de mi barrio a tu barrio: Interview mit dem Graffiti-Künstler Nel One

Eduardo de Leon (Nel One), 34, Panama, Graffiti-Künstler

Eduardo de Leon, in der Graffiti-Szene nur unter seinem Pseudonym “Nel One” bekannt, kam schon 1993 erstmals mit Graffiti in Berührung. Nachdem er für 6 Monate in Hannover gelebt hatte und einige Reisen über den europäischen Kontinent hinter sich gebracht hatte, kehrte er mit einer weltoffeneren Vorstellung von Streetart in sein Heimatland Panama zurück, wo er die Bewegung “Panamá Graffiti” ins Leben rief und sich dem Ziel verschrieb, junge Leute für seine Kunst zu gewinnen. Heute ist er als Pionier der panamaischen Streetart-Szene bekannt und arbeitet vorwiegend als Designer, Publizist und Creative Director.

In diesem Interview, das dem von uns bereits vorgestellten Buch “de mi barrio a tu barrio” entnommen ist, spricht er über seine Anfänge und Leben in der Streetart-Szene.

How did you begin to do urban art?

In the 80s I was inspired by the design and colors of the popular city buses. This was how my interest in drawing and colours began. But, it was not until 1991 that I used spray paint for the first time, painting my name on different surfaces.

Since 1992 I have been writing my name “NEL” a little bigger and with more colour. In those days I did not know what I was really doing since there was no graffiti movement and I did not know any other graffiti artist.

Many of my initial ideas were inspired by the skating scene and Rock music until I saw a section dedicated to graffiti in The Source Magazine in New York where they explained the entire history of its beginnings. After that, urban art consumed me and I became 100% committed.

Doing urban art can be dangerous. Have you ever had a dangerous experience while you were doing one of your pieces?

Panama has never had a violent or dangerous history in this regard. Of course, we’ve always seen injustice against urban artists. Some have been detained for a few days, some have been beaten, some have been robbed and others have been chased away. All this was due to the fact that at the beginning, we wore dark clothes at night in an attempt to camouflage ourselves and we walked in the shadows, but fortunately, nothing really bad happened.

In the early days, in the mid-90s, we used to paint very late at night. One night, a security guard saw us and chased us for about a block while shooting at us. This is one of the scariest experiences I’ve had of painting in the streets.

Can you earn a living doing art? If so, how do you do it? If not, do you hope that one day it is possible or do you prefer to do it just for pleasure?

When I started doing graffiti almost twenty years ago, graffiti was a hobby. Ten years later, I realized that my hobby had become my passion and it was that which had kept me afloat economically many times. It was then that I organized my life and five years ago, I turned Panama Graffiti Crew into a company called Panama Graffiti Creations. Creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship have formed part of our success story. We have been able to offer graffiti-related services to private advertising agencies as well as government entities. Additionally, we distribute aerosols and other articles for the graffiti art.

Currently, we are offering not only employment opportunities for new urban artists but also training new ones. Most importantly, we have found ways to initiate new projects which have never been done in Panama. These projects create beauty and offer new alternatives and opportunities for promoting art in general.

Do you think that if urban art could be done legally it would be boring?

The adrenaline rush has always motivated new urban artists. This disappears the moment we do a piece legally. Many artists try to get that same rush in other ways. In my case, each piece of my work has to present a different challenge to give me that rush. The challenge can be the size of the project, the level of difficulty, the creative process, or even the work meetings and the deadlines. When you paint something legally, each phase is different and offers a different level of adrenaline which makes it interesting and by no means boring. The end result is what makes us grow as artists.