stka

Photos: Bartosz Ko
Having it our way with the jersey barrier!
We are in Namur, Belgium. It is the summer of 2007 and you can find us in
one of Europe‘s most creative concrete skatepark construction sites. The sky
has decided to let all hell loose leaving us standing in a seemingly endless
downpour. We are waiting for a delivery of concrete, but rain and working
concrete just do not go together. Without waiting any further we cancel the
appointment with the concrete truck and devote ourselves to other duties...

Matt Grabowski is standing in front of us. Just check this guy out! You can
almost hear his brain saying "What can I do? There has to be something to
do! Damn it, I‘ll just build a casting mold for jersey barriers." Thought formed,
spoken and that‘s what he does. Half of the day you can watch him sawing,
screwing and planing. "These are original jersey barrier measurements and
units, you can find it all in the Internet!"

It takes some time but finally he has three shapes finished and each of them
are slightly modified. I gave myself a fair amount of time to take in the sight.
They look like giants standing around in the skatepark‘s flat area. Bored giants
waiting to be filled with concrete. Giants which scare you just by being there.
This makes me think about Cervantes Don Quijote, riding towards the wind-
mills, trying to defeat them. Where can these barriers be integrated so that we
can fight them on our wooden "Rosinantes"?

That‘s when it happens. Once again Matt Grabowski is standing in front of us.
Look at him now! His brain is grinding away yet again: "Where can I put these
darn things? Damn it, that‘s it, I‘ve got it! I‘ll put them on the pyra-hip!". And
there he goes, pushing one of the barriers on top of the rusty reinforcement, as-
king the Belgian guys what they think about the idea, not forgetting to mention
that he‘d cut out a part of the barrier so that it would fit perfectly – of course.

What can I say? People are scratching their heads, laughter is heard, questions
are formed, consent is grunted, some disapprove. It‘s like a tug-of-war but
halleluja, we can already see the lines we want to do! Good lines as well! Crazy
messed-up lines! Our ideas and feelings seem to climax – but at the end of it all
the idea just disappears in thin air and will probably never come back again...

Never again?! Damn it, I‘m holding on to Matt‘s idea for the future because
let‘s be honest: don‘t we all want to have a jersey barrier right in the middle of
a pyra-hip?! Holy shit people, let me tell you something: this idea will be used
sometime, somewhere in the future! And we will mount our rides with pleasure
and enjoy the vertical madness when we find it...

On this note: hold tight to those lances – barriers are made to be broken!
Markus
Contents

Page 6 - 14 Flee Them Fast Tour

Florian Hofmeister and his gang take us on a road trip through Belgium
constantly on the run from... from whom and from what the heck? Find
out yourself!

Page 15 - 22 Still Stories

Pssst, you should stay quiet while flipping through these pages! Sergej
Vutuc danced through a black and white Zagreb with his camera capturing
some wicked shots...

Page 23 - 30 Pool Propaganda

The new skateboard pool in Hagen (Germany) is under attack! Read the
wise words of those who have learned to love this bowl and who know
what they are talking about!

Page 31 - 38 (Bailgun-)Shots In Malmö

Gerde dove straight into the action at the Quiksilver Bowlriders final,
armed solely with his weapon of choice and shot everything in site. Enjoy
the bloodless carnage!

Page 39 - 44 The Reanimation Of Old Findings

And The Primacy Of Fidelity
Leonare Welzin caught up with the Croatian artist Filjio and chatted with
him about his art... made out of... ummhhh... trash and other "stuff". You
have to see it to understand it!

Page 45 Imprint
"An imprint? Why do you need that?" "Well, just for those of you in-
terested in finding out where all of this comes from." "Oh, okay! Where‘s it
come from?" "Oh man, just shut your..."
 ter
Hofmeis
Florian
Photos:
Text &
I t usually proves itself to be more
than difficult to choose a suit­
able tour name for a road trip than
finding the spots themselves. And
that’s how we (that would be Felix,
Chris and my humble self) ended up
deliberating - sometimes wholehear­
tedly, sometimes ridiculously - about
a tour name while at the same time
discussing in a semi-scientific man­
ner how traffic jams work – all of
this on our way to Dan (in Luxem­
bourg).
C hris and Felix noticed fairly
soon that they had left a large
amount of stress with their beloved
women at home which incited Chris
to come up with name "Flee The
Pussies Tour". I hope there aren’t
any mi­nors reading this right now.
If you are underage, get to bed! The
title was a bit to raunchy for us so
we adapted it to "Flee Them Fast
Tour". While telling Dan a few days
later the hitherto background of the
tour title, one of our fellow passen­
gers (who wants to understandably
remain anonymous) noticed that he
probably forgot to clean his ears. In­
stead of "Flee The P#$%&?!" he had
understood "Flying P#$%&?!" I can
see a really sleazy tattoo right now,
a swarm of flying vaginas with Good-
Year wings. Oooh
Felix, come on….shit,
I just gave away his
identity! Oh well, the
tour motto fit by all
means – back in Au­
gust 2006 that is, for
two out of the four
tour members, just
barely 50 percent...
following the style of
Thrasher’s "Beers,
Bowls and Barney"
video, the next idea
came up to name
the tour "Beers,
Bowls and Bow­
ling". Beer being
our favourite drink "on the road",
bowls the reason why we moved
our ever-growing fat asses off cess of Belgium. No one believes you nothing can happen to you… or may­
the couch and we bowled because these days without a picture. It only be something can… dimmdümm­
Petrus gave us a day off skateboar­ really happened if you have a pic­ dimmdüümmdiiiiiiimmmm...
ding. ture. And everything which is in print
is the absolute truth. Better yet, get Freaky Flow
B
ut it is still somewhat silly when started with the real story and leave
you had a lot of fun at the bow­ this crackbrained alibi story behind.
ling alley without a single picture of
proof being taken. I could also tell
you we ate a Luxembourgian beetle W e’ve come up with something
completely new - a photo story.
It’s quite easy: look at one picture
soup. Or we reorganized Dan’s toe­
nail collection from chronological to after the other and always read
alphabetical order. Or how about we the text for each picture from left
skated the backyard pool of the prin­ to right and top to bottom. Then
A lready on the journey to Esch/Alzette (Luxembourg) we noticed
this bridge close to Schifflage (also Luxembourg) which looked like
it was built for skating. What we also noticed was the fact that there
weren’t any reasonable parking spaces anywhere in the vicinity and
that was going to cause us some difficulties…

R ight after Felix landed that nice fs boneless a police patrol car stopped di­
rectly next to Dan and Chris, the reason being our car which was parked
on the shoulder of a large lay-by (you can see it really tiny on the horizon!).
While cop number one was acting his job 100 percent eating donuts out of
a bag, a slightly pissed off cop number two enlightened us that it was illegal
to park a car on a shoulder of a highway without a good reason. That would
usually give you two traffic points and cost 140 Euros in Luxembourg. Gulp!
But after clarifying that we were not listed in any criminal data base, we were
allowed to burn rubber towards Belgium.

Felix with a kickflip to fakie.

D an doing a FS grind in the relatively new bowl in the middle of downtown Brussels. Shortly
afterwards Dan and I marched over quickly to the skate shop. While we were gone two
younger skaters beat the shit out of each other with their boards. And of course they aimed
for their heads while doing it. Nice neighborhood!

Brussels.

Overview of the new park in Brussels. The

bowl is in the far right corner.
 Felix doing a transfer to tail in Kortrijk.

D reams turned into concrete

in a little town called Kortrijk
(or Courtrai) in the middle of
Belgium.

C hris, Igor (14 years

old, lives 300 meters
from the skatepark; cool
parents who let us sleep
over; knows the owner
of a bar which he showed
to us from the inside one
evening – after his pa­
rents had gone to bed),
Flow, Felix, Dan.
Chris in the middle of an
invert in Kortrijk.
 T hird time is a charm they say. During our approximately 30 minute stop in this town
around 30 to 40 bicycle riders stopped. They just didn’t understand what was going
on. A worried citizen decided to be on the safe side and made a telephone call…

O pener: How often do you come across these types of fullpipes in your
life? In my past 30 years this was the first time! Completely beautiful, the
lovely rust color, the view itself. And maybe you have noticed these completely
evil metal brackets which you really do not want to land on. Dan goes up high
on a backside kickturn. What you can’t see on the picture: on his next try Dan
loses control, bails, the board shoots straight into my second flash sending it
to unknown depths. While Felix and Chris unsuccessfully tried to dive after the
flash, the board rolled on without its owner into the canal you can see in the
background. Dan had ridden the board only two weeks and had treated himself
to only the best of material. Ceramic ball bearings is all I’ll say to this. Dan
was close to busting out in tears and to make matters worse he was travelling
with three idiots who kept rolling out the word games. Especially the ones with
terms like water, canal or diving were popular.

I f I had to choose a sound track

to fit this picture, my choice
would definitely be "And then the
cops came" from the legendary
Surf Punks. You can just guess
how proudly the two rebels Chris
and Felix are posing for the camera
while Dan mourns his lost board.
But these cops were actually really
cool. The citizen mentioned above
had complained to the police and
these guys didn’t really care. We
were even allowed to take pictures
for five more minutes after Felix
acted all sad and tear-jerkingly.
But then "the citizen" turned up
personally and she really let the
poor policemen have it. During
the sermon for the protectors of
the peace, we quietly got the hell
out of there and headed towards Felix can’t stop grinning while
Lüttich. Dan anticipates the worst.
 T his relict of bygone
heydays of European
skateboarding is enthroned
above the rooftops of Lüttich
(or Liege). This snake run
must have been built around
1978 and can still be ridden
perfectly. This is exactly
the right thing for a perfect
ending of a wonderful day of
skating after a "Good Mor­
ning Session" in Kortrijk and
the "High Noon Session" in
the fullpipe.
A nd once more the
same snake run
from above.

C hris in the middle of a blunt

nose­grab to fakie in the snake
run in Lüttich. Keep doing that ton­ Flow doing a bert slide in the Lüttich snake run. Photo: Felix
gue thing and he’ll lose it!
 Y ou have to be prepared in
this region for this type of
weather. While Chris and Felix
are taking the tent down in the
background and Dan is strolling
around with his pretty umbrel­
la, I’m looking forward to a
rained out day in the warm car.

F elix testing the board given to him by Spiderman as a

present, sticking to the wall in Dan’s private egg-fullpipe
in the middle of Luxembourg’s nowhere.

I n this semi-legal camping spot I probably

slept around 10% of the night. There were
constantly dickheads running around, cars
driving back and forth and a couple that was
so poor that they couldn’t afford a bed thus
making them spend part of the night there.
The woman was apparently so worried about
their poverty that she constantly moaned while
she slept. Poor girl! At some time even gun
shots could be heard!!! Really nice area!!! By
the way, the snake run is situated a few meters
behind the goal.
T his is how you look
like after letting a
piece of pool coping
fall on your finger.
Photo: Chris

A n extremely large"ride"
AND a Dodge Charger.
Okay, sorry Chris, that was
below the belt but I just
couldn‘t resist the pun...
E very non-skater examining this picture must believe that ska­
ters are totally messed up people. While Felix (unfortunately not
completely in the picture) swings the broom and Flow poses with a
beer, Dan is trying to sleep in a painful contortion in the fullpipe after
a piece of pool coping fell on his finger. Photo: Chris
Still
Stories
Photos by Sergej Vutuc
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
Still
Stories
P o
P l o
P r
Prooppaaggaannddaa
Interviews
: Gerd Rie
Photos: G ger & Mark
erd Rieger us Mhuelle
r
 he sun burns my skin. I am chil­
T ling in the "Hagen-Pool" - to be
more exact in the shade of the
pool’s deep-end with my notepad and
a pen. Looking down at my feet I can
see blood. A lot of blood. Dried drops
of pain. I bet it was an inline skater
without pads. Or maybe it was one of
those silly scooter kids. Nose bleed?
Slammed their head? Kids kicking
each other in the face? Everything
seems possible in this blue, round
piece of craziness which surrounds
me. But wait a sec! Maybe that isn’t
blood – raspberry juice?! Most likely!
Let me try it. Alright, now that tastes
real good. Oh man, time to get over
this bloody crap. Let’s just wipe away
all of these words of nonsense!
No, nobody has died in this bowl yet
even though some rumours have
Hagen, Overview.
turned up in a nearby city clai­ming
P
Pooo
ol
the opposite. Once and a while there’s
PPrro
oppa
agga
a small accident, but nothing more
than what occurs daily during a street
skate session or when you fart. So
the pool isn’t that easy to ride, so
what? The skaters that dedicate
anndda
a
themselves to this thing will feel "it"
and realize how much you get back
from the transitions even though you
most likely will feel like a complete
loser at the beginning. Everything is
possible in these transitions. Every­
thing. On the next pages you can
read through the thoughts of people
who know what they are talking about
when they let the words "Hage-Pool"
cross their lips – they know because
they have ridden it...
Markus
Opener: Anders "Poolpanic", Madonna!
Here: The evening before the contest the pool was painted blue. Here you can see
the result...
 P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a
Markus: Hey Pierre, what do you
think of this pool? A lot of people
think that it is too gnarly...
Pierre: You know what? We’re build­
ing a street course right now, a kind
of outdoor streetpark. We had made
a plan... with different transitions, a
little bowl, a big wallride, with a pyra­
mid and stuff... but the local street
skaters didn’t like it. They’ve changed
the plan and came out with a new
one that was not interesting at all,
like only ledges, no place to gather
speed and that kind of stuff. And then
they’ve asked us to build it and we
said "Okay, we’ll build it if we can
change the plan." And we’ve changed
it again and put in some transitions,
some ways to cruise around. For me it
is a skate culture problem, you know?
The history of what kind of transi­­tio­n I
skated or kids that are fourteen years
old now is completely different. They
really don’t have any idea of the plea­
sure you have in skating that. It is
the same here, in Hagen. If you have
a gnarly place you can skate every­
where. And the guy who has only a
little mini ramp – he doesn’t like to
skate elsewhere because it’s too hard.
Pierre Jambé.
It seems to be difficult for him. If I
go back in memories the best thing I
skated was a fucked up bowl with a
little snake run and an oververt part
that was not there for a purpose. And
that was the best place because it
taught me to skate that kind of spot,
you know? When I skated Matt’s
pool in Hamburg – that’s the gnarli­
est thing I’ve ever skated – I realized
that the guys who have that kind of
pool around learned to skate there...
I mean Steve Alba, the first thing
he skated was a backyard pool, so
he’s got a completely different skate
culture, you know? He knows what
it means to skate that kind of stuff
and he can skate anything. And that’s
the big difference, that he can skate
anything.
Gerd: Yeah, like all the old guys who
grew up in the Eighties skating pools
or Upland, Del Mar and that kind of
stuff, people like Lance Mountain,
Chris Miller, Christian Hosoi, Tony
Hawk, Neil Blender, can skate any­
thing.
Markus: So your message to those
people is that they should try it...
P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a David Martelleur, Crailslide.
P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a
Pierre: Yeah! Definitely. What I mean
is that Europe is getting a pool culture
more than before and that changes
also the scope of mind... if you go and
skate Algorta or Brussels or Hagen
then you have a different idea of what
it is.
Gerd: Skating should be like a chal­
lenge and not make it as easy as pos­
sible with a little mini ramp, low, low,
low... it’s more about a challenge.
Markus: Right now the kids come
over, have a look and go back to the
street course because for them it’s
too gnarly but maybe it will be more
accepted by the next generation, who
knows?
Pierre: That’s it! We’ve built a pool
in Brussels, really small like you don’t
have time to think, small transitions...
When we skated it the first time we
said "Ohhhh what have we done? This
is way too hard to skate!" And now
the kids who have learned there they
drop in, they carve, they enter the
session and then they are glad. They
learn there!
Gerd: Or just look at some of the kids
in America. Ten year olds who are
doing little airs or little girls grinding
poolcoping.
Pierre: And I think skateboarding has
a lot to do with the pleasure you get
when you are a child, when you are a
teenager... the pleasure you get when
you are riding that kind of stuff. So
the teenagers right now who learn on
a street course and stuff really don’t
look for that because they have a dif­
ferent relationship to what they skate.
And if you learn with really small
transitions you get this pleasure again
later and that is fine.
* * *
Gerd: Hi Thomas, we are in Hagen
here. How do you like the pool?
Thomas: At first it is like... wow, I
want to skate this... drop in and it’s
like, oh, it is really hard to skate if
you usually skate vert ramps, you
know? It’s a little bit difficult but it’s
definitely a challenge.
Thomas Madsen.
Daniel Cardone, Lien Air.

P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a
 P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a
Gerd: So you like it? David: I like this pool. It is one of the
only two pools in Europe – Algorta
Thomas: I like it, yeah. and this one. I like it because it has
poolcoping, the shape is designed
Gerd: But it is different. very well, the concrete is nice – good
finishing! It is very smooth...
Thomas: It is different but it is al­
ways good to have some... Gerd: I’m asking you because some
people think it is too steep, they are
Gerd: Like a challenge. A lot of peo­ kind of scared...
ple are kind of complaining that it is
too tough, that it is too hard to skate. David: No, it is not too deep. If you
They would have liked it more shallow go to Brixlegg or Bologna... it is no
and easier to ride. pool-design, but it is deeper. This
here, for me it’s perfect. Maybe more
Thomas: Yeah, I understand people vertical in the deep end.
that say that... but it is just some­
thing new, you know? Why should one
build a new vert ramp when there are * * *
ten others around? Or mini ramps...
This is definitely going back to the Gerd: Hey Ross, how do you like the
roots and... it’s a man’s ramp, you pool?
know?
Ross: You know what? It is one of the
funniest pools I’ve ever skated! The
* * * design of it is really perfect... twenty
minutes to get used to it. Good lines,
Gerd: Hi David, how do you like the good shape...
pool?
Gerd: Some people are complai­ning
that it is too deep, too gnarly...

Ross McGouran.
P
Pooo
ol
PPrro
oppa
agga
anndda
a
Ross: Yeah, but the whole idea of a Daniel: Oh, for sure! Yeah, without
pool is that it is steep and gnarly and the contest and with friends!
not like a mini ramp, you know? Pools
are meant to be hard to skate. I think
it is perfect. The pool coping is ama­ * * *
zing!
All interviews were recorded during
the Quiksilver Bowlrider contest. Oh
* * * yeah, we shouldn’t forget the results
either! And let me tell you something:
Gerd: Hi Daniel, how do you like the there were only winners that day...
pool here in Hagen?

Daniel: I really like it, man. I like the

way that it is shaped, for sure, and I
like the way it’s built – a little bit like
a real pool but still skateable. They’ve
made a great job, man!

Gerd: And if you compare it to other

pools in Europe?

Daniel: I was impressed when I

heard like the local guys did this so
this is one of the best pools I’ve ever
seen. We need more. We need more
of these guys who have built it.

Markus: Will you come back to this

pool?

Daniel Cardone.
 (bailGun-)

shinots ..
Malmo
Text & Photos: Gerd Rieger
 (bailGun-)

shinots ..
Park overview.

Malmo

Opener: Some nice and

friendly security made sure
that the contest was safe at
all times.

Right: Welcome to the

contest.

Nicky Guerrero knew his lines around the park and

made good use of the Deep End and Vert Quater with
Inverts and nice Madonnas.
Javier Mendizabal with a smooth Tailslide on the Big
Bank and over the Quater.
(bailGun-)

shinots ..
Malmo

Rune and Casper Plas in the battlefield.

Dave Duncan: „This kid is no

joke!” Besides anouncing the
contest all day long Dave could
also be seen slashing some
Dagger-Style Frontside Grinds
in the Kindney Pool.
It took him a few tries but Daniel Cardone pulled

(bailGun-)
this Flip ober the stairs in the Shallow End smooth.

shinots ..
Malmo

Jimmy the Geek ripped the pool with some gnarly lines and
heavy tricks. Fs Ollie.
 (bailGun-)

shinots ..
Malmo Salba tailslides...

Twisted tower.
Jokke Olsen likes to fly. He also came pretty
close to pulling 540s from the Quater into the
Bank.
 (bailGun-)

shinots ..
Malmo

Seb Daurel, Back Tail

on the Bank. Yeah, he
wears kneepads and he
propably doesn´t give
a fuck if you think it´s
cool or not or if any
jugde gives him less
points. He also shred-
ded the Kidney.
Unknown Spanish Ripper. Stalefish...
 Jimmy the Greek with a nice Frontal
Invert like very few can do like this.
(bailGun-)

shinots ..
Malmo

Rune destroyed the whole park including the Deep End in

the finals to take a well deserved first place. Here he´s
doing a Disaster low to high.
 (bailGun-)

Happy Winners: Rune, John and Alain.

shinots ..
Malmo

The crowd.
 The
Reanimation
F
Of Old
i n d i n g s
And The Primacy Of
Fidelity
Interview: Leonore We
lzin Photos: Sergej Vu
tuc
 The
Reanimation
Of Old
F in d in g s
Of
And The Primacy
Fidelity
Filjio likes to stay incognito. The Croatian artist
has a distinct self-protection thing going, he likes
Outsider-Art and he collects stuff he finds, paints
the objects and integrates them into his indoor art
creations. Literary sprinkles are evidence of his sub-
versive sense of humor. The 26 year old designer,
who received his degree as a painter last January at
the Zagreb art university, had travelled fifteen hours
by bus from Zagreb to Stuttgart and then taken the
train to Heilbronn. Leonore Welzin met up with Filjio,
the combatent, in the "Basementizid" art cellar, a
sub-cultural gallery in the center of the city on the
banks of the Neckar river to discuss his new work
"At the forefront of survival".

Filjio, what does your artist name mean? It is the

dumbest word that has ever crossed my mind…

Doesn’t it mean "son"? Yeah, in Italien. I didn’t know about it when

I chose the name. There is also a Croatian punk rock band called "Filji
di Bruno" – I found them on the internet. I should create something
for them…

What’s your real name? That’s not important – I’m a bit paranoid
and having said that also really careful…

Limber walls, curbs, chimneys – you have a lot of painting

examples in public areas on your homepage www.filjio.com...
The pieces of work on the net make up about fifteen percent of all of
my outdoor creations I have painted.

Where can these paintings be found? Most of them are in Za-

greb, some in Bosnia, others in Wiesbaden, Germany…
 The
Reanimation
Of Old
F in d in g s
Of
And The Primacy
Fidelity
You studied graphic design. Does street painting have any-
thing to do with that? No, graphic design studies have nothing to
do with what I am doing now.

What plays a role in your work? Just about everything in some

manner. I can’t help you understand my work with my explanations.
If I could describe it, then I wouldn’t need to paint.

Would you rather remain silent? Yeah, I just do what I do. My ego
needs that. If I’m not painting I don’t feel good. It is like a kind of
self-assurance.

Are there and reference points for example in the

history of art? No, in my opinion history and the history
of art are always biased and subjective. You can’t write a
book without individual influence. I like the history of art
by Elmar Jansen. But there will always be pieces of art
which you have not seen…

Through which objects do you define your work?

I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without books, other
artists or the internet. Nevertheless everyone has to find
their own path and follow what catches their interest.

Then why did you study at an art university?

I was lucky enough to be admitted to Zlatko Keser’s class.
Primarily he’s a painter and he belongs in my opinion to
the top five artists in Croatia.

Is he familiar with your street painting?

He is aware of my website but we don’t talk about it. He
has a very charismatic personality. It is quite difficult to
deal with. This is definitely not a father-son relationship. I
just show him what I do at the university. I believe he is a
very good teacher.
 The
Reanimation
Of Old
F in d in g s
Of
And The Primacy
Fidelity
What is your daily routine and how are the working
conditions like at the university? I go in the morn-
ing to the university and paint there. In the evening I
go home. I get to use a 2,5 square meter room which
is slightly more than what most of my collegues have.
In two, three months time I paint around three hundred
pictures. Because of the lack of space I have to hang the
large formats in front of each other.

When do you paint on the street? Actually at any time,

day or night. It’s not vandalism. I respect other people’s
property and would never paint white walls. I like the pa-
tina of old and used materials. I want to be a part of the
material’s history and transcience when I paint them.

Let’s move on to the exhibition in Basmentizid.

At first I wandered around Heilbronn with Sergej and found
these pictures, a board, this clothes hanger, tennis racket
and a mirror. These are objects which have a history. Old items ap-
peal to me that have human traces. They tell more than a canvas.
A canvas is dead. When I pick up an object I feel that something is
inside of it; new objects don’t have a soul. In this gallery I sensitized
the room, put my mark somewhere so that I feel good.

Is your approach intuitive? No, I put everything I have into my

work. That gives me strength, makes me feel good and lets me get
started with my work.

What was your first sign? I think it was the wooden animal made
out of branches in front of the white wall. It gave me something
back. The gallery room was white and empty the first time I saw it.
Some of that had to stay. I wanted to bring in the third dimension
and that’s why I put the animal there which protects me at the same
time. The gradient in the room gradually moves from white on one
 The
Reanimation
Of Old
F in d in g s
Of
And The Primacy
Fidelity
side to a dirty-spotted color on the opposite side. The process is ac-
tually not finished. I’m still not satisfied.

Which production method would have made you more satis-

fied? If I had had one month time, maybe I would have dropped my
work and come back two weeks later. During a development you have
to continuously adapt the principles and ask oneself: is this honest?
Is it really? If not, trash it. It is an internal battle. If you are honest
no one will understand. And you have to be completely honest, also
with yourself. No tricks, no mask.

Is it a kind of sketch? No, you can look at the work like

a diary or a notebook, I only had three days for it. It is a
three day notebook.

Why do you paint and not write? Because it is the only

thing I have to do. I remember... it was the best moment
for me when my grandmother explained something to me.
She never learned to paint but she always tried to sketch
out the most important aspects. Her handwriting was
beautiful, pristine and spontaneous like children’s pictures.

Do you have a weakness for naive art? Yes and espe-

cially for Outsider-Art.

There are little parts of sentences spread between

the painted-over objects and spots... "find my sole" is
a play on words. Sole sounds just like soul. Pointing to-
wards the wall, there’s the counterpart:"I use my soul as a
dagger."
 The
Reanimation
Of Old
F in d in g s
Of
And The Primacy
Fidelity
Another sentence states: "filjio helped karl marx." Are you
usually more modest? Sometime I wanted to be a rock star,
wanted to write poems. But I couldn’t play an instrument or write. I
am not a Marxist [he laughs]. I just came up with those sentences.
It is a means of communicating with the viewer. He or she looks at
the picture, reads the sentence and thinks: that makes sense.

Are there any quotations among those sentences?

Only one: "Heilbronner Verkehrsverbund" [Heilbronn’s traffice sector
group]. That was on my ticket from Stuttgart to Heilbronn. I thought
it was funny.

Do you always produce for the art market? Last year I sold 400
pictures for 2000 Kunas, that’s about 250 Euro. The buyer, a DJ,
actually only wanted one picture. I told him that one picture costs
as much all the others. So he bought them all. That was the work of
my second year and I had space again. If I want to earn money I do
comic strips.

Some of your work has an archaic feel, are you interested in

shamanism? I really wanted to work more with wood and earth:
one can work well with those materials. The small drawings and
writings are points of energy which create a focal point.

Wood and earth, what about the element water? That’s too
perfect, I didn’t know how to process it...

Let’s take a sip.

 Imprint

Editorial Staff
Gerd Rieger (V.i.S.d.P.) | gerd@bailgun.com
Markus Mhueller | markus@bailgun.com

Photo Editor
Gerd Rieger

Layout
Markus Mhueller

Translations
Jonathan Young

Additional Staff
Florian Hofmeister, Sergej Vutuc, Leonore Welzin, Bartosz Kostka

Editor‘s Office
Bailgun Magazine
Gerd Rieger
Zumsande Str. 32
48145 Münster
Germany

Legal Notice
All rights to these documents and their contents are held by the respec-
tive authors. Users may download files, use them and also share them,
as long as the content is not altered or the copyright notices are not re-
moved. These files however may not in any form be used for corporate
purposes, other websites, print media or other electronic media without
permission of the author.

©2007 Bailgun Magazine /// www.bailgun.com

Right: Trevor Ward, fs grind, Hagen. Photo: Gerd Rieger

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven,
we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like
the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities
insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree
of comparison only.

Charles Dickens, 1859.