In September, the fourth edition of POW! WOW! Rotterdam took place in the Southside of the city. In the daytime, an international group of artists created inspired murals and artworks in its streets. In the evenings, they shared their stories in the atmospheric Hefpark. This is the second of three recordings of those talks. Host Jaap van der Doelen speaks to Jagoda Cierniak and Diogo Ruas, better known as the duo MOTS. 

The Portugese artist Diogo Ruas had been painting for quite some time by the name of MOTS when he met Polish photographer Jagoda Cierniak. It did not take long for them to form a duo in which they stimulate each other through their creative chemistry. The mural paintings they create together consist of both abstract and figurative elements, in an expressive style full of rough, inventively tuned swaths of color.

For POW! WOW! Rotterdam 2021, they were offered the wall on the side of the building at Stieltjesplein 2A as a canvas. Because this wall is directly within the shadows of monumental rail bridge De Hef, they decided to research the location. Doing so, they found the documentary The Last Bridgekeeper by Dirk Rijneke. The cinematic portrait of Arie de Weerd, who had been the bridgekeeper of De Hef for thirty years, moved them so strongly they wished to translate it to their style. In a comic book-like sequence, the bridgekeeper is operating the enormous steel construction that was part of his life for all those years with pride and dedication.

While creating this mural, they took the time to talk about how they met, what inspires them, their creative process, the creation of Objectum in Spandau, Berlin, as well as their mural in Rotterdam and how working as a duo, has changed them as individuals.

Music: Sango – Baile Somebody
Cover photo: Martine Kiers (IG: annietram77)

In September, the fourth edition of POW! WOW! Rotterdam took place in the Southside of the city. In the daytime, an international group of artists created inspired murals and artworks in its streets. In the evenings, they shared their stories in the atmospheric Hefpark. This is the second of three recordings of those talks. Host Jaap van der Doelen speaks to Jagoda Cierniak and Diogo Ruas, better known as the duo MOTS. 

The Portugese artist Diogo Ruas had been painting for quite some time by the name of MOTS when he met Polish photographer Jagoda Cierniak. It did not take long for them to form a duo in which they stimulate each other through their creative chemistry. The mural paintings they create together consist of both abstract and figurative elements, in an expressive style full of rough, inventively tuned swaths of color.

For POW! WOW! Rotterdam 2021, they were offered the wall on the side of the building at Stieltjesplein 2A as a canvas. Because this wall is directly within the shadows of monumental rail bridge De Hef, they decided to research the location. Doing so, they found the documentary The Last Bridgekeeper by Dirk Rijneke. The cinematic portrait of Arie de Weerd, who had been the bridgekeeper of De Hef for thirty years, moved them so strongly they wished to translate it to their style. In a comic book-like sequence, the bridgekeeper is operating the enormous steel construction that was part of his life for all those years with pride and dedication.

While creating this mural, they took the time to talk about how they met, what inspires them, their creative process, the creation of Objectum in Spandau, Berlin, as well as their mural in Rotterdam and how working as a duo, has changed them as individuals.

Music: Sango – Baile Somebody
Cover photo: Martine Kiers (IG: annietram77)

In September, the fourth edition of POW! WOW! Rotterdam took place in the Southside of the city. In the daytime, an international group of artists created inspired murals and artworks in its streets. In the evenings, they shared their stories in the atmospheric Hefpark. This is the first of three recordings of those talks. Host Jaap van der Doelen speaks to Johan Karlgren, better known as intervention artist Pappas Pärlor. 

Johan Karlgren, better known as Pappas Pärlor, is a Swedish interventional artist who mainly works in ironing beads. As a lifelong fan and collector of videogames, he has a strong admiration for how much the designers of vintage videogames could express through limited means. With only a few pixels available to them to create objects and characters, they created entire worlds. 

Out of that love grew Karlgren’s idea to, together with his daughter, recreate all sprites from the first game in Nintendo’s famous Zelda series with ironing beads. They worked on it over the course of an entire season, after which his daughter was done with it. Karlgren himself however, noticed how calm he became while laying out the beads, and never stopped doing it. After a while, he decided to leave his physical pixel art in the streets as well. His installations are known to often interact with their surroundings in a surprising and playful manner. 

Music: Sango – Baile Somebody
Cover photo: Martine Kiers (IG: annietram77)

In September, the fourth edition of POW! WOW! Rotterdam took place in the Southside of the city. In the daytime, an international group of artists created inspired murals and artworks in its streets. In the evenings, they shared their stories in the atmospheric Hefpark. This is the first of three recordings of those talks. Host Jaap van der Doelen speaks to Johan Karlgren, better known as intervention artist Pappas Pärlor. 

Johan Karlgren, better known as Pappas Pärlor, is a Swedish interventional artist who mainly works in ironing beads. As a lifelong fan and collector of videogames, he has a strong admiration for how much the designers of vintage videogames could express through limited means. With only a few pixels available to them to create objects and characters, they created entire worlds. 

Out of that love grew Karlgren’s idea to, together with his daughter, recreate all sprites from the first game in Nintendo’s famous Zelda series with ironing beads. They worked on it over the course of an entire season, after which his daughter was done with it. Karlgren himself however, noticed how calm he became while laying out the beads, and never stopped doing it. After a while, he decided to leave his physical pixel art in the streets as well. His installations are known to often interact with their surroundings in a surprising and playful manner. 

Music: Sango – Baile Somebody
Cover photo: Martine Kiers (IG: annietram77)

In het laatste weekend van mei werd in WORM Rotterdam een bijzondere serie gesprekken georganiseerd, die je nu terug kunt luisteren als podcast. Daarin gaat host Alee Rock live in gesprek met veteranen van de Rotterdamse graffiti, en vandaag presenteren we de derde en laatste aflevering. 

Deze driedelige podcast is een samenwerking tussen Hiphop in je Smoel, WORM Rotterdam en Kladmuur. Samen blikken we terug op de begindagen van graffiti in Rotterdam. Omdat veel van de sleutelfiguren hierin niet altijd even legaal hun kunst maken, zullen sommige van de stemmen die u hoort in deze serie op hun verzoek vervormd zijn, zodat hun anonimiteit bewaard blijft. In deze derde en laatste aflevering spreken we Wessel Wessels, co-auteur van het boek Graffiti in Rotterdam, en de persoon achter het vermaarde Rotterdam Graffiti 010.