Citizen Of The World Inc.

Me: When was the store established?

Gabriele: We started 2 ½ years ago. But we have to say that we’ve been in this space for about 7 years. We started out as an open collective and this was always the empty room where we did small exhibitions and small events.

Me: I saw outside that it stated something about being established in 1999?

Gabriele: Yeah people would work with us as well. In the back we are a “working space”, and like 2 ½ years ago we realized there were so many good people doing so much good stuff it’s hard for them to have a steady space to show stuff, so I said I wanted to put this store.

Me: How many original members were there?

Gabriele: Originally we were seven, but now it’s like, from the old group, it’s two people.

Me: So what is the intent of the store? Is there necessity to explain a purpose? In your own words.

Gabriele: Yeah, well on the one hand it’s to offer a young artist a good space; to let them be shown to the public because on the one hand we have people coming in from the street areas so there they have their certain communication; but here we try, since they do other artwork as well, to show certain artwork of these people, and I think a lot of these [artists], or a lot of their works have a kind of very high quality or very good intention of trying to say something, so I think it’s very good to have a space to show that. (laughs).

Me: The quality of work here is something I immediately recognized as being of the highest quality; especially the stencil work. I went online to look at the collection you have and there is some seriously legitimate work you have.

Gabriele: Thank you very much. The other focus that we have because I did screen printing for a couple of years, I got to know a lot of people in that medium, so the other idea is like, because it’s a very nice medium, even if it’s a small series, you still have the kind of feeling of having a small originals. And what we try to do is like, on the one hand, to make art affordable for everybody without that high where you have to have a lot of money to get a small, nice piece of art. So we try to have really nice and cool offers for young people and people without that much money to still have to enjoy that part of life. And on the other hand, we realized that if you have a small series and you can sell them quite nicely, slowly but surely you help the artist [make a living] by selling their artwork. So in the end, instead of [the artist] doing other jobs, they can sell small stuff here and they can use the money to do other stuff, or create more original artwork.

Me: Eventually becoming more productive instead of having to work as a barista or something…

Gabriele: Exactly. A lot of times that’s the problem. You do art and you don’t know exactly where to present it and you don’t know how to make a living out of it and we try on the one hand to present them and show them to the public and on the other hand trying to help them [make] a living out of it.

Me: Right on. So why choose the name “Supalife”?

Gabriele: Because we want to beat the depression outside. (laughs) I think it’s very unconventional. I studied Graphic Design. I never studied economics or business. A lot of stuff that we do we just do because we feel like we want to do it, and that’s because we have a good feeling towards that. So, we try to have a “Supalife.” Because outside there’s a lot of structure and rarrrr. (laughs).

Me: Yeah I like it. Where do the artists come from that you sell, both geographically and from a technical stand point, or from a medium stand point?

Gabriele: I would say we have a nice mixture of people who studied graphic design, a lot of people are graphic designers or illustrators, a lot of people come from the streets who work with graffiti and came to their own kind of visual image. [pause: her dog wanted to chase a fly and stomp over the art]. And street art graphics, and we have people who have never studied at all, but for some reason they have that kind of feeling inside that they have to come out and I think it’s the most important that if you see that it’s always some kind of quality.

Geographically, more or less the main focus is Berlin people, but now we have more and more international people are contacting us as well. We would love to do more with these people so it’s a question of money to get the artwork over here, or to invite these people to do small exhibitions here. We do small exhibitions here every month. But on the other hand, because we started out with the idea that Berlin is a fancy city, if you live here, people in general don’t have that much income so that’s why we still focus on Berlin because since I grew up here, it’s the strongest connection that I have. But, for the future, we would love to do more stuff with international people and maybe doing exchange stuff as well.

Me: Yeah, that sounds really good. Do you consider this store for everyone, or is this store merely for the person that is into urban, street art? Do you get a lot of first timers or do the majority of customers come in who already kind of know artists and have more knowledge about street art?

Gabriele: Yeah, because we are presented in one or two city guides, and if people are looking for this kind of graphics, we have a certain people who work with graphics and are interested in street art, these are the ones who will find us in a certain way. Still, a lot of people just pop in just because, you know “whoot, let’s see what is happening there”, and I really like that. It’s always quite nice if you see that you can even convince people if you can show them something that they didn’t expect. One time, there was a very old lady couple, both in their late 50’s to early 60’s, and so we started to talk about the writing (graffiti), and they were like ‘yeah it always looks dirty on the streets’, and I showed them one book and a couple of examples of what the people try to say and what the people are trying to do, and in the end they were like ‘wow, this is a way we never saw it’. So in the end they even bought the book, which the writing book is a very street art, very graffiti book in a certain way. So in the end, they were very interested in seeing it from a different angle and I think that’s the good thing to do here as well; to use [the store] as a platform to make people discuss and maybe think about certain [aspects] that they can’t see. So it’s good when people who “don’t know”, come in [to the store].

Me: That actually takes me to the graffiti of Berlin. What do you think about the graffiti in Berlin? Especially in an area like Prenzlauer Berg.

Gabriele: I’m honestly not into that “old school” graffiti scene. I cannot really tell you a lot of the “real” graffiti. I got into what is now called “street art”. I personally
really appreciate what the people are doing there because for me, this is a very special kind of social communication; like a visual communication on the street trying to make people think, also trying to [gain] answers, or trying to redefine questions. So for me I always add that very personal attachment to it because I was like, these people don’t get any money you know. They just go outside and do what they have to do because these are the active people, in my opinion, who try and get a reaction from society…

Me: Whether a positive or negative reaction?

Gabriele: Exactly. But I think right now a lot of time the [majority] of media gives you information, like billboards [for example], “yeah do this, please buy this, etc…” So it’s always just input, input, input. And for me, I’m kind of fed up with it so [with the street artists], I say ‘yeah, thank you’, because it’s something that I can react to. It’s something that people can start to discuss about.

There was a very nice project once, when a guy who, it seems his girlfriend left him, so he wrote posters like ‘Oh Linda, why don’t you go on your telephone…Linda please call me back…Linda you’re a part of my light, I have a whole in my heart…’ For weeks it went on. And then suddenly, people started to communicate. There were certain people who made a poster next to his poster, “Come on Linda give him another chance!” And there were other posters saying “Come on you psycho, leave her alone. You must have been really bad if she doesn’t want to call you anymore.” So in the end, because it was such an easy topic being in love and having heartbreak feelings, so it was very easy for everybody to [participate]. But in the end, it really happened that other people started to communicate…

Me: A two way street was created between artist and audience?

Gabriele: Yeah, exactly. You see that’s what I really appreciate about this art form and its communication.

Me: And graffiti falls into that in a way?

Gabriele: Graffiti does fall into that, but if we look into really standard, very “old school” graffiti”, I don’t have that much knowledge because I’m not from the graffiti scene.

Me: Right on. Who, right now, is the artist most in demand in the store?

Gabriele: Oh there are a couple of people. There are certain people that are always very well asked for. EVOL & PISA73 who work for CTINK. They do these stencil artworks. We had a big exhibition two years running. And now we got new artwork in as well. They both work together at CTINK. Internationally by now they are quite well known. I personally think they belong to the best stencil artists that you can find because their technical aspect, and the intention of what they are trying to say as well, is very exceptional. They bring together a lot of good qualities. They were both graffiti sprayers and have practiced for 20 years, so they have a very good graphical eye. They are very technically perfect. (hands me book of PISA73 artwork. Shows me EVOL stencil work). In the end these are great artists…Unfortunately, we cannot always show everything, which is really a pity because I’d love to have a huge space to show everything…We have a lot of posters and screen printing books and have certain people that we’ve worked with for a couple of years.

Me: And they just keep on producing?

Gabriele: Yeah, they are really active. I think this is cool because sometimes I’m like “could you please…” you know. If you see that it works and it’s cool, then I’m usually happy if the people produce cool stuff. And in the end they are happy as well if we have it here and it gets sold, and stuff like that.

Me: That is usually the intent: the artist to live by his art.

Gabriele: Yeah exactly. And that’s what we try in the end. I’m trying it for myself as well because I really appreciate working with these people on a very similar level because in the end we both are happy doing something together. I’m not really interested anymore in working as a graphic designer, which is what I still like to do on my own, but I really appreciate working in this kind of way, and in the end we’ll all have a “Supalife.”

Me: I love it. Where do you think art is headed in Berlin specifically?

Gabriele: Where is it heading?

Me: Yeah, where’s it going? Is street art taking over?

Gabriele: Street art I really like. I think in the past two years it got really popular. It got really featured. The media is picking up on it; advertising is picking up on the kind of style [that is street art]. A lot of publishers have books about the topic [of street art]. There are a lot of really good exhibitions running. The Back Jump, which is coming this year again, it’s like every second year, a very huge graffiti exhibition. In case you should be here you should take a look. It got very popular, so I’m interested to see what the next level will be. There’s always a problem when the big brands pick up on it. They use, in a certain way, a lot of the graffiti influences, or the street art influences now for their commercial artwork. And now there is for example the Nike Space or the Adidas color.

Me: They definitely are approaching the more urban tones.

Gabriele: I think in a certain way, I’m already fed up with it, but there will be something new happening.

Me: So do you think it’ll get bigger and better, or more refined?

Gabriele: More refined, definitely. I think I appreciate the more people that go outside and do their stuff in general, I appreciate it because I think society is too laid back, and I say “No, Get Active.” I have a saying, “Art is active revolutionary tactics.” You know, you have to have a certain idea and you have to be active. Art is not saying “what a beautiful society.” I think if you want to improve in society and you want to develop stuff, then you have to be [innovative]. So in general I’m totally honored, everyone should get active. On the other hand, I’m thinking certain [artists] that really have to do it, they will get more refined and they will get more accepted in the art community. Now we have Banksy who gets really published and now sells paintings for a lot of money. On one hand, it’s good because in general artists have graffiti exhibitions or art exhibitions. They do street art exhibitions and then there’s like, the art context. So I think maybe a lot of these people will come out into an officially accepted art.

Me: An arena to where they’ll be on a pedestal with other great artists?

Gabriele: Yeah, because it’s what they do. It’s a different kind of art than painting, or from an art school.

Me: Essentially, street art is on the trajectory that photography was in a hundred years ago. Photography was just seen as a tool.

Gabriele: Exactly. The same thing will happen to street art. Certain people will get accepted in the art scene.

Me: Do you think it’s happening now? Or does it take a major museum to hold an exhibition?

Gabriele: I think it’s already in the process. I think
if you look back in history, in the end you find paintings or sculpture of a certain period of time, and in the end we make conclusions about the culture [that created them]. In the end, a couple of hundreds years from now, if they find something, I think it would be cool if they see this as an [important] aspect of what was going on in society. I think there are very standard, “normal” people who use their freedom and right to work and have their own individual impression about society; in the end it would be a cool aspect to find [street art].

Me: I agree. It would be cool to think of what people think of street art in a hundred years. Two quick references that I wanted to get your impression about: Banksy?

Gabriele: Right now, he’s really getting pushed. Somebody needs to take this role. It was like Andy Warhol for example. It’s the same thing. There’s a lot of people who come from that scene, who had that kind of technique and ideas, but he was outstanding and he was the one who was officially accepted, and therefore a certain type of pop culture got more accepted and I think its very much the same thing with Banksy. So it’s like, he has a public, official role.

Me: Shepherd Fairy?

Gabriele: Personally I prefer Banksy, but that’s only my opinion. He’s somebody who’s been working years and years. Very strong propaganda, very strong paintings that people can feel the influence. He is definitely a very important person as well.

Me: Who are your favorite artists at the moment?

Gabriele: I really like AKAY. He’s an artist from Sweden. I got to know him a couple of years ago. He was one of the first people from that scene that we had an exhibition from a few years ago. It was like, I could understand his thinking and he could understand mine. For me it was really exceptional. I understood what he was trying to say. He is very strict. He’s also very humble. He’s not doing anything for promotion. He’s just doing his stuff. He’s been a graffiti writer and now he’s in his mid 30’s. He’s very quiet, but he’s very strong. And for me personally, he’s a very impressive person…He’s been working since the mid 90’s visually. You should take the time to see his stuff…He really uses “the world as his playground.” He always has a very strong social or critical standpoint about society.

For example, one series I really liked, in the modern cities at the city centers, they’ve tried to get rid of all the poor people and the homeless people…

Me: Los Angeles is actually doing that right now.

Gabriele: Yeah, instead of getting money into some logical social projects to give the people a hand, or help them out somehow and not just push them away, [AKAY] was taking pictures of sleeping homeless people, and then made black and white screen prints, and then brought them back into the downtown center areas and put them on the walls. So it was like, now you got rid of them, but [AKAY] brought them back in a certain way. It makes people aware, like come on…

Me: You can’t just disenfranchise people…

Gabriele: Yeah, I think it’s very like, if you don’t see, you forget about it. It’s a very easy function in a way…

Me: Society does that a lot.

Gabriele: Yeah. So, AKAY is a very important person. I have a lot of these people that we have here because I don’t believe in celebrities or anything. I only really get involved with people when I get to know them. I see the artwork and you get to know the person behind them, and a lot of the people that we present here, I have a strong feeling about and I’m quite sure these [artists] will make their way because I see the quality and I’m convinced that their work is good enough and that people will realize what is in the work.

Me: Do you think that the streets that we walk on, the streets that we pass everyday, those will be the galleries of tomorrow?

Gabriele: In a certain way they already are. I think now it’s in the Banksy process where it’s like the small village where the people say, “No don’t paint the wall because we want to keep that picture”. Same thing happened here [in Prenzlauer Berg], when they remodeled houses, and the housekeeper left one square meter where there was a very beautiful, or intense painting. So I’m thinking that it’s already happening that people are trying to reserve and keep [street art]. I think if people in general [become] more aware of what’s happening, maybe one day [the streets] will be an accepted gallery, but now it’s just open space, very cool galleria already. I mean, if you want to, you can walk around and you can have a cool art trip. You can go to good art gallery spaces, but if you want to and you are using your eye, you can find a lot of good stuff in the streets already; and it tells you something about the people living here, about opinions, and about conflicts, wishes, and questions.

I think it’s very important that the city tells you something that you can still differentiate between the cities. There’s a development in cities in which they become more and more similar. There are certain trademarks. You’re going to the shopping center in Berlin, and tomorrow you might be in Paris, and still it seems like the same place. But I think it’s very important that the city keeps its own kind of spirit, and their own kind of feeling, because the people make the city. The city is a structure for people. So in the end, it’s very important that people still realize what kind of people are living here, because that makes the feeling of the city, it makes the heart of the city.

Me: And with that we’ll have a Supalife hopefully and everyone will be happy.

Gabriele: I hope so too.

for more information on EVOL & PISA73, go here.
Also: PISA73CTINK Book.