Street Art for Hope and Peace | eL Seed | TED Talks

Translator: Žiga Domevšček Reviewer: Greta Gašparac

In 2012, when I painted the minaret of Jara Mosque

Ko sem leta 2012 slikal na minaret mošeje Jara

in my hometown of Gabés, in the south of Tunisia,

v domačem kraju Gabés, na jugu Tunizije,

I never thought that graffiti would bring so much attention to a city.

si nisem predstavljal, da bo grafit pritegnil toliko pozornosti na mesto.

At the beginning, I was just looking for a wall in my hometown,

V domačem kraju sem sprva iskal le zid,

and it happened that the minaret was built in '94.

minaret pa je bil zgrajen leta 1994.

And for 18 years, those 57 meters of concrete stayed grey.

18 let je teh 57 metrov betona ostalo sivih.

Ko sem prvič spoznal imama in mu povedal moj namen,

When I met the imam for the first time, and I told him what I wanted to do,

je rekel: "Hvala Bogu, da si le prišel."

he was like, "Thank God you finally came,"

and he told me that for years he was waiting for somebody

Rekel je, da že leta čaka nekoga, ki bo nekaj storil na minaretu.

to do something on it.

The most amazing thing about this imam is that he didn't ask me anything --

Neverjetno pri imamu je bilo, da me ni ničesar vprašal.

neither a sketch, or what I was going to write.

Niti za skico niti kaj bom napisal.

In every work that I create, I write messages

V vsakem svojem delu napišem sporočilo v obliki kaligrafitov,

with my style of calligraffiti -- a mix of calligraphy and graffiti.

mešanice med kaligrafijo in grafiti.

I use quotes or poetry.

Uporabim citate ali poezijo.

For the minaret, I thought that the most relevant message

Za minaret se mi je zdelo najbolj ustrezno,

to be put on a mosque should come from the Quran,

da je sporočilo iz Korana. Izbral sem verz:

so I picked this verse:

»O, ljudje! Ustvarili smo vas iz moškega in ženske, razdelili smo vas

"Oh humankind, we have created you from a male and a female,

and made you people and tribe, so you may know each other."

v plemena in pod-plemena, da se boste lahko poznali med seboj."

It was a universal call for peace, tolerance, and acceptance

Univerzalen poziv k miru, toleranci in sprejemanju,

coming from the side that we don't usually portray in a good way in the media.

s strani, ki je v medijih navadno prikazana v slabi luči.

I was amazed to see how the local community reacted to the painting,

Osupel sem nad odzivi lokalne skupnosti nad sliko,

and how it made them proud to see the minaret getting so much attention

in kako so bili ponosni, da je minaret deležen

from international press all around the world.

takšne pozornosti medijev z vseh koncev sveta.

For the imam, it was not just the painting;

Pri imamu ni šlo le za sliko, bilo je globlje.

it was really deeper than that.

He hoped that this minaret would become a monument for the city,

Upal je, da bo minaret postal spomenik za mesto

and attract people to this forgotten place of Tunisia.

in privabljal ljudi na ta pozabljen tunizijski kraj.

The universality of the message,

Univerzalnost sporočila, takratni politični kontekst v Tuniziji,

the political context of Tunisia at this time,

and the fact that I was writing Quran in a graffiti way

in dejstvo, da sem pisal Koran z grafiti,

were not insignificant.

niso bili nepomembni.

It reunited the community.

Ponovno je združilo skupnost.

Bringing people, future generations,

Združevanje ljudi, bodočih generacij

together through Arabic calligraphy

skozi arabsko kaligrafijo, to počnem.

is what I do.

Writing messages is the essence of my artwork.

Pisanje sporočil je bistvo mojih umetnin.

What is funny, actually, is that even Arabic-speaking people

Smešno je, da se morajo tudi arabsko govoreči ljudje zelo potruditi,

really need to focus a lot to decipher what I'm writing.

da preberejo, kar pišem.

You don't need to know the meaning to feel the piece.

Ni potrebno poznati pomena, da začutiš delo.

Menim, da se arabska pisava prej dotakne duše kot pa oči.

I think that Arabic script touches your soul before it reaches your eyes.

There is a beauty in it that you don't need to translate.

V njej je lepota, ki je ni potrebno prevajati.

Arabic script speaks to anyone, I believe;

Arabska pisava nagovarja vsakogar.

to you, to you, to you, to anybody,

Vas, vas, vas, vsakogar.

and then when you get the meaning,

In ko razumeš pomen, se počutiš povezanega z njo.

you feel connected to it.

I always make sure to write messages

Vedno pišem sporočila, ki ustrezajo kraju, kjer slikam.

that are relevant to the place where I'm painting,

but messages that have a universal dimension,

A hkrati imajo univerzalno dimenzijo,

so anybody around the world can connect to it.

tako da se lahko vsak poistoveti z njimi.

I was born and raised in France, in Paris,

Rojen in vzgojen sem v Franciji, v Parizu,

and I started learning how to write and read Arabic when I was 18.

pisanja in branja arabščine sem se začel učiti pri 18-ih.

Danes pišem sporočila le v arabščini, najpomembnejši razlogi za to

Today I only write messages in Arabic.

One of the reasons this is so important to me,

so vsi odzivi, ki sem jih doživel po celem svetu.

is because of all the reaction that I've experienced all around the world.

In Rio de Janeiro, I translated this Portuguese poem

V Riu de Janeiru sem prevedel portugalsko pesem Gabriele Tôrres Barbosa,

from Gabriela Tôrres Barbosa,

who was giving an homage to the poor people of the favela,

ki daje poklon revnim ljudem iz favel, in jo narisal na streho.

and then I painted it on the rooftop.

Lokalna skupnost je pokazala velik interes za moje početje,

The local community were really intrigued by what I was doing,

but as soon as I gave them the meaning of the calligraphy,

a takoj, ko sem jim povedal pomen kaligrafije,

they thanked me, as they felt connected to the piece.

so se mi zahvalili, saj so se počutili povezane z delom.

In South Africa, in Cape Town,

V Južni Afriki, v Cape Townu, so mi v okrožju Philippi

the local community of Philippi

offered me the only concrete wall of the slum.

ponudili edini betonski zid v slumu.

It was a school, and I wrote on it

Bila je del šole in nanj sem napisal citat Nelsona Mandele,

a quote from Nelson Mandela,

saying, "[in Arabic],"

ki pravi: "[arabsko],"

kar pomeni: "Vse je videti nemogoče, dokler ni opravljeno."

which means, "It seems impossible until it's done."

Then this guy came to me and said, "Man, why you don't write in English?"

Potem me je nek moški vprašal: "Zakaj ne pišeš v angleščini?"

and I replied to him, "I would consider your concern legit if you asked me

Pa mu odgovorim: "Vzel bi te resno, če bi me vprašal, zakaj ne pišem v Zulu."

why I didn't write in Zulu."

In Paris, once, there was this event,

Na nekem dogodku v Parizu mi je nekdo dal zid za poslikavo.

and someone gave his wall to be painted.

And when he saw I was painting in Arabic,

Ko je videl, da pišem v arabščini,

he got so mad -- actually, hysterical -- and he asked for the wall to be erased.

se je zelo razjezil in naročil odstranitev grafita.

I was mad and disappointed.

Bil sem jezen in razočaran.

But a week later, the organizer of the event asked me to come back,

En teden zatem me je organizator dogodka povabil nazaj.

and he told me that there was a wall right in front of this guy's house.

Rekel je, da obstaja zid, ki je točno pred hišo tistega moškega.

So, this guy --

Ta moški ...

(Laughter)

(smeh)

like, was forced to see it every day.

je bil prisiljen gledati to vsak dan.

At the beginning, I was going to write, "[In Arabic],"

Sprva sem želel napisati: "[arabsko],"

which means, "In your face," but --

kar pomeni: "Tu imaš." a...

(Laughter)

(smeh)

I decided to be smarter and I wrote, "[In Arabic],"

Odločil sem se, da bom pametnejši in napisal: "[arabsko],"

which means, "Open your heart."

kar pomeni: "Odpri svoje srce."

I'm really proud of my culture,

Ponosen sem na svojo kulturo in želim biti skozi svoje umetnine njen ambasador.

and I'm trying to be an ambassador of it through my artwork.

And I hope that I can break the stereotypes we all know,

Želim podreti stereotipe, ki jih vsi poznamo,

with the beauty of Arabic script.

z lepoto arabske pisave.

Today, I don't write the translation of the message anymore on the wall.

Prevoda sporočila danes ne pišem več na zid.

I don't want the poetry of the calligraphy to be broken,

Nočem uničiti poezije kaligrafije,

as it's art and you can appreciate it without knowing the meaning,

ker je umetnost in jo lahko ceniš, ne da poznaš pomen,

as you can enjoy any music from other countries.

tako kot lahko uživaš v glasbi iz drugih dežel.

Some people see that as a rejection or a closed door,

Nekateri to vidijo kot zavrnitev ali zaprta vrata,

but for me, it's more an invitation --

a zame je to povabilo

to my language, to my culture, and to my art.

k svojemu jeziku, k svoji kulturi in k svoji umetnosti.

Thank you.

Hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)