Falko One

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Anglais – Falko One
Once upon a Town


FALKO ONE’S ONCE UPON A TOWN PROJECT

Born during Apartheid in Cape Town, Falko One is an emblematic figure of street art. From 2015, he immersed himself in a project aiming to be hopeful to the inhabitants of rural areas:Once upon a Town.



From May to October 2015, Falko one crossed South Africa and painted magnificent colorful frescoes on houses located in rural and poor areas, as part of « Once upon a town » project. The main goal was to change the perception of what is precious to local people : « add paint and it no longer looks like a shabby house », words of the artist himself. The project, which was originally supposed to last until the end of 2015, continues because of its great success and requests from all kind of cities. The artist remains however on his initial project to paint only in rural and poor districts of South Africa.


A benchmark in the world of street art

Born in Cape Town in South Africa, Falco one started street art in 1988 while painting on the wall of his high school. Througout of his carrer, he was very influenced by the artistic changes of his time in music (especially with the emergence of the hip-hop movement at the beginning of it). In 2006, he participed in the WhiteForGold, a graffiti competition during which he represented South Africa. Become a benchmark in street art because of his victory, he became an ambassador for Adidas in the « Originals » sector and participed in MTB, Puma and Levi’s advertising campaigns, as well as in Nelson Mandela’s 79th birthday. He also takes part in prestigious projects, such as the creation of works for fifty years of the United Nations and the Olympic Games in Athens.



A committed artist

He obviously draws on his South African roots to feed his art, but also in American and European culture. The artist says he prefers to « read and look at things unrelated to art », in order to form his own vision of things and not to stay indefinitly close to the agreed ideas. He also said that he did not like being reminded that he came from one of the poorest districts in his hometown, because he did not consider that an origin was sufficient to determine an artist.

He does not appreciate the social conventions dictating that artists of color be more committed than white artists, especially on the issue of racism.


All of the graffiti produced as part of the "Once upon a town" project depicts elephants. This is due to a misfortune happened to the artist when he painted in Senegal, where he represented chickens, which is frowned upon there because they are used in witchcraft. He then decided to paint elephants because they are, according to him, bearers of hope, and that they are universal.

These elephants are said to be the starting point for a hypothetical conversation between strangers and locals.

This project deliberately criticizes some media, dictating to artists to paint "committed stuff" (in Falko One's own words) to make the buzz without dwelling on the true value of things and advocating the politically correct. We do not know what about other media, but the editorial staff is unanimous!

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