Can you introduce yourself to people who don't know you?
Hosni Hertelli Aka Shoof (artist name), I am a street artist.
It's been almost 13 years that I do this, my work is based on Arab Strat calligraphy, I have no typography, I have a whole style that is indecipherable for all. VSA allows me to open this world for non-arab, non-arapisants, to make the thing completely graphic and that people have their own reading of my art
How did you get to work today?
To make it short, I came to France in 2004 to finish my studies of law, political science and in 2007 I believe, I do not know what it was, if it was the pain in the country, but I am started to do calligraphy alone like crazy. It's very pathological and very therapeutic, after 3 years, I said to myself "If you do this every day it is that there is a concern, you should not stop".
Was it a bit of an outlet for you?
Exactly, after 3 years, really every day I did that 5-6-7, 10 hours a day, so I stopped my thesis and it became the project of my life.
I was lucky, a lot of luck since in 2013, since Tower 13 I live exclusively
Can you explain to us what was the 13 tower?
It was my first project in Paris, the exhibition had lasted 1 month, when each artist had a play on his own and each appropriated the place. This is a tower that was destroyed afterwards. It was the starting point of my career, I was a stranger to the battalion, there were big names inside, then it started directly for me, with auctions
Is it the fact of coming to France that somewhere with this pain in the country, have you brought closer to your mother tongue?
It was perhaps a pretext, I could have drawn mickey mouse but, in this case it was letters, it was my construction brick
What big project you did in your career?
My biggest project is the house of Tunisia, the university city in Paris. They built a second house in Tunisia 5-6 years ago I believe and they made a big tender, I offered myself in 3 files, there was one that was selected. It is a hard installation, a whole 8-storey building with metal skin with my art over it. It is a lasting installation on 8 floors, it was the biggest achievement I made
I imagine you worked with architects?
Exactly, it created other constraints, other supports but also the consciousness of the other, because there are people who live there. It’s not just an object that you like or not, whether you use it or not, it’s a whole set of constraints that makes it a great experience.
What are you working on at the moment?
It seems I work on a collaboration with Milk, on a clothes line and some skateboards. This is the TAFF of the moment, there is some project that are realizing, I cross my fingers so that it is done. Other than that, they are facades and exhibitions all over the world. I only live from that today with a few big projects a year.
It's a chance to be able to live in your outlet, live your passion
I tell myself that I do not work, when people tell me that I work, I am a big scammer of this capitalist society, I take care of myself, I go sick, I have fun and they pay me. It's perfect
Do you want to touch people in a way?
No, this is exclusively between me and myself, what makes me the other, I do what I have to do and people interpret as they want. There is nothing to understand, you have to understand what you want to understand, that it appropriates it. Everyone can have their interpretation, whether in art, culture, literature, cinema. Reading criticism, prefaces, is useless for me, even destructive, you have to take the product, that you consume it in your sauce, according to your mood, according to your evolution otherwise it becomes flat.
There is no need to know all the painters, all the cultures of art, it is the first feeling that is important
The codes and the school preceded creation, people forget that, at the start there was no school of beautiful arts, cinema or other to teach you anything
Why Milk?
It seems because of 1 we have been a friend for a long time, of 2 milk is the store that I have been consuming most in Nantes for more than 10 rods, so it was normal in a very affectionate way. Then 3 is the most interesting way, intellectually and artistically. The collaboration you have offered me she enters my taff, she made sense, it is totally in street art, urban art, so that makes sense. It’s a very small limited series so it remains exclusive
