Blek Le Rat

This issue we thought we'd take a break from spoon-feeding contemporary, homegrown talent into your eager mouths and retrace our steps to celebrate some of the pioneers that influenced our own artists du-jour. So we pulled some strings and got in contact with a French guy called Xavier to make something for our Fast issue. You might know him as Blek Le Rat (well, we hope you would by now). If you don't, he's pretty much the first person to do life-size stencils - about twenty years before Banksy even saw a brick wall. Blek's been dodging cops and scurrying around since 1981. I suddenly feel really young.


Tom Waits, 1984. Looks pretty good, huh?

You originally wanted to be a pop star. How did you you go from one dream to the other, and was it a smooth transgression?

My problem was that I couldn't sing nor play an instrument, thus the transgression was easy.

As a child you saw the face of Mussolini stenciled on the walls of Paloma. Your father explained that during the war they would do these stencils as a form of propaganda. Do you still think stencil has as much resonance in the political forum?

Yes, I think the stencil still very political and social which makes its power. Political and social subjects are usually handled with humor which makes it an art that is easy to understand and close to people. This is what it distinguishes from other arts (conceptual art e.g.). Nowadays, art really needs fresh air because it has taken a direction that separates it more and more from the real life of the people whereas urban art goes to people and is even created in their environment.

You were quoted as saying that art should be saved for the future generations - which is why you think it's important for the gallery end to support street art, 'if for nothing else than for history'. - How do you think galleries can support street art without transforming it, consciously or otherwise, into something different? Can something wild ever be protected without being innately changed?

Yes there is a difference - indeed it is like a wild animal living in a zoo. We all know that it doesn't live in its natural environment but it gives us the possibilty to keep a memory of what came before in the street. Street is an ephemeral art which unfortunately lives shorter than wild animals. And regarding your last question the only interest of looking at lions in a zoo is because they are wild and dangerous. There would no point in keeping sparrows in a zoo because nobody would look at them. What I mean is that we need our images on canvas to keep the memory of this biggest and most important art movement for future generations.

This may or may not be Sybille Prou.

You have been stencilling since the early eighties - where do you manage to take inspiration from to keep your art relevant? As people get older, the tendency is to become more pensive, darker - do you feel you are going this way with your stencils?

As I said earlier my art is 100% inspired by life itself and personal experiences. And I don't seem to get darker at least this is not my intention with stencils; you should ask people who look at them if they find them darker...

Do you think that China holds as significant future role in street art as say, Brazil does now?

Yes in Brazil where I've never been there is a lot of interesting street art and you are right the Chinese are so surprising that  I can't wait to see how street art is going to develop once th Chinese are involved.

Is your son Alexander seeming like he's interested in art, or is he gonna be like a lawyer or something?

He wants to become an art dealer more than an artist. He's only 15 and can still change his mind..


Your political views have notoriously changed over the years, from Leftist to voting Sarkozy in the 2008 elections. What's changed?

Maybe today it is more revolutionary to vote conservative than left because all the leftwinged people (at least in France) have become like a big mammoth that doesn't want to move on and to change. The French leftwinged mammoth are the true conservatives. And I also think that our life has changed so much that the traditional left/right is completely overcome. Blek le rat has not become Blek the mouse but Blek the Tiger. I took a higher risk to vote right and to admit it than to say I had voted left (but discreetly having voted right).

Your campaign with poverty in Paris is well-known, what can people do to help this cause?

They should insist to make the government to look after poor people. Of course it helps to give money or to buy them food but it only lasts 30 minutes - if the government was really motivated they could improve their whole lives.


Blek is an avid helper of the homeless

What does the future hold for Blek?

I would like to follow the steps of Alexander the Great. I've been dreaming about it for years and we hope to make this dream come true very soon...