Walter Novak
“I feel like it’s not all prepared just yet,” Dmitrij Proškin, who goes by “Chemis” on the graffiti scene, said before departing from Palackého náměstí on a humid July 1. After a year of planning and saving, he was finally loading his blue BMW pickup with a few backpacks and more than 400 spray-paint cans.
Embarking on a two-month tour of duty, the 22-year-old graffiti artist hopes to ignite discussion about the cross-border themes of racism, gender inequality, child abuse and the environment in several cities including Kraków, Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade, Budapest, Bratislava and Vienna. Under the auspices of Amnesty International, Proškin and two other artists will travel from one wall to the next – all pre-selected and legal – speaking on substantive issues through graffiti. Proškin has named the trip “Write for Freedom,” and the first scheduled stop was the town of Auschwitz in Poland.
Before setting off, Petr Vízdal began documenting the trip with a video camera in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Eventually, he’ll transform it into a movie – the self-labeled “19-and-a-half-year-old” cameraman’s first major project due for eventual screening at Kino Aero. Throughout the 50 or so days on the road, Vízdal will trace the steps of the trio – Dominika Hornerová rounds out the group – in short film snippets uploaded to the project’s Web site.
Hornerová promises to inject a “female’s delicate point of view on things.” Standing near the blue pickup, she swung her electrifying waist-length red hair while blowing bubbles from a huge pink bubble-maker. Her past work for socially oriented nonprofits such as Nízkoprahový klub is what has made Proškin’s themes appeal to her, she says. Hornerová is currently an art student.
Proškin’s blending of graffiti and social awareness is rare in a country where writers – as graffiti artists call themselves – tend to take on frivolous, even perverse, issues, he says.
The art form is a successfully tried medium in the eyes of the head of Amnesty International’s Czech branch director, Dáša van der Horst.
“Sometimes, [graffiti] is more effective in attracting people in public spaces than, say, an announcement,” van der Horst said.
The NGO has collaborated with Proškin in past projects such as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, when he painted an elephantine tank on the porch of the Chinese Embassy in Prague. During the tour, Amnesty International will secure a base – as well as media coverage – in each country.
“Many graffiti artists create graffiti for art’s sake,” van der Horst says. “Proškin’s also has content.”
When Proškin took up spray cans eight years ago, the work was grungier and simpler. Like that of most in the field, his hobby took off at night underneath bridges with conventional signings. With time, he yearned to create more complex works, and, for that, he needed more time than is offered by illegal locations.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, police have never given Proškin much trouble. Last September, for instance, he was detained during a raid on Barrandov where he mistook an illegal chunk of wall for a legal stretch. He talked his way out of it. More often, officers gape at his work.
” ‘Hmm, that’s rad,’ one said, getting out of the car,” Proškin says, acting out a past encounter. ” ‘Keep it up,’ the other one goes, and they drive off.”
In graffiti circles, as well, his talent is recognized. Though the unwritten rule of artists not writing over others’ work on legal walls is largely a thing of the past, Proškin’s self-portrait on Platónova street in Modřany has remained untouched for three years.
The seemingly 3-D gas-masked face is captioned with “Let us breathe,” alluding to the repression of graffiti artists by playing on the gas masks writers wear while spraying.
“[Graffiti] lures the young generation and is a key for addressing them, telling them to not dwell on stupidities,” he says.
Proškin might have taken the legal gallery route in graffiti, but the tour does not digress from the rebellious nature of the art form as it seeks to express raw and at times controversial opinions.
Martina Čermáková can be reached at
specialsection@praguepost.com
from http://www.praguepost.com/tempo/1707-graffiti-goes-on-tour-and-this-time-its-legal.html
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