eL Seed: Street art with a message of hope and peace
eL Seed: Pouličné umenie s posolstvom nádeje a pokoja
French-Tunisian artist eL Seed blends the historic art of Arabic calligraphy with graffti to portray messages of beauty, poetry and peace across all continents. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
the minaret of Jara Mosque
na minaret mešity Jara
in the south of Tunisia,
na juhu Tuniska,
so much attention to a city.
na mesto pritiahnuť toľkú pozornosť.
for a wall in my hometown,
v mojom rodnom meste nejakú stenu
postavili minaret.
was built in '94.
of concrete stayed grey.
and I told him what I wanted to do,
a vysvetlil mu, čo som chcel urobiť,
„Vďaka ti, Bože, konečne.“
he was waiting for somebody
is that he didn't ask me anything --
že sa ma na nič nepýtal,
som plánoval napísať.
or what I was going to write.
I write messages
a mix of calligraphy and graffiti.
kombináciou kaligrafie a grafitov.
the most relevant message
should come from the Quran,
from a male and a female,
vás z muža a ženy
so you may know each other."
aby ste sa mohli navzájom spoznať.“
tolerance, and acceptance
po pokoji, tolerancii a prijatí
portray in a good way in the media.
nemajú v médiách dobrú povesť.
community reacted to the painting,
na maľbu zareagovalo
the minaret getting so much attention
ako ich minaret pútal pozornosť
all around the world.
just the painting;
maľba, ale niečo hlbšie.
a monument for the city,
na mestskú pamiatku a pritiahne
to this forgotten place of Tunisia.
kútu Tuniska návštevníkov.
vtedajšieho Tuniska
of Tunisia at this time,
Quran in a graffiti way
the essence of my artwork.
even Arabic-speaking people
to decipher what I'm writing.
the meaning to feel the piece.
aby ste pocítili pokoj.
your soul before it reaches your eyes.
do duše skôr ako do očí.
ktorú nie je treba prekladať.
that you don't need to translate.
prehovárajú ku každému,
cítite sa s nimi spojení.
where I'm painting,
a universal dimension,
identifikovať celý svet.
can connect to it.
and read Arabic when I was 18.
po arabsky, keď som mal 18 rokov.
this is so important to me,
prečo je to pre mňa také dôležité,
I've experienced all around the world.
this Portuguese poem
túto portugalskú báseň
obyvateľom tamojších chatrčí,
to the poor people of the favela,
intrigued by what I was doing,
the meaning of the calligraphy,
vysvetlil význam nápisu,
connected to the piece.
lebo ich toto dielo oslovilo.
jednej okrajovej štvrte.
concrete wall of the slum.
citát Nelsona Mandelu,
až kým to neurobíš.“
impossible until it's done."
"Man, why you don't write in English?"
your concern legit if you asked me
vzal jeho názor na vedomie,
prečo nepíšem v zuluštine.
aby som na ňu maľoval.
and he asked for the wall to be erased.
že ma žiadal vymazať to.
of the event asked me to come back,
podujatia poprosil, aby som sa vrátil,
domu toho človeka je jedna stena.
right in front of this guy's house.
to write, "[In Arabic],"
[citát v arabčine],
a napísal som [citát v arabčine],
and I wrote, "[In Arabic],"
of it through my artwork.
umenie jej vyslancom.
the stereotypes we all know,
stereotypy, ktoré všetci poznáme,
of the message anymore on the wall.
preklady posolstiev.
of the calligraphy to be broken,
aj bez poznania jej významu,
without knowing the meaning,
from other countries.
hudba zo zahraničia.
as a rejection or a closed door,
alebo zatvorenie dverí,
to my culture, and to my art.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
eL Seed - ArtistFrench-Tunisian artist eL Seed blends the historic art of Arabic calligraphy with graffti to portray messages of beauty, poetry and peace across all continents.
Why you should listen
Born in Paris to Tunisian parents, eL Seed travels the world, making art in Paris, New York, Jeddah, Melbourne, Gabes, Doha and beyond. His goal: to create dialogue and promote tolerance as well as change global perceptions of what Arabic means. In 2012, for instance, he painted a message of unity on a 47-meter-high minaret on the Jara mosque in Gabes, Tunisia. This piece and others can be found in his book, Lost Walls: Graffiti Road Trip through Tunisia
Most recently he created a sprawling mural in the Manshiyat Naser neighborhood of Cairo that spans 50 buildings and can only be viewed from a local mountaintop. Intending to honor the historic garbage collectors of the Manshiyat Naser neighborhood, the piece reads, "Anyone who wants to see the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eye first."
eL Seed | Speaker | TED.com