Recently, French crew Monkey Bird and Mexican artist Said Dokins met in France, in the charming city of Bordeaux, for an extraordinary collaboration. They have amazed us with their common creation entitled ‘The Secret Message’.
About the mural
The 300m2 mural, created for #Correspondances and organized by Pole Magnetic Street Art Bordeaux, clearly sets us back in the ancient times. By associating their techniques, the artists created a relationship between geometry and text as a form of poetic knowledge.
On the one hand, we easily identify Monkey Bird‘s usual stencilled geometric animals. Here they are presented as guardians of knowledge surrounded by the ruins of an unfinished building.
On the other hand, Said Dokins uses his own calligraphy style and medieval letters to write texts that refer to the possibilities and limitations of philosophy and the importance of texts as a legacy of consciousness through time and thus deals with the idea of eternal return.
The mural allows us to reflect on our human condition, where awareness and knowledge are in a state of permanent construction and modification. Some of the texts that can be read on the wall are taken from the philosopher Walter Benjamin: “Knowledge comes only in lightning flashes. The text is the long roll of thunder that follows”, “Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text”.
About the artists:
Mexican artist Said Dokins is a master in what we can call calligraffiti, that is to say a practice combining inscriptions and graffiti. His creations are generally inspired by medieval and Japanese calligraphy. He studied Visual Arts and Philosophy at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), a background you can easily feel in all his creations. His work as an artist has been shown nationally and internationally.
Monkey Bird is a duo of French artists, who uses stencilled animals to deal with social issues. The bird is used to express the notions of freedom, escape but also wit while the monkey refers to the primitive condition of Man. Monkey Bird crew encourages men to find a balance between their material obsessions and their dreams of escape. Their works are highly inspired by stained-glass windows, illuminations, poetry as well as Japanese prints. Their striking graphic style can now be found in museums and galleries.
