WEBVTT

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In 2012, when I painted

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the minaret of Jara Mosque in my hometown
of Gabes, in the south of Tunisia,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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to do something on it.

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

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neither a sketch
or what I was going to write.

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In every work that I create,
I write messages

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with my style of calligraphy,

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a mix of calligraphy and graffiti.

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I use quotes or poetry.

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For the minaret, I thought that
the most relevant message

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

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so I picked this verse:

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

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

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

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

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

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and how it made them proud
to see the minaret

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getting so much attention

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from international press
all around the world.

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For the imam, it was not just a painting.
It was really deeper than that.

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

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and attract people to
this forgotten place of Tunisia.

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The universality of the message,

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the political context
of Tunisia at this time,

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

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were not insignificant.

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It reunited the community.

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Bringing people, future generations,
together through Arabic calligraphy

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is what I do.

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Writing message is
the essence of my artwork.

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What is funny actually is that
even Arabic-speaking people

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

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

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

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

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Arabic script speaks to anyone, I believe:

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

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and then when you get the meaning,
you feel connected to it.

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I always make sure to write messages

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that are relevant the place
where I'm printing,

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but messages that have
a universal dimension,

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so anybody around the world
can connect to it.

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I was born and raised in France, in Paris,

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

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Today I only write messages in Arabic.

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One of the reasons
this is so important to me

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

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In Rio de Janeiro, I translated
this Portuguese poem

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from Gabriela Tôrres Barbosa,

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

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and then I printed it on the rooftop.

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

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

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

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In South Africa, in Cape Town,

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the local community of Philippi