WEBVTT

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Ecuador is a country
of contradictions.

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Culturally it\'s a rich country,

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but at the same time
it\'s rich in contradictions.

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We\'re an imaginary line.
We\'re inaccurate,

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always in the Latin American
collective imagination

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we\'re the ones
who lack representation.

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My goal is not only to paint
something beautiful,

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but to express what\'s
happening in our society.

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To the rescue
of our indigenous culture.

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Graffiti to me
is a beautiful thing,

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it\'s saying \"we\'re here\".

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In Latin American cities,

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this political act
of saying \"I live in this city\",

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\"I\'m part of this territory,
this is mine,\"

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seems beautiful to me.

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♪ They call me this and that
\'cos I live my way ♪

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♪ I get dirty from this life
as if it were mud ♪

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♪ I try, I go
if it fails, I’m screwed ♪

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♪ Always true to my desire
elbow to elbow ♪

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♪ The north takes me away
the north is mine ♪

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♪ I write it
every morning is a challenge ♪

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♪ I breathe, watch, and trust ♪

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♪ And when the night comes
I stare at the moon and smile ♪

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♪ Nomad life
wherever life ♪

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♪ Lighter life
Live your way ♪

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♪ Live carefree
live how you want ♪

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♪ Don\'t let anyone set your horizon
or border ♪

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♪ Live without a boss
live without a master ♪

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♪ I\'m led by the beat
of my heart ♪

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♪ I ride the wind
and this song ♪

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♪ They say I\'m lost
I say revolution ♪

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There\'s a substantial extent
of collective imaginations,

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related to
how a city should be.

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Or how subjects,
or the citizens,

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conceive a city
as ordered, or clean,

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or pleasant,
or unpleasant.

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And from there, a pre-established
idea is configured

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And that\'s where graffiti,

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as a street expression,

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makes visible, through its presence,

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how a facade should
be presented.

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I think this phenomenon

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is contemporary, and occurs
throughout the world,

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in Quito, in Guayaquil,

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or in other spaces.

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It\'s ultra-diverse,
hyper-fluid, and adaptable.

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And that\'s why
it has been irrepressible so far.

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The most powerful movement
of the century,

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there\'s no city in the world

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that doesn\'t have urban art;

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every town, everywhere,

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has something.

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Behind the aesthetic,
it\'s not a shallow thing,

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but behind the aesthetic
desires are expressed.

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And like wishes,
and forms of expression of wishes,

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they point to substantive things.

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A dispute over...
how a space should look.

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Graffiti to me
is a beautiful thing,

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it\'s saying
\"We\'re here, this is us\".

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In Latin American cities,

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to do this political act
to say \"I live in this city\",

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\"I am part of this territory,
this is mine\"...

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It seems beautiful to me.

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Graffiti for me
was always a stimulus.

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I started painting
when I was studying architecture,

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I had to walk
a super dangerous route

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home from university
around 10pm,

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I knew the way
like the back of my hand,

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I knew where everything was.

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And on one of those detours,

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I saw a tag

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that wasn\'t there the night before.

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I had never noticed

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or seen a tag before.

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And it made me feel safe,

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I thought,
\"Someone else is around,

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they\'re not afraid,
they stopped to intervene in the space\".

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To have the ability
to intervene in the environment.

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Someone was already
modifying the environment,

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through an act as small as a tag.

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The tag, for me,
is a language

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by graffiti artists
for graffiti artists.

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And it was one of the responses

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that don’t just have
a physical aspect,

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but a very powerful symbolic aspect.

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I am now...

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understanding all the complexity
of intervening in public space,

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because ultimately
we all live here.

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Reconstructing
the identity of the city,

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because my generation had to grow up

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with an imposed identity.

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An architectural identity

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that only corresponds

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to an economic interest.

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The problems
of contemporary cities ...

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We would have to
seriously rethink

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the idea of the privatization of cities.

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Or rather, there are two cities:

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the public city
and the private city.

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The public city has been losing,
for the last 50 years,

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a collective imagination.

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it has lost the ideal
of social, public life.

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The city was the opposite
of the countryside.

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You didn\'t see this
in the countryside.

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The city was a world
of fascinating things.

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And little by little,
that fascination for the city,

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has been lost,

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and replaced by other collective
imaginations, focused on security, safety,

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sterility,

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so the less contamination we have

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and the less contact, the better.

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But there\'s another key player,

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which is the market.

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The market seeks
to make cities attractive,

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and part of their attraction,

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is precisely their \"aesthetic\".

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Making them decorative,

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where everything is for sale,

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and everything has to be seen.

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Every time we find something special,

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the system, capital, buys it,

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and then tries to resell it to us.

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Private property?

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Half the wall is yours

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and half the wall is mine.

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Directly questioning this system.

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And to me that is key.

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Symptoms that
something\'s wrong in our cities:

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Economic, social exclusion.

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I think that\'s the
protest on the walls.

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In Latin America,
in the last 20 years,

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cities have developed
towards accumulation of capital.

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especially financial capital,

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which is speculative.

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That is, spaces are appraised.

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And if a space can be more profitable,

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it will be transformed.

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The private car, the shopping center,

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the gated community, the country club,

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it\'s a private, urban way of life,

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that offers for you to be
better than the city.

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Because in the mall
there are no bad smells,

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no riots, no protests, no traffic.

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None of the evils of the public city.

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So those who can\'t afford
access to the private city,

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are left with only the public city.

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I think painting must be...
in any format or space,

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public, private, whatever...

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a slightly more intimate gesture...

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that says
\"This is a time of pleasure\".

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You may or may not see it,
it\'s always playing with chance,

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whether it\'s there or not,
erased or not,

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sometimes that doesn\'t matter,
and it becomes a little more fun again.

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Going back and repeating it,
creating it, deleting it.

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You don\'t really know the street.

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You want to paint it,
but you don\'t live in it.

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The street has a more...
ephemeral language,

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cheaper in materials,
in everything,

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it seeks a different tone,
which is not...

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critique of paintings,
of the museum, which...

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sometimes not even you yourself know
what you’re saying, but in the street...

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you move around more,
you meet more people, so...

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not everyone will agree,
but everyone agrees that...

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people want to take it outside,
and do it, and...

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sometimes the connection...

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is meeting the audience on the street,

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or the street spectators don’t want
to see what we do, because...

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at a certain point,
what does painting accomplish?

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There will always be...

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people in the street,

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what the hell do they gain.

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I reflect on how far the public
and the private reach.

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Or what motivations lead us

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to try to transcend.

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Through the seal, or the brand,

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in public or private space.

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This atmosphere of protection
that darkness gives us,

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also relates to being
anonymous and clandestine,

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to the idea of the illegal,
vandalism, transgression.

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The clandestine sparkle.

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Of all artistic or aesthetic practices

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of intervention in the space
that I have,

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my favorite is
the signature or tag.

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Ever since we\'re little,
we\'re trying

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to perpetuate our individuality

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through a brand that represents us.

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Since the caves,
we\'ve been trying...

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to geo-reference ourselves
in time and space,

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with different images and signs.

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I think graffiti and petroglyphs

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have more similarities than differences.

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Both are communication systems

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which use images
to circulate content

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characteristic of the group\'s beliefs.

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Back then we didn\'t have
avenues and streets,

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life revolved around the river.

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When a native

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intervened on a huge rock
at the fork of the river,

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knowing that many people
pass by there,

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they created a bridge of dialogue

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between different people
interacting in the same space,

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without being present in it.

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Sure, it\'s not spray paint,

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but it also can\'t be erased
like spray paint.

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Identity is a fairly important topic,

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and it\'ll always contribute

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to cultural and artistic production.

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It\'ll always be important

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when creating.

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Well, Ecuador is a country
of contradictions.

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Culturally it\'s a rich country,

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but at the same time it\'s rich in contradictions.

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Rich in economic abysses,

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which has frequently caused

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clashes between different groups.

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And it\'s not an \'island of peace\',
as some people say.

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Being a small country,

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in the middle of the world,

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it needs regional integration.

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It forces us to always think
about the \"Great Fatherland\".

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In countries like ours,

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having undergone
a somehow traumatic \'mestizaje\',

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the issue of identity still
generates a lot of conflict

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in our cultures.

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I may idealize
muralism,

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or this intervention practice

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that promotes
representation processes

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from the rational, from the logical,

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more than from the subjective and visceral.

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To me a mural

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has more to do with mathematical
and composition processes,

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than intervention
or the arts.

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I think a mural
should start to be considered

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as a visual narration;
it\'s a story,

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also supported by
considerable semiotic content.

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There has to be a message,

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the mural has an educational function.

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It should teach an intention,
transfer knowledge,

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generate memory, be an archive
that repairs the social fabric.

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The first mural pieces

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in public spaces, for example
a large mural by Guayasamín,

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at Central University, in 1957,

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somehow leaves a mark…

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the connection with other techniques

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that had not been considered
in public art.

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And another mosaic

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at the Government Palace,

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which is, until now, intact,

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where the technique
of the Venetian mosaic

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is employed with great skill.

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Where I could collaborate
with the master,

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and we made a very large mural
in a very short time.

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And our concern was to express,
with vigorous images,

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somehow synthesizing
in 360 square meters,

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the centuries-old history of Ecuador.

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We haven\'t totally emancipated ourselves,

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and art is a
demonstration of that.

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That is, we still have the same
injustices, the same inequities.

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The Mexican Revolution
proposed the fight for land,

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the fight for sovereignty,

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we come to the 21st century,

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and we still have peoples
fighting for the same things.

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So muralism, somehow,

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has that relationship with that history.

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The artists’ social concern,
at different times,

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was always the same.

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Ecuador also has
a particular history.

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The dictatorships
of the Southern Cone are different

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from the Ecuadorian dictatorships,

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which at some point even had

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ideologies that were moderately progressive

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and nationalistic.

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Whereas some of our democratic governments
were much more repressive,

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than those dictatorships.

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Immoralities

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that have scandalized this Republic!

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I am therefore a product
of the free game of democracy!

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The greatest violation
of human rights

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occurred in the Febres-Cordero
social-Christian government.

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I traveled the country learning

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and living their testimonies,

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and that gave birth to
\"Cry for Memory.\"

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Let\'s consider that human rights
is a Latin American issue,

00:20:37.945 --> 00:20:41.365
let\'s somehow point
to the culprits

00:20:41.406 --> 00:20:44.326
of this tragic story
for Latin America,

00:20:44.368 --> 00:20:47.913
let\'s have them
in a public space,

00:20:47.996 --> 00:20:50.540
which by the way
was the U.S. Embassy,

00:20:50.582 --> 00:20:53.085
and is now the
Attorney General Office.

00:20:54.002 --> 00:20:56.213
May it be a space of memory,

00:20:56.255 --> 00:20:58.966
and also
of reconciliation,

00:20:59.049 --> 00:21:01.468
to not repeat
these events again.

00:21:23.407 --> 00:21:25.284
For example, urban art to me

00:21:25.325 --> 00:21:28.203
is a symptom and a response
at the same time,

00:21:28.287 --> 00:21:31.832
because I think it contains

00:21:31.873 --> 00:21:35.002
some political and historical milestones

00:21:35.043 --> 00:21:37.754
that have configured us as Ecuadorians.

00:21:46.388 --> 00:21:48.015
There\'s also this poetic aspect,

00:21:48.098 --> 00:21:50.559
and all this heritage
of political graffiti,

00:21:50.600 --> 00:21:52.436
of all these expressions

00:21:52.561 --> 00:21:54.396
that relate heavily to the word.

00:22:08.285 --> 00:22:11.038
Well, I strongly associate graffiti
with disenchantment.

00:22:11.163 --> 00:22:13.373
In general, the middle class

00:22:13.457 --> 00:22:16.668
has been able to interpret, read well...

00:22:17.336 --> 00:22:20.172
…the scores of disenchantment.

00:22:24.593 --> 00:22:28.388
Taking over public spaces,
to express...

00:22:28.555 --> 00:22:29.931
what\'s happening.

00:22:30.015 --> 00:22:33.393
The economic problems,
political problems,

00:22:33.518 --> 00:22:35.270
the social problems
that exist in Ecuador.

00:22:39.024 --> 00:22:41.568
RICH COUNTRY OF POOR,
POOR RICH COUNTRY

00:22:46.865 --> 00:22:49.743
HOW MUCH FREEDOM
DID YOU SELL TODAY?

00:22:53.372 --> 00:22:55.791
THE GAME IS TO BE SUICIDAL
AND NOT KILL YOURSELF

00:22:55.791 --> 00:22:57.292
We have experienced that,

00:22:57.292 --> 00:22:59.878
after Fredes-Cordero, with Borja,

00:23:00.003 --> 00:23:04.508
that\'s when this
graffiti movement appears,

00:23:04.549 --> 00:23:07.719
in Quito,
a movement with a signature,

00:23:07.844 --> 00:23:09.554
that is extremely literary,

00:23:09.596 --> 00:23:12.724
where the important thing is
the content, not the form.

00:23:13.392 --> 00:23:16.561
FUCKING WALL

00:23:17.854 --> 00:23:21.066
DON\'T GET TIRED
OF ERASING?

00:23:25.445 --> 00:23:26.405
That\'s why...

00:23:26.530 --> 00:23:30.283
the aesthetic survival strategies
are different from current ones.

00:23:30.951 --> 00:23:35.539
The main thing was to win the
most seen, most strategic walls,

00:23:35.539 --> 00:23:39.376
and write the sharpest,
most disturbing sentence.

00:23:53.974 --> 00:23:58.061
In the 80s,
under Febres-Cordero,

00:23:58.228 --> 00:24:01.022
which is the most
repressive era in the country,

00:24:01.148 --> 00:24:03.525
as a reply
to that historical context,

00:24:03.608 --> 00:24:06.403
there were a lot
of denouncements on the walls.

00:24:06.570 --> 00:24:07.904
I think that in the 90s,

00:24:07.988 --> 00:24:10.657
there are examples, the ADA collective,

00:24:10.824 --> 00:24:13.201
another group that signed with a triangle...

00:24:19.749 --> 00:24:21.668
I personally do remember

00:24:21.751 --> 00:24:24.129
some of the remaining graffiti,

00:24:24.171 --> 00:24:28.091
when I was at school,
from the time of the triangle...

00:24:28.842 --> 00:24:30.510
I remember one very clear,
which read:

00:24:30.552 --> 00:24:32.554
\"When I commit suicide,
I wake up in Quito.\"

00:24:32.804 --> 00:24:35.724
Things like that shock you,
or make you laugh,

00:24:35.849 --> 00:24:37.976
or make you think.

00:24:37.976 --> 00:24:39.769
And that kind of relationship with the wall,

00:24:39.769 --> 00:24:40.979
and the passerby, I loved it.

00:24:56.786 --> 00:24:58.663
I really appreciate and value

00:24:58.705 --> 00:25:00.290
when I\'m walking and come across

00:25:00.332 --> 00:25:01.958
a small treasure like that,

00:25:02.083 --> 00:25:03.752
or you\'re walking, and suddenly

00:25:03.752 --> 00:25:05.504
you turn the corner and find a mural.

00:25:05.712 --> 00:25:08.340
So I said:
\"I want to be one of those people

00:25:08.465 --> 00:25:11.760
who leave these treasures in the streets
for someone else to find them.\"

00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:26.816
There is a relationship with these
origins of graffiti in Quito,

00:25:26.900 --> 00:25:28.485
and the ability to speak.

00:25:28.693 --> 00:25:32.739
I remember a high school teacher
once approached me

00:25:32.781 --> 00:25:35.408
and said: \"Young man,
your writing is wrong\".

00:25:35.575 --> 00:25:36.743
That\'s not how one writes.

00:25:37.410 --> 00:25:39.621
And I told her:
\"Sure, you\'re absolutely right,

00:25:39.704 --> 00:25:44.125
this is not how one normally writes,
but I\'m...

00:25:44.251 --> 00:25:48.129
I\'m dividing the words
based on phonetics, not grammar.\"

00:26:09.901 --> 00:26:12.737
There\'s also this interest in
that archaeological baggage,

00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:14.072
from across the continent,

00:26:14.155 --> 00:26:17.909
and understand that political borders
are inventions.

00:26:18.076 --> 00:26:21.580
They\'re lines invented to divide us,
to oppose us,

00:26:21.621 --> 00:26:25.041
Ecuadorians vs. Colombians,
Ecuadorians vs. Peruvians,

00:26:25.166 --> 00:26:28.587
Peruvians vs. Chileans,
Chileans vs. Argentinians, and so on.

00:26:32.090 --> 00:26:34.509
If we learn about
the ancient peoples,

00:26:34.593 --> 00:26:37.512
borders were
very organic and very gradual.

00:26:37.679 --> 00:26:39.806
That influences my work,

00:26:39.848 --> 00:26:42.100
I feel drawn to that,

00:26:42.225 --> 00:26:45.604
that ancient, visual heritage,

00:26:45.770 --> 00:26:48.648
sometimes I feel
I\'m just an executor

00:26:48.732 --> 00:26:50.066
of a dictum,

00:26:50.108 --> 00:26:52.569
there\'s something else
telling me what to do,

00:26:52.652 --> 00:26:56.072
and only later, on the way,
do I understand what I’m painting.

00:27:13.173 --> 00:27:16.343
For me it\'s very important to analyze
the environment, the context,

00:27:16.426 --> 00:27:17.636
the location of a wall.

00:27:17.927 --> 00:27:20.722
It\'s not just
drawing a sketch at home,

00:27:20.764 --> 00:27:22.849
and then just going
and painting it anywhere.

00:27:22.932 --> 00:27:25.310
If that were the case,
you could just paint a canvas.

00:27:25.352 --> 00:27:28.355
It\'s essential for me
to study the context.

00:27:28.605 --> 00:27:32.108
Where is the work, why are you
saying what you want to say,

00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:33.902
how will people take it.

00:27:42.202 --> 00:27:43.995
And it\'s not just
about aesthetics,

00:27:44.120 --> 00:27:45.664
about whether it\'s beautiful or not.

00:27:45.705 --> 00:27:48.458
What dialogue is generated
in that environment,

00:27:48.583 --> 00:27:50.669
the ability to paint something there

00:27:50.835 --> 00:27:53.254
can radically change a space.

00:28:06.810 --> 00:28:10.146
The context of the work
is very important to me,

00:28:10.230 --> 00:28:13.274
because we have,
at the left side of the work,

00:28:13.358 --> 00:28:15.860
the UPC, which is the
Community Police Unit.

00:28:15.985 --> 00:28:18.446
And we have the
financial and banking center,

00:28:18.530 --> 00:28:20.615
all the banks
in the country are there.

00:28:51.521 --> 00:28:54.441
Having a robbery
next to the police

00:28:54.566 --> 00:28:57.944
kind of shakes things up a little.

00:29:03.825 --> 00:29:06.119
We\'re all part of a disease
that afflicts the country,

00:29:06.202 --> 00:29:08.204
which is corruption,
and not just the country,

00:29:08.246 --> 00:29:09.748
but Latin America
and the world.

00:29:09.873 --> 00:29:11.124
And facing...

00:29:11.207 --> 00:29:13.501
the financial center of Guayaquil,

00:29:13.585 --> 00:29:14.627
with these ideas,

00:29:14.669 --> 00:29:16.713
for me was a golden opportunity.

00:29:39.486 --> 00:29:43.031
I have a very clear childhood memory
of Guayaquil in the 90s,

00:29:43.239 --> 00:29:44.741
I remember a Guayaquil

00:29:44.866 --> 00:29:47.327
full of cryptic calligraphy.

00:29:56.252 --> 00:29:58.838
\'Chapeo’ is
the history of Guayaquil.

00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:00.882
Of the street, so to speak.

00:30:01.049 --> 00:30:02.634
The basis of everything.

00:30:02.842 --> 00:30:07.180
This starts here in Guayaquil,
more or less in 1989-90.

00:30:08.097 --> 00:30:10.558
The word \'chapeteo\' comes from \'chapa\'.

00:30:10.767 --> 00:30:12.852
Your \'chapa\' is your name.

00:30:13.436 --> 00:30:15.438
Saying \'chapa\' is like
what is your \'tag\'.

00:30:15.730 --> 00:30:19.192
But in...
it\'s a \'Guayaquiñelismo\', so to speak.

00:30:20.151 --> 00:30:24.113
And the \'chapeteo\'
is indeed linked to gangs.

00:30:24.322 --> 00:30:27.033
The numbers relate
to the low-income areas.

00:30:27.116 --> 00:30:31.955
I can tell you 42,
76, 109, 106, 96 ...

00:30:32.288 --> 00:30:36.000
This differentiated the people of the north,
the south, with that of the suburb.

00:30:36.084 --> 00:30:38.711
You saw a number and knew
which area they came from,

00:30:38.795 --> 00:30:40.213
where they came from to spray.

00:30:40.547 --> 00:30:42.090
That was your bus number,

00:30:42.131 --> 00:30:43.800
the bus that takes you home,

00:30:43.883 --> 00:30:44.884
your bus route,

00:30:44.968 --> 00:30:46.803
the number that was with you,

00:30:46.886 --> 00:30:48.721
your \'chapa\', which was the tag.

00:30:48.847 --> 00:30:52.392
That phenomenon was wiped out,
by the \'white-walls policy\',

00:30:52.517 --> 00:30:55.937
by the fascist regimes
of Guayaquil,

00:30:56.813 --> 00:30:58.606
Febres-Cordero and Nebot.

00:31:01.818 --> 00:31:03.152
Here it\'s always been...

00:31:03.152 --> 00:31:04.237
It was total censorship.

00:31:04.320 --> 00:31:05.321
There\'s always been...

00:31:05.363 --> 00:31:06.865
a lot of trouble here in Guayaquil.

00:31:06.906 --> 00:31:11.369
The prohibitionism
related to the \'chapeteo\',

00:31:11.452 --> 00:31:13.788
the \'guayaco\' tag,
the gang writing style.

00:31:13.788 --> 00:31:18.001
This writing
was closely related

00:31:18.126 --> 00:31:22.797
to violence,
gangs, territory demarcation.

00:31:22.922 --> 00:31:25.925
There\'s a strong difference
in terms of political culture,

00:31:25.967 --> 00:31:28.720
between Ecuador\'s two big cities,

00:31:28.803 --> 00:31:30.889
Quito and Guayaquil.

00:31:32.390 --> 00:31:35.435
Guayaquil has a political culture

00:31:35.518 --> 00:31:37.770
that\'s more repressive
in direct terms.

00:31:37.937 --> 00:31:41.232
The flaws of Guayaquil\'s
repressive system

00:31:41.357 --> 00:31:44.402
are seen when León Fredes-Cordero
ceases to be president

00:31:44.444 --> 00:31:46.279
and becomes Mayor of Guayaquil.

00:31:46.362 --> 00:31:50.033
As mayor you don\'t have access
to the federal repression apparatus,

00:31:50.116 --> 00:31:52.285
but you can use urban policy.

00:31:52.368 --> 00:31:55.038
And that\'s where
a harsh cleansing process begins,

00:31:55.079 --> 00:31:58.458
specifically the cleansing
of the previous mayor\'s party members,

00:31:58.499 --> 00:32:00.251
the party of the Bucarams.

00:32:00.418 --> 00:32:03.922
Dear relatives of León Febres-Cordero,

00:32:04.505 --> 00:32:06.591
former President of Ecuador,

00:32:06.966 --> 00:32:09.177
and former Mayor of Guayaquil.

00:32:09.427 --> 00:32:10.720
Fellow citizens...

00:32:12.180 --> 00:32:15.934
people from Guayaquil, and Ecuador.

00:32:18.937 --> 00:32:23.650
A man only dies
when he is forgotten.

00:32:24.817 --> 00:32:28.905
León Febres-Cordero
will never be forgotten

00:32:28.988 --> 00:32:31.407
and therefore will never die.

00:32:48.591 --> 00:32:52.428
The Guayarte
urban art development program

00:32:52.887 --> 00:32:56.599
takes a positively aggressive form.

00:32:56.975 --> 00:33:00.520
It\'s going to become
a new icon of Guayaquil,

00:33:00.812 --> 00:33:02.772
as an open museum,

00:33:03.356 --> 00:33:06.609
bringing culture,
in this case urban art,

00:33:06.943 --> 00:33:08.111
to all the people.

00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:11.072
The Guayarte Festival was...

00:33:11.322 --> 00:33:14.784
the result
of independent initiatives,

00:33:14.951 --> 00:33:18.621
that were looking for funds
in this area of the country.

00:33:18.788 --> 00:33:21.290
It ended up being
a festival

00:33:21.332 --> 00:33:23.376
practically organized
by the mayor’s office.

00:33:23.668 --> 00:33:25.336
And by a mayor’s office that

00:33:25.503 --> 00:33:29.424
in the past was absolutely
repressive, and censoring,

00:33:29.799 --> 00:33:34.053
and that today
wants to change its attitude

00:33:34.137 --> 00:33:36.848
just to stay in power.

00:33:37.390 --> 00:33:40.476
And when I was invited
to this festival,

00:33:40.518 --> 00:33:42.520
my first reaction
was not to participate,

00:33:42.645 --> 00:33:46.357
because I don\'t agree
with this mayor’s office,

00:33:46.482 --> 00:33:49.819
with their world view,
and their way of doing things,

00:33:49.944 --> 00:33:52.405
and who they are,
specifically.

00:33:52.530 --> 00:33:55.658
They first asked me
not to paint weapons or money,

00:33:55.783 --> 00:33:57.493
not to paint theft,
but...

00:33:57.577 --> 00:33:59.287
I told them that
I came to paint that work.

00:33:59.370 --> 00:34:01.414
And if they wanted me to
participate in the festival,

00:34:01.497 --> 00:34:02.957
that was what
I was going to paint.

00:34:03.166 --> 00:34:04.083
In that sense,

00:34:04.250 --> 00:34:08.004
thankfully we were able to continue
the work and finish it.

00:34:08.463 --> 00:34:12.383
Like a seed
of questioning,

00:34:12.467 --> 00:34:14.343
or even to discomfort a bit.

00:34:14.427 --> 00:34:16.429
I think for art to be valuable,

00:34:16.471 --> 00:34:17.388
and to have power,

00:34:17.388 --> 00:34:18.848
it must have the capacity

00:34:18.890 --> 00:34:20.183
to produce something in people.

00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:33.738
Right now, I\'m painting

00:34:33.905 --> 00:34:35.114
a beggar,

00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:37.575
who is sleeping
under the street.

00:34:37.658 --> 00:34:40.787
It\'s a way of
saying to society,

00:34:40.828 --> 00:34:44.123
that they too must be taken into account.

00:34:44.415 --> 00:34:47.835
We all must have
the right to a roof,

00:34:48.044 --> 00:34:49.462
to a meal,

00:34:49.587 --> 00:34:53.549
and then it\'s a way
to make your voice heard,

00:34:53.591 --> 00:34:56.719
for those who cannot
make their voices heard.

00:35:12.110 --> 00:35:15.279
They are alive,
especially in the colors.

00:35:15.363 --> 00:35:18.199
The range of colors
I use for the beggar,

00:35:18.324 --> 00:35:20.868
represents the dream they have

00:35:20.910 --> 00:35:23.329
of being alive too,

00:35:23.788 --> 00:35:28.167
of having color
in his gray world,

00:35:28.251 --> 00:35:31.462
which is very intense, right?

00:35:41.764 --> 00:35:44.308
They have their eyes open,

00:35:44.475 --> 00:35:48.938
which means that when a beggar
sleeps in the street,

00:35:48.980 --> 00:35:53.401
it\'s not safe, and they should always
have one eye open,

00:35:53.484 --> 00:35:55.945
because something
might happen to them.

00:36:00.533 --> 00:36:04.954
This place is very important
to put a piece like that.

00:36:05.121 --> 00:36:07.790
It\'s quite a protest
for all of society.

00:36:07.832 --> 00:36:10.376
because in that place
everything exists.

00:36:10.501 --> 00:36:12.962
There are the buildings, like this,

00:36:14.297 --> 00:36:17.175
and right in that same place
are the beggars.

00:37:03.221 --> 00:37:06.557
All elements
of Mother Nature

00:37:06.724 --> 00:37:08.226
have their own energy.

00:37:08.476 --> 00:37:11.312
And in having their own energy,
they have a life of their own.

00:37:11.395 --> 00:37:13.022
And when they have
a life of their own,

00:37:13.105 --> 00:37:15.566
they have their own spirit
that represents them.

00:37:16.025 --> 00:37:18.945
These elements
help us to be stronger.

00:37:18.986 --> 00:37:23.157
Our quality of life,
through energy,

00:37:23.241 --> 00:37:24.992
therefore it is important

00:37:25.076 --> 00:37:27.578
to respect it
and take care of it too.

00:37:32.208 --> 00:37:35.795
We go to those elements
to fill ourselves with energy,

00:37:35.836 --> 00:37:39.298
not only the waterfall,
but also the lakes, the mountains,

00:37:39.340 --> 00:37:43.719
and make them
an offering,

00:37:43.886 --> 00:37:46.639
especially to be thankful

00:37:46.722 --> 00:37:49.392
for the energies
they give us.

00:37:52.812 --> 00:37:56.732
Due to work,
we have to get out of here,

00:37:56.899 --> 00:37:58.025
pursue a livelihood.

00:38:01.862 --> 00:38:05.032
Yes, there is discrimination, racism,

00:38:05.074 --> 00:38:08.661
but those things
shouldn\'t prevent us

00:38:08.744 --> 00:38:10.371
from moving to a city.

00:38:13.666 --> 00:38:17.336
Yes, it\'s a struggle,
because not everyone accepts us,

00:38:17.962 --> 00:38:20.631
as we are,
especially being indigenous.

00:38:20.840 --> 00:38:24.635
We\'ve been taught
to stay strong,

00:38:25.011 --> 00:38:27.847
in the face of any adversity,

00:38:27.888 --> 00:38:30.850
or any challenge
we face.

00:38:56.334 --> 00:38:57.835
Especially through the braid,

00:38:57.960 --> 00:39:01.589
we\'re showing respect
for our Mother Earth,

00:39:01.589 --> 00:39:04.008
because we\'re part of it,

00:39:04.091 --> 00:39:07.386
we\'re connected to it,
it\'s our roots.

00:39:09.513 --> 00:39:11.932
Yes, my attire
has changed,

00:39:12.058 --> 00:39:14.226
but my essence has not,

00:39:14.352 --> 00:39:16.687
my mother tongue is kichwa.

00:39:20.274 --> 00:39:22.651
I like both cultures,

00:39:22.735 --> 00:39:26.447
I like hip-hop, which comes
hand in hand with graffiti,

00:39:26.614 --> 00:39:31.327
and then I create my own style,
of indigenous graffiti,

00:39:31.494 --> 00:39:34.830
enriching myself with
all the essences

00:39:34.872 --> 00:39:37.500
that I have adopted right here,

00:39:37.583 --> 00:39:38.876
in my native territory.

00:39:57.937 --> 00:40:00.523
Andean societies,
in general,

00:40:00.773 --> 00:40:03.651
have a historical conflict
regarding indigenous issues.

00:40:03.776 --> 00:40:05.152
Not in the capital cities.

00:40:05.277 --> 00:40:06.529
The indigenous problem is not

00:40:06.612 --> 00:40:08.114
in Buenos Aires, or Santiago;

00:40:08.197 --> 00:40:11.367
it is in the Mapuche or the
the Aymara areas, among others.

00:40:11.492 --> 00:40:15.830
In the Andean areas,
in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador,

00:40:15.955 --> 00:40:18.124
the cities were always very indigenous.

00:40:18.416 --> 00:40:22.461
That gives graffiti a different physiognomy;

00:40:22.503 --> 00:40:25.256
when it seeks to revindicate…

00:40:25.339 --> 00:40:28.634
These movements
go back to the roots,

00:40:28.801 --> 00:40:31.011
these people are on a search

00:40:31.095 --> 00:40:33.722
for their ancestral identity.

00:40:33.764 --> 00:40:35.391
So here there are certain answers

00:40:35.474 --> 00:40:37.351
for new generations.

00:40:54.243 --> 00:40:56.954
Yes, I believe indigenism
is now in a process

00:40:57.037 --> 00:40:58.372
of total change,

00:40:58.497 --> 00:41:00.791
because people living in the city,
like myself,

00:41:00.916 --> 00:41:03.586
I try to get involved with them,

00:41:03.627 --> 00:41:07.423
but there\'s also a huge division.

00:41:07.756 --> 00:41:09.884
They don\'t want to
belong to us,

00:41:09.925 --> 00:41:13.137
and we want to
unite a little more with them.

00:41:13.512 --> 00:41:15.598
But sometimes people
don\'t welcome that,

00:41:15.723 --> 00:41:17.433
because they think that
we\'re all going to

00:41:17.808 --> 00:41:20.102
make a business out of native issues,

00:41:20.227 --> 00:41:23.439
make a business out of the people
who are in the villages,

00:41:23.522 --> 00:41:25.858
but they don\'t want
to be reciprocal with us.

00:41:27.818 --> 00:41:29.695
There shouldn\'t be that rivalry of ...

00:41:29.945 --> 00:41:31.655
I’m indigenous, \"I’m mestizo\",

00:41:31.739 --> 00:41:33.157
I’m Afro-Ecuadorian...

00:41:33.199 --> 00:41:34.575
That shouldn\'t really exist.

00:41:34.658 --> 00:41:36.118
They feel exploited,

00:41:36.202 --> 00:41:38.787
and we feel
rejected by them too.

00:41:46.795 --> 00:41:48.797
Well, I belong
to the city of Puyo here,

00:41:48.839 --> 00:41:51.342
which is an area of the Amazon
in Ecuador.

00:41:51.467 --> 00:41:54.136
What I do with the murals,
actually, is simply

00:41:54.178 --> 00:41:57.348
a reminder, for the city,
and for the indigenous people,

00:41:57.389 --> 00:41:59.016
that you mustn\'t forget your roots.

00:41:59.350 --> 00:42:01.810
We must love what we have,
love where we come from,

00:42:01.894 --> 00:42:03.604
love the place
where we are,

00:42:03.646 --> 00:42:05.940
even if we haven\'t
chosen that place.

00:42:10.611 --> 00:42:14.490
There is a growing problem
of rooting ourselves in our ethnicities,

00:42:14.573 --> 00:42:17.159
to our essence
as the Amazonians that we are.

00:42:17.576 --> 00:42:18.994
I think it\'s just that...

00:42:19.078 --> 00:42:21.664
humankind\'s vanity
has become huge.

00:42:21.747 --> 00:42:25.751
And we\'re in an
era of confusion, I think.

00:42:30.881 --> 00:42:33.509
There is a huge extinction
of ethnicities,

00:42:33.551 --> 00:42:36.679
the word \'extinction\'
is very powerful, because

00:42:36.929 --> 00:42:39.598
extinction relates
to a change of mind,

00:42:39.640 --> 00:42:43.352
there is a tremendous metanoia,
in terms of abandoning one\'s roots,

00:42:43.477 --> 00:42:46.480
and dedicate oneself 100% to the city,

00:42:46.522 --> 00:42:49.316
the vanity that the cities give you.

00:42:52.778 --> 00:42:53.946
I’m not indigenous,

00:42:54.029 --> 00:42:56.657
but I\'ve always wanted to
consider myself part of them,

00:42:56.824 --> 00:42:58.867
and for them
to be part of the city,

00:42:58.909 --> 00:43:02.079
so I think there\'s an exchange
of things we want to have,

00:43:02.121 --> 00:43:05.416
between the city people
and the indigenous people.

00:43:09.712 --> 00:43:12.339
I think my focus
will always be for people...

00:43:12.381 --> 00:43:13.841
to appropriate
what I do.

00:43:37.114 --> 00:43:38.532
Nature is perfect.

00:43:38.699 --> 00:43:40.159
I strongly believe
in perfection,

00:43:40.242 --> 00:43:42.244
but I know that
I\'ll never get to that.

00:43:42.369 --> 00:43:44.663
So every day
I try to observe nature

00:43:44.788 --> 00:43:46.624
like it\'s the best
thing in the world,

00:43:46.665 --> 00:43:48.125
and the best thing we have.

00:43:48.250 --> 00:43:50.586
In a way,
that perfection helps me...

00:43:50.753 --> 00:43:54.882
every time I paint,
and I try to push myself a little bit more,

00:43:55.257 --> 00:43:57.009
because nature
gives you that.

00:43:57.176 --> 00:43:59.470
You always find something new,
that will require you

00:43:59.762 --> 00:44:03.432
to look for a new world
in a tree you see out there,

00:44:03.682 --> 00:44:07.227
in a new leaf,
in a new flower you discover.

00:44:08.562 --> 00:44:11.899
For me nature is that,
nature cleanses you,

00:44:12.316 --> 00:44:15.569
nature then allows you
to deliver a new heart

00:44:15.611 --> 00:44:16.904
to the people
who are here.

00:44:17.029 --> 00:44:18.572
That\'s what I do, with paint.

00:44:18.697 --> 00:44:21.450
I try to offer some healing,
to...

00:44:21.742 --> 00:44:23.535
to give them something nice,

00:44:23.661 --> 00:44:26.205
for the mind, for the heart
of each of them.

00:45:27.766 --> 00:45:30.227
Right now, as an iconography
of my murals,

00:45:30.269 --> 00:45:32.855
I\'m working
with the macaws,

00:45:33.063 --> 00:45:35.441
which represent fidelity,
in emotional terms…

00:45:35.524 --> 00:45:37.401
The macaw represents...

00:45:37.943 --> 00:45:40.154
they want to spend their whole life
with their partner,

00:45:40.237 --> 00:45:43.282
their only partner ever,
they marry and die together.

00:45:44.992 --> 00:45:48.829
I chose this character because
fidelity is very strong.

00:45:48.912 --> 00:45:53.041
Fidelity to our land,
fidelity to our thoughts,

00:45:53.125 --> 00:45:55.753
fidelity to our beliefs too.

00:45:55.794 --> 00:45:58.505
And true fidelity
is about not changing.

00:45:58.630 --> 00:46:01.550
You will always discover new things,
but don\'t change your essence,

00:46:01.633 --> 00:46:04.178
so you have to be faithful
to your essence too,

00:46:04.219 --> 00:46:05.137
as a person.

00:46:09.558 --> 00:46:11.018
So that people...

00:46:11.226 --> 00:46:12.269
live that way.

00:46:12.519 --> 00:46:13.937
I believe fidelity

00:46:14.021 --> 00:46:15.105
saves you a lot of trouble.

00:46:40.881 --> 00:46:46.470
♪ Soul of my thoughts
Heart of earth and of my song ♪

00:46:47.054 --> 00:46:52.476
♪ Woman of holy necklaces
of hard gazes from so much walking ♪

00:46:53.352 --> 00:46:58.941
♪ Water of my thoughts
That irrigates the land to sow ♪

00:46:59.608 --> 00:47:05.155
♪ Don\'t go to those seas
Because then you won\'t return ♪

00:47:18.752 --> 00:47:24.383
♪ Soul of my thoughts
Heart of earth and of my song ♪

00:47:25.008 --> 00:47:30.722
♪ Woman of holy necklaces
of hard gazes from so much walking ♪

00:47:31.390 --> 00:47:37.062
♪ Water of my thoughts
That irrigates the land to sow ♪

00:47:37.646 --> 00:47:43.068
♪ Don\'t go to those seas
Because then you won\'t return ♪

00:48:24.359 --> 00:48:27.988
I think there\'s an important
ideological dispute,

00:48:27.988 --> 00:48:30.741
this confrontation against

00:48:30.866 --> 00:48:33.744
a culture that
is imposed through capitalism,

00:48:33.744 --> 00:48:34.870
an official culture,

00:48:35.037 --> 00:48:38.206
that\'s interested
in a mostly commercial art,

00:48:38.248 --> 00:48:40.667
an art that
is less and less art.

00:48:40.834 --> 00:48:43.837
That is, there is a vision
of the contemporary,

00:48:43.879 --> 00:48:47.049
according to which
everything can fit in art,

00:48:47.174 --> 00:48:48.759
to the point of being nothing.

00:48:49.384 --> 00:48:51.219
Capitalism has always
found a way

00:48:51.303 --> 00:48:53.180
of turning utopia
into a commodity.

00:48:53.263 --> 00:48:56.058
But the real graffiti artist

00:48:56.141 --> 00:48:58.477
will have to find the twist.

00:49:02.105 --> 00:49:06.068
And not contribute to these processes
for which we are being used,

00:49:06.151 --> 00:49:09.905
under the guise
of urban renewal.

00:49:09.947 --> 00:49:12.574
Resisting is a complex thing.

00:49:15.702 --> 00:49:17.245
Unfortunately, nowadays,

00:49:17.287 --> 00:49:21.416
the planet is going through
a cultural homogenization,

00:49:21.500 --> 00:49:24.002
and we\'re not an exception.

00:49:24.211 --> 00:49:26.505
Little by little,
many of these traditions,

00:49:26.588 --> 00:49:29.091
and the small differences
that make a culture rich,

00:49:29.174 --> 00:49:30.550
are disappearing.

00:49:33.428 --> 00:49:36.306
We\'re talking about
a globalized world that\'s at war.

00:49:36.431 --> 00:49:40.352
A war expressed in the media,
and in powerful visual stimuli.

00:49:40.686 --> 00:49:42.396
I think we\'re all absorbed.

00:49:42.646 --> 00:49:44.648
Even artistic graffiti,
everything in general.

00:49:44.690 --> 00:49:45.691
I think…

00:49:45.774 --> 00:49:48.360
it\'s a process of evolution.

00:49:49.152 --> 00:49:53.156
The word Ecuador itself
is a space under construction,

00:49:53.240 --> 00:49:55.409
which has many cracks,

00:49:55.492 --> 00:49:58.120
which expressions
such as graffiti enter.

00:50:00.205 --> 00:50:02.457
We\'re an imaginary line.
We\'re inaccurate,

00:50:02.499 --> 00:50:04.501
always in the Latin American
collective imagination

00:50:04.584 --> 00:50:06.962
we\'re the ones
who lack representation.

00:50:10.549 --> 00:50:13.844
My goal is not only
to paint something beautiful,

00:50:13.885 --> 00:50:17.347
but to express everything
that\'s happening in society,

00:50:17.431 --> 00:50:20.726
in the rescue of
our indigenous culture.

00:50:22.310 --> 00:50:24.146
It\'s a constant fight,

00:50:24.187 --> 00:50:27.315
to prove to people that urban art

00:50:27.357 --> 00:50:30.694
is indeed a tool with which
to reach people.

00:50:30.902 --> 00:50:33.447
I\'ve always believed
that we are

00:50:33.488 --> 00:50:35.991
demanding that people
see something.

00:50:36.074 --> 00:50:38.577
One day you wake up and
the front of your house\'s been painted.

00:50:38.660 --> 00:50:40.495
That will undoubtedly
change your day.

00:50:48.503 --> 00:50:50.922
All of us Latin Americans,
including us Ecuadorians,

00:50:51.006 --> 00:50:53.258
are on a search for identity,

00:50:53.383 --> 00:50:56.678
we\'re rebuilding
the indigenous world,

00:50:56.720 --> 00:50:59.014
the Andean world,
the mestizo world,

00:50:59.097 --> 00:51:01.683
and that search
is translated into images,

00:51:01.767 --> 00:51:03.143
because that\'s our language.

00:51:03.268 --> 00:51:06.188
To feel what we are,
and to resolve it.