I really don’t care about fame, the problem is that in Italy you don’t have any true support for art like that you have in the rest of Europe, we don’t have either any public money for jobless people or things like that. So when they start calling you everywhere and you do something important that requires time, you must take it more seriously or you simply have to stop. For me doing these things is something “holy” so I don’t want to stop but at the same time, I’m trying to survive. Starting to live now as a normal human would be a true nightmare for me…

Chain D.L.K.: So do you think art should always be highly rewarded or even be commissioned? I could imagine it’s hard to be passionate about your art when at the same time, it can be hard earning a living but perhaps it could be thought that, what makes an artist so special is the fact that they are completely free from commission or not connected to a ‘scene’. Do you agree? I see you promote yourself in a really humble way. Is this because of the belief that ‘social climbing’ never pays? Have you got problems with your self-esteem? Are you a permanent member of the ‘pessimists club’ or are you a loyal ‘no compromise’ diehard believer?
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Absolutely not. This is not an easy subject, anyway if we talk about ‘pure art’ I think money, commissions or any kind of reward ruin everything…It’s hard to express what I think, especially in English, we are talking about philosophy (anyway, I think about art like something spiritual, true artists are something like holy men, not exactly like a priest but like a shaman. 90% of today’s art is not art for me). I always worked on the streets for myself only, or at home, doing drawings, engravings, tapes or CDr in few copies, just because I want to do it. I still produce my book in 50 copies, I give them to my friend or I trade most of them, and sold some for little money. To think about my art like something with a monetary value is a real problem to me, also because without a price, people don’t give any importance to art or everything today. The problem is that now I’m 31 and I’m not rich, and to be sincere I like to travel and to meet other interesting people…things that you can’t do if you have a job, a work would steal too much time from your life. Above all I think that work is bad, most of the time a job is the end of your life, I can’t see anything heroic in work and I think work makes people ugly. Most of my favourite artists are outsiders…Yes, it’s very hard for me to make compromises…but I’m doing some. I mean I do compromises about commissions, not about my art. Sometimes I can’t sleep when I do things like that, but what can I do?! In the end I live in the european arse you know, and surely I’m a true pessimist, optimists are stupid.

Chain D.L.K.: What turned you into a member of the pessimist club? Usually people into dark ambient, punk, black metal and dark art have some sort of freudian explanation so as to hide or forget reality. Don’t be shy and feel like you’re speaking to your psychoanalyst.
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: I see a big difference between being pessimist and being part of the dark side. I mean: if you talk about the real world, every living being must be pessimist today. I’m not only talking about political stuff or social stuff. You see that 90% of our planet has disappeared, you see pollution everywhere, deserts, concrete and extreme suffering that I can’t explain to myself. We can see over the last century the disasters caused by humanity. Over the last fifteen years, many glaciers have disappeared, along with, lots of forests and rivers. And we can’t forget an important factor, there are too many of us (humans). The best thing that could happen now is the extinction of human kind. I’m sorry to admit that, even if I’m part of it, but any other theory is just pure fantasy. Also, nature is cruel, I know, but when you are part of it, you see that you are part of the cycle. Now, we are just something like a terrible illness, and we are not happy. (We are also sad) This is horrible. Anyway, when I was a child it was the same for me. I never wanted to eat animals and I always felt closer to a tree or to a cow than to another human being. My parents probably thought I wasn’t normal…at the time. Then, I found some underground cultures that I still like in part, but…this is a more recent choice and I don’t care so much about scenes. Anyway, today I’m very bored about being always so negative and distressed. I’m searching for… not the truth, but maybe just a way to escape. I think that modern religions, especially monotheisms and science (today science is the same as religion in medieval times) are something too far from the truth. At the moment I can’t find anything else than frustration, it’s very hard to wake up every morning as a stupid human, we’ll see. I think maybe the trees know the truth but I’m not sure.

Chain D.L.K.: “I search for an escape”… What about drugs? I mean, I’m sure you’re into the work of artists who where heavily into drugs…
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yeah, drugs can be a key. But what kind of drugs are we talking about? And anyway, drugs have always been very important for the old cultures, a good way to meet ghosts and the other reality…but today? In our stupid society there are too many drugs like heroin or television and they are not a good way to do anything, I think. I started to be interested in people like William Burroughs when I was very very young. I think he was one of the greatest people of the last Century. I tried to build my first dream machine when I was 15, with my record player… and it was the first thing I made with Flash. Anyway, in every ancient culture drugs were another way to meet the spirits. Shamanism, druidism, greco-roman mysteries…witchcraft. Christianity and Islam made humanity and our world so sad, evil and ugly. Anyway there are many other “drugs” that can be a big help in everyday life like two glasses of Barbera wine. It’s just what I need in the evening to disconnect my mind a little bit and to feel better. When you have respect for Dionysus then he has respect for you. That’s not a chemical thing.

Chain D.L.K.: I think there’s a lot of people out there who don’t know that much about your musical projects. Can you tell us something about Larva, Corpo Parassita, Eyless and the like?
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yeah, my musical projects are very very underground. The main one is Larva. It’s just the sonic side of 108…it’s a series of works, CDr or other that I called Larva. I create them in the same way I make my visual creations; something psychedelic and gloomy to enter directly inside my soul. Abstract landscapes, sometimes just noise and sometimes there are some melodies in them. The Larva tracks are always created (in first instance) for myself. Corpoparassita is another experimental project featuring Diego and myself. Alessandro has now joined us especially for the live show, in his role as the “hypnotic drummer”. Corpoparassita is more Dadaistic. We like to create creepy sounds by mixing existing records filled with some of ours creations. We made a lot of limited productions around the world. Eyeless was a rotting hardcore band I had with Diego from Corpoparassita, Peio and Cristina. We mixed a lot of grind and black metal influences. We played some shows and recorded some stuff. After more than fifteen years, I am bored of most of the actual hardcore productions, but I still play in a band called Bhopal with some old friends from the local Alessandria scene. We play a sort of Swedish styled “technical” melodic crust style with some black metal and death’n'roll riffs.

Chain D.L.K.: You come from the punk scene. You’re a visual artist. You still play hard music but at the same time, experimental. I know you’ve also taken part in the Venice Biennale right? Hey, all of these references made me think of another “artist” called Nico Vascellari. I’m sure you know of him: is there any connection? Did punk/hardcore nourish your creative attitude with people like you both or what? I’ve never considered the D.I.Y scene as a cradle for soon-to-be geniuses. Has it been an oversight?

108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yeah in 2007 I painted a very big thing in the Arsenale together with JR and Daim during the Biennale. It was nice but nothing that changed my life. Yeah, obviously I know the works of Vascellari but as I told you before, I’m still very underground. I think the very nice thing in DIY Punk/HC, especially back in the 90′s was that it had to be really independent. Now HC is like metal or something else. At the time it was very underground, but people were very enthusiastic and happy to do things. It was not just a musical genre. There were many labels and many fanzines. I think a lot of people in that scene learned to do a lot of things like producing stuff, screen printing, a lot of activities – and not for money. It has been like a very good ‘school’ for people like me.

Chain D.L.K.: Concerning issues of DIY, don’t you think sometimes being independent and being part of a self-supportive scene could be a good shelter for people without talent? How many people would remain independent if they had the chance? And you, would you refuse “major-money” just to remain a DIY hero? Beyond the nobleness of self-expression, what do you think when “independent” equals “cheap, ugly and unprofessional”?
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yeah, I think this is the biggest issue ever; not just for the DIY scene but in any kind of true Art (such as visual arts, music, cinema and literature). I also remember a little book by Schopenhauer I read years ago (probably the only one of his I read), that was focused mostly on this kind of problem. I think it’s not a problem of the DIY scene. It’s a human thing. Mediocrity rules everywhere but I think that usually the most interesting stuff evolves in new small scenes, when there is a lot of fresh energy, rather than any movement which becomes boring or reflects a simple trend. Think about punk or hardcore. I think the only important thing to do is what you really want to do. It’s simple, but not easy. In my experience, I have seen that sometimes it’s easier to do better works being more personal and independent and working for instance, in a squat, rather than with a big “commissioner” Yes: “cheap, ugly and unprofessional” but the most important thing is that most of them are not really free. Honestly, most of my favourite works are “cheap, ugly and unprofessional”. That can make things honest and spontaneous so beautiful, but most of the time, they are just an ugly copy of another ugly thing. That’s one of the causes of my disappointment regarding independent scenes. Unfortunately, people are like that everywhere. I have refused some “major-money” in my life because I really care about my art, I think maybe too much. Anyway, I don’t care about being a DIY hero. I don’t care about what other people think. People’s thoughts are bullshit to me; I’m independent because my work is not addressed to the masses but to myself and only to a few super-humans and nobody else.

Chain D.L.K.: “A few super-humans”… holy shit!! That’s pure elitism!!! (…ha,ha…) A lot of art is elitist and snobish, but what do you think about popular art? Or about art that can be “understood/consumed/digested” by the masses? (I’m thinking about some traditional but classy songs about Leonardo da Vinci, etc)
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yes. Pure elitism… right. I think that most people living in this country (and on this planet) are pure shit. So…why must I do something for them? They have always hated me and what I do, since primary school; my drawings, my thoughts, so, fuck them! I just care about what few people think about my art: some friends, some people and some cats who I really admire. I’ll rule the world with them soon. This is my biggest project, didn’t you know? Ok, I like some pop songs, but it’s a product. I really don’t know what I think about Leonardo da Vinci, really… sorry.

Chain D.L.K.: What are you planning to do in the next future; both music-wise and as a visual artist?
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: For the future, I don’t know exactly. If there really is a future, musically, I hope to have more time to do something new with my Larva tracks. I think maybe some new work on something gloomier and ambient and less noisy than past stuff. I would also like to release something with my favourite tracks that I made between 1999 and 2009, but I need a true label for it. We have many upcoming works as Corpoparassita. I will only play a few shows with the HC band because I’m not really into it anymore. But at the same time, I have a new secret noise/blackmetal project… just wait and see. About the visual stuff, I’m working a lot on paper right now and I have some exhibitions planned for the next up and coming months. I’m starting to think about a new idea for 2010 but I must wait for a good idea. I would like to work on 3D things but as usual, I’m not certain because it’s not easy to find a good place, and obviously it’ll be more expensive. As always I would like to work with video.

Chain D.L.K.: With a ‘dark age’ like this we’re experiencing, don’t you think there’s more and more inspiration for people like you? Above all in a moment like this, what is the future for art?
108 ARTS / Guido Bisagni: Yeah, I think now it’s the right moment. I think that some of the best things in art (art in general) come from the dark and depressive ages. I think about the years near the First World War or during the early 80′s. Anyway, I think that in a way, those were sad years and now we are living some true desperate times. It’s not about the money or the crisis. It’s about everything all at the same time. In this age of decadence, most of the people don’t know why they are living. There have never been so many humans living and exploiting this planet to such a degree. We know that we are facing our end. Everything is dying and if something goes bad now, we know that probably the entire world will finish here; not just our stupid kind. That is very sad. I think art reflects this. It can be totally empty or very dark or… I don’t know, but I think you can see what I mean. It is very, very sad. I think that art must be something spiritual, so it must reflect each other. In fact, I sometimes found real beauty inside this age of decadence, you must see it from the outside. We are living in this decadence with no escape and no hope. But at the same time, we must celebrate each other with a glass (many glasses) of red wine. What is the future for art? There is no future for this world. So I think there is no future for art too. Maybe there is in another world.

Visit 108 Art on the web at:

www.108nero.com

[interviewed by Andrea Ferraris] [proofreading by M. S.]

Larva 108 interview for Bad Acid Magazine (UK 2006)

Interview for
Bad Acid magazine
Dicembre 2006

It was expecially about Larva 108, my sonic research.

Can we start with a brief introduction, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

OK! I was born in 1978 in a little post industrial city in the north west of Italy called Alessandria, there is no sea and few sun here. We have just the fog, everything is grey also the shirts of the local football team. I still live here after few years spent in Milano, I think the gloomy atmosphere of these lands, the loneliness of his inhabitants influenced me a lot. I started to listening to music very young, my first band in ‘95, was a punk/hc band influenced by old italian punk hc bands as Wretched or Negazione and by Discharge and bands like that. In the same times I painted a lot as graffiti writer... in the end of the 90’s I started to experimenting both on the musical and the visual sides of my art... the project called Larva, in fact, is like the “audio” side of the stuff I made as 108.

Your music is densely atmospheric with a lot of drones. It contains a lot of different layered noises. its pretty difficult to tell if you use any popular instruments, or any at all. What techniques do you use to create such a sound?

It depends. Usually I start to work with a simple riff and I work on it. Some songs are made just with some different layers of guitars and some effects. Usually I do a simple structure with electronic drumming or a simple bass line with some software and after I play on it with my guitar or with another instrument. At the end maybe a delete the drums or I destroy everything with some heavy effects... In everything I do the “irrational” is very important, so I do what I think its right at the moment. The final “atmosphere” of the track is the most important thing to me.

Larva is just one of your artistic outlets, as seen on your website you are very active with other media, such as film and urban art, how is the music you make connected to your other projects? What, if anything ties these 3 medias in with your artistic style? Is there a common theme?

Yeah as I told you before, for me everything is part of one bigger thing. I don’t like too much to separate medias... I try to express myself with averything I have on my hands and I do that for me expecially. After years, as you can see, my songs and my paintings are becoming darker and simpler day after day... I don’t know exactly why, but I do what makes me more satisfied. About films and video, is what I would like to do more in the last times. I made just few short experiments becouse I don’t have a true cam and I still have too problems. I like it becouse I can works with images, music and also some stories to make atmospheres...

You have a very wide list of influences representing a whole array of genres on your myspace profile, is there anything in particular that has a direct influence on the latest album?

I think the last Larva work was influenced by too many things and artists... that list is just a small part, so I’m not sure about that. About the music, the album called “miniatures” by Alog was a great influence to me in those months for the electronic parts. Also a lot of sludge/doom bands or noise bands as Nurse With Wound... And a lot of writers and directors... Especially in that times, tha paintings of Mark Rothko was allways in my mind, but I think in the end the biggest influences to me are allways the mountains, the woods, the sea in winter, the snow, cats...

Amongst these artists, are there any you particularly admire above all others?

It’s a very hard question becouse, as you know, I admire too many people. It also depends... I think it’s not very original but for the bands I can tell you that Joy Division are allways on my top list in the last 10 years... you know for the music, for the words and also their artworks was a strong influence for me. Mmmm, about director it’s the same, but I can tell you that I really admire people as Fellini or Pasolini, expecially for thir ideas! Ah, I think that I can put W.S. Burroughs on the top of the people I admire... and for the writer hum, H.Hesse, expecially for his book “Der Steppenwolf” or “Demian”. Other artists: Redon, surrealists... I don’t know who is better really! I prefere people form the past, sure...

What have you been listening to recently?

Ahah, ok! I tell you what I putted on my player or pc in the last 2 days: Depeche Mode – “black celebration” and violator, Siouxie and the Banshees – “Juju”, Fabrizio De André – “Il Viaggio”, Neurosis – “a sun that never sets”, Ufomammut – “snail king”, Nerorgasmo – 7” (1985), Current 93 – “soft black stars”, a lot of underground stuff I find on Myspace... I think it’s all!

Again referring back to your myspace profile, you state that you ‘HATE meat, hunters, vivisectors, cars, organized monotheisms, human being in general, blah blah blah... too much things’ would you care to elaborate a little? What are your pet peeves about society? Could you tell us a little more about your political outlook?

Ok... basicly I think I’m a nihilist. I’m very frustrated about everything and I have a true negative vision of the world and of life and sometimes I think I really hate everyone. After that I think I collaborate more than 99% of human being... As written on my page I try to use only my feets or my bike for moving, I didn’t eat meat in the last 12 years, I allways talk about things as exploitation and stuff like that, but the things that makes me so frustrated is the fact that no one care about anything, expecially today. I don’t wanna talk about economy and stuff like that (at the moment I don’t have true job...). Everyday I see people cutting trees for building new concrete blocks, motorways are still growing... no one care. I can find some relax going to walk on hills and mountains here, but Alps are dying... in fact also trying to escape is becoming impossible. I think capitalism is the worst thing in human history, and today our society can just chose between capitalism or muslim lobotomy. The power of the Pope here is bigger than ever... christian deliriums. Probably the situation in my country is worst than in the some other place, but I think that men are evil by nature, but I don’t wanna fall in philosophy now. I know probably my vision is too negative.

You say that you make your music for yourself, yet there is an audience for this sound, and a demand for it. How do you feel about the attention you receive in regards to your music?

Making music (and arts in general) is the most important thing in my life. I really feel good just when I do that. When someone tell me who like my stuff is great, I feel as debtor in his confronts. I met the best people I know thrugh my art, since when I was little... and still today. The audience is small but I’m still surprised when someone like it, it’s a big satisfaction. Expecially becouse, as you know, it’s music made just for myself... It’s not the same with the other musical projects or bands I have or I had in in the past.

you have had quite a prolific musical output, with 8 releases since 99 the ‘108’ stuff as well, needs a lot of dedication. What does your music mean to you? How important would you say it is to you? Do you ever get time to sleep?!

Hahah, yeah it’s true, but I think I can make a lot more! In the last years I was very busy with some jobs and my study at the university. I was very frustrated and really depressed. As I told you before, “art” is the most important thing to me. When I make my music I try to do a soundtrack for myself, do you understand? And it’s very hard to find the right sound, most of the times I’m not satisfied of the final thing. The only thing I want to tell you is that doing that is natural for me... probaly is the only way I still have to escape from my life.

Is there anything else you want to add?


First of all I want to thank you for your interest. I’m sorry for my bad english and I know probably I’m been too serious and negative... THANK YOU!

Interview for State Of Mind Magazine (2006???)

1. Could you talk about how you got into making art for the streets,
what inspirations did you have? How long have you been into art, and
Street Art more specifically.

Ok! First of all I allways been in to art. I think, About the streets, I started when I was a little skateboarder. Just writing my true name with a marker on the spots. My uncle is from Geneve (Switzerland), that in fact is not really far from my home just 3 hours by car and when I went there I saw all these pieces on the walls I was crazy. I saw something in Milano too, first 90's. I wanted to do the same... so I started to write fake names (tags). In the same times some writers from a little town near Alessandria, did the first trau pieces in a squat in my town. It was the first time I saw a writer. My oldest skateborader friends talked to me about writing and hip hop, but I never understood the connection. I was in to hardcore/punk. Untill that time the only stuff on the walls I saw was the classic murales or stencils. For a lot of years I have drawn just letters. They have a big power, I love expecially tags and silver pieces, sometimes I feel insane. About street art, I'm not a street artist, I do art on the street*. I never did -posters- -stickers- -stencils- I think about things and I do it withouth useless rules. I did the first things in 99-2000. Ugly things. At the time "street art" was unknown to me, I saw just the black logos of STAK, on some Roma's trains, and the "PAPERELLA" in Bologna years before the discussion is too long.............................. what people call "street art" is older than writing.

2. Could about the significance of these yellow, slug like characters
and the name 108? Is there a message your trying to get across with
your work at all?
An important thing is that I don't do only yellow sticker. This is the first thing I did on the streets after letters, I did thousands of it (all hand made) and sticked or sent everywhere in the world. Anyway... A day I started to do tags on stickers (it was easier and faster, and you can stick them during the day too), but the white paper label was too expensive, when you can't find it for free. At home I had this big roll of yellow vynil adhesive (??? how do you call it?) and I wrote my tag on it. I changed the name... but if you see the first 108 things still have big tags on it, I think they was very ugly. Day by day I foget the tag and the abstract shape became the most important thing. these shapes are 100% abstract, but I really like slugs, stones, roots so you can see these influences on it. About the number 108, It’s an holy number for induists/krishna and really important in eshotherism too. I'm really in these kind of stuff. It's divisible for 3; 3 is my favourite number. The singles numbers 1 - 0 - 8 have great meanings too. The shapes of the numbers was awesome: a line, a circle and two circles or two point. 108 is the perfect name. There are not "true" message on my art. First of all you can find my uncounscious, a lot of times I understand it after years, sometimes a never understand it. I like when people don't understand it and start to imagine things. Who did it? What's it? What it menas? Fantasy is the most important thing in life, in a way I want to make people thinking and imagine things... maybe they have a little way to escape from this sad world.

3. Is there any other media's you like to work in artistically apart
from street art?
I like to make hand made stuff allways. I do canvasses, drowings, sometimes sculptures, I did a lot of comics, sometimes I write stuff too, I play in some bands and expecially I have a noise - electronic project called LARVA it's strictly related to 108. I like to work on my bicycles, changing parts and more... At the moment I did grafic artworks/layouts as job.


4. How important do you feel travelling is to your work? How do the
scenes in other countries compare to that of the home in Italy? (could you talk
more in depth about places you have painted in , what writers you've
met etc..)
I think travelling is one of the best thing. I love travelling by trains, I had a lot of great (some bad too also) experience on it. I have an irrational fear about flying. I hope in future to have money and time enough for traveling as much as possible. I allways found the biggest influences in different paces. I love landscapes. About the other countries... I love EUROPE! I think about myself as an european not as an italian. I love the fact everywhere people and places are so different and so similar. I'm really afraid of the idea of a new Europe... they want to destroy our histories and make a sad place everywhere the same markets, the same brands, like USA. I don't like this idea. I met a lot of great artists everywhere, in France, Germany, Holland.......... Everywhere! I like Italy for his history, for the places. I'm usually disappointed about people... I think there are really great people here, usually they are unknown. When we talked about art, after Futurism I can't find a true italian movement... I don't know. Here people looks allways to the USA and try to copy it. For fininding good stuff you have to go on small places and searching for lonely unknown people. In the end I can tell you that I'm a little misanthropist and I'm not the right guy to ask about Italy, I travelled a lot just on northern Italy or in Europe, I'm sorry!


5. What methods do you use when putting up your work in the street? Is
it only stickers you us, or other things? What do you feel is the
most effective and why?
Usually I use adhesive paper or spray cans. I use this kind of stuff because are the faster ways. Usually I do it when I use spray cans (obviously) and I did it at home when I do stickers/posters/cardborads/sculptures... I stick most of them, but I sent them to friends everywhere too. I did a lot of things on 3D too (sculptures?). People call my things "stickers" I think it's ok, for being quckly but it's not the right thing... I don't know how to explane my feelings about it. The best way to express myself are brushes and colors, I like dirty things, but usually I'm too lazy.

* I don't like that word (as "post graffiti, writing, aerosol art, ecc...), sometimes I use it to escape from long discussions... anyway, ...I think about myself exactly as one of the old men who make graffiti on the caves or all the people who did it during the history. So, I want to do what I like to do. I think the most important thing in graffiti, is that you do public stuff. Not art caged in galleries, so it's so stupid to follow some senseless rules.