Geometry around us: laconic street art from an Italian artist

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The work of the street artist known as "108" is as simple and mysterious as his pseudonym. His art is laconic: he does not try to prove anything with his works. 108 inhabits the walls with abstract images, in which, like in the clouds floating in the sky on a hot afternoon, familiar outlines can be guessed.

Deprived of detail, abstract black masses, occasionally interspersed with splashes of color, look, oddly enough, quite natural in an urban environment. They are, as it were, a product of space - a kind of mystical creatures, flesh from the flesh of the city. He is inspired by dreams, traces of a wave running ashore, moss and fog, trees, winter, Etruscan writing, runes, snails, cats, in a word, everything that, by his own admission, is impossible to comprehend.

“You know that I usually work in public places. The background plays a primary role for me, but I attach even more importance to the place. Already for a specific place, I select the form of the future abstraction. As a rule, these are old dilapidated buildings, walls of abandoned houses, factories … It is there that my abstraction will "grow". It is precisely to “grow” like a tree or moss … I believe that nature will do everything much better than I could have done,”says the artist. “I always find it difficult to work on a white, clean surface. In order to do something interesting, I need a lot of inspiration. Only surviving walls that have absorbed the spirit and history of the place can become a real canvas."

Sometimes in his abstract drawings you can see symbols or quite recognizable forms. Contemporary art loves interpretation. However, the artist himself always rejects bold assumptions about the content of his works: “Most of my work is completely irrational. This is, if you will, the quintessence of the unconscious. What you see is just abstract, soft and dark forms."

The mysterious 108's real name is Guido Bisagni, a prominent contemporary artist who has been called one of the greatest exponents of abstract graffiti. As a teenager, he was seriously interested in graffiti, then, in the 90s, he was deeply involved in street art. His drawings can be found in almost all world capitals, and over the past few years Bisanni's exhibitions have been held in Milan, Los Angeles, Paris and other major cities.

French photographer Julien Coquentin, as well as Guido Bisanni in his time, was inspired by graffiti and created the amazing project "Please Draw Me a Wall", whose members found an interesting way to interact with street art.