interview with vidam | graffiti & street stories | the weird 12/08/2013
Hello Vidam, thanks so much for taking the time to
answer some questions for readers. I'm truly honored for having the chance to talk with you!
You are
very inspiring person, your art is something that really
sets you apart from many artists out there, and I find it really
unique, wonderful, surreal, bizarre, just... Amazing!
Please start by telling us something about yourself and how
you got into art?
My name is Vidam, that is a Hungarian word for joyful or just happy.
That's also my artwork: A bright and vibrant style with bold
characters and funny and sometimes thoughtful messages. I always
loved it to draw and paint and after my studies of graphic design I
founded a design studio called Peach beach with my mate Look.
Alongside this daily routine in our studio I still love to paint
artworks whether on canvases for exhibitions or on walls. My second
intensive passion is music! I love to produce electronic dance
music. This is a perfect alternation to my life as an urban artist
and illustrator.
Q: Who was the most inspiring person for you at the
beginning? Do you have any influences?
A: In the beginning when I started to intensify my drawing in my
teenage years, I loved to read Franco-Belgian comics like Spirou &
Fantasio, Tintin, Asterix etc. I'd say that my idol from this period
is definitively André Franquin, who's special style influenced me
very strongly.
Q: How would you describe your style? Would you say that your
style describes your personality?
A: I don't know, I don't think so. My style looks very funny
and happy mostly, but as a person don't feel like that every time, I
guess it's like a compensation.
Q: I really love the
surrealistic note in almost every design, what's the usual
inspiration?
A: There's no rule for thins. Ideas come to mind in thousand different ways. Sometimes you sit on the toilet and
suddenly you have an idea by accident and sometimes you think about
a topic for hours to find a nice solution.
Q: Being a graffiti artist must be a real joy and a great
creative journey. How long have you been into graffiti?
A: Not that long! I just discovered real graffiti very late. I was
more into classic illustration. I never did styles on the wall like
writing my name and I guess I'll never do so. I prefer to paint
funny characters or bizarre situations. When I came to Berlin almost
10 years ago I got in contact with spray cans and then I
discovered the wall as a new media to paint on. I love it because it
allows you to paint on incredibly large scales.
- Your first love?
My very first love is good old paper with black ink on it. But
nowadays I prefer canvas.
Q: How has your style developed over the years of
experience?
A: I always love to experiment with different techniques. I
absolutely still can't say: This is my favorite media or tool or
style or technique. I love bold outlines, I love illustrations
without any outlines, I also really love typography and graphic
design influenced illustration. It's always a balance between all
these fields and I never know what I really like most. Sometimes
that's really annoying!
Being part of the Weird Gang must be so
cool...
Q: Would you say that the team work helps you to grow
artistically?
A: Absolutely! It's always super interesting to see how the others
work and I always learn from it. We enrich each other with our
different views on things and reality. When we brainstorm together,
weird and crazy ideas occur, it's just pure fun and a personal gain
for me and I guess also for the others.
Q: What's the funniest part in being part of "The Weird"?
Share some "weird" experiences with us.
A: The funniest thing is to sit together, have some or more beers
and just talk funny shit. We have all the same environment and
similar backgrounds, so there are plenty of topics to talk about. It
never gets boring! Further I really love it to go partying with the
others after a successful day of mural making. We definitively had
some haunting evenings and nights together!
Q: When it comes to being unique and creative... Many people
are constantly trying to grow by actually copying someone and then
trying to make something "different". How you "handle" the copy
cats, the crazy comments, would you take that as a compliment or you
get mad at times?
A: For me it's no problem if young people who start with
illustration or graffiti begin with copying, that's completely
normal in the early stages. If I see artworks that are obviously
inspired by my stuff, I take it first as a compliment. Normally
everybody who really tries it hard to achieve something in the
business of urban art or illustration or something else, realizes
one day that he has to invent something special and unique to stand
out of the crowd. And I don't really care about crazy comments. I
use social inter web to show my art to the public, but there are
always people who don't like your stuff.
Q: To be a creative person, must be a blast. You work on
many mediums, graffiti, digital art/print, music,
eh what else? Do you have any favorite medium?
A: In the very beginning I started with my passion for music. With
13 years I bought myself two turntables and a mixer for DJing. I
loved it, but later I couldn't afford any more vinyl. I stopped
vinyl-DJing and started to work on my second passion, drawing. Now
this is my main focus definitively, but I always wanted to go back
to music and so I started again with music production. I absolutely
love it and I practice every day to become better in this creative
field. It's a complete different thing to illustration, but for me
it's even more powerful! If you listen to a great piece of music,
that is much more intensive to your feelings than looking on a
painting.
Q: What medium gives you the biggest adrenalin?
A: Music is the best! It makes you feel better, makes you dancing,
brings you earworms for months. The impact of sound is just amazing,
to comparison to any painted medium.
Q: Do you take your music seriously? Where you see yourself
in 10 years?
A: The problem is that I can't concentrate that much on my
productions like I wish I could. The good thing is that my passion
for illustration became a job and it works quite well. I love to do
it and so there's hardly time for anything else. I produce music
very often on the fly, when I'm traveling for graffiti jobs or
exhibitions. There's a lot of time in between the actions in hotels
or on airports. I usually use this moments for working on some
melodies. I love it that I don't need anything for
music production except my laptop. So I don't know where's the
musical career in 10 years, I don't plan this side of my creativity
because it's just my hobby.
Q: Dj-ing is your second passion? What was the most
interesting experience with a female fan? Do you feel recognized by
the fans out there for your art - no matter the medium?
A: Haha, that's a funny question! One time I really freaked out
because two girls entered the DJ-Booth and started diggin by
themselves on my laptop for music, while I just looked away for a
second. It was on a big party and I really felt scared in that
moment that they could stop the music by accident! I don't really
feel recognized by fans for my music, I guess its just not good
enough or something, and I don't push it enough maybe. But I guess
some people like my artworks, because I only got real feedback for
this, not the music.
Q: I love your experimental spirit in the music world. Do
you find music as a cure, an endless salvation from all of the
negative aspects of life?
A: Definitively! I love music in general and very different genres
in special! When I'm DJing I always try to mix different styles
together because I don't really like DJ sets where only one style is
used for hours. All the different approaches can tell us a perfect
story over the evening with climaxes and slower, more calm parts.
And there's music available for every personal feeling, so in my
opinion there should be music around me all the time, and mainly it
is.
Q: Do you feel overwhelmed by the (popular culture)
mainstream? If so, what's the dumbest thing that drives you nuts?
A: I hate casting shows in TV, because they don't have to do anything
in common with good and real music, this is the worst shit ever
broadcasted. Of course I never ever watch them, but the fact that
there are people who want to participate and other people who watch
it, drives me crazy, but only a little bit, because at the end I
don't care.
Q: Are there any inspiring musicians that you would love to
collaborate with?
A: Yes there are plenty! I can't tell you who I really like most but
right now one of my favorites are Modeselektor/Moderat, Slow Magic,
Ikonika and Marek Hemmann. These people are completely different in
their styles, but that's what's interesting about.
Q: Would you say that your creative mind never let you fall
a sleep? haha!
A: Sometimes that's right, yes. I think a lot about what to do next
and a lot of times it drives me crazy, there are so many ideas, so
many different approaches that finally I don't do anything because I
can't decide what to do.
Q: As an artist, what are some of your greatest challenges
or obstacles you face?
A: To stay true to your art on the one hand and to make a living
with it on the other hand. It's often a challenging balance between
commercial sellout for commissioned jobs and individual style and
ideas you want to reserve for your "real" art.
Q: What would you say that is the biggest mistake when it
comes art progress?
A: Mistakes are always a good thing, because you learn from it.
PEACHBEACH & DXTR In Amsterdam - Collaboration
Q: What's your best motivational lesson for the
new artists?
A: I worked for three years at a Mc Donald's grill for my income. In
this time I realized that I have to practice harder in illustration,
because I absolutely wanted to quit this job! I'd suggest everybody
to work in a shitty job for some years to realize that you have to
practice hard to make your dream of an artist-life come true. I'm
still trying!
Graffiti Fans, Check out Her von
Bias aka HRVB - "The Weird"
"THE WEIRD" is one of the craziest graffiti gangs all around, being
in this crew is at once an honor and great fun. And the best: they
are just getting started. The Weird are:
CONE (Saarbrücken/Munich//GER) - www.conestruction.blogspot.com
DXTR (Düsseldorf//GER) - www.flickr.com/photos/dxtrs
FRAU ISA (Vienna//A) - www.frau-isa.com
HERR VON BIAS (Berlin//Ger) - www.herr-bias.de
NERD & QBRK are LOW BROS (Hamburg/Berlin//GER) - www.lowbros.de/
NYCHOS (Vienna//A) - www.rabbiteyemovement.tumblr.com/
LOOK & VIDAM are PEACHBEACH (Berlin//GER) - www.peachbeach.de
ROOKIE (Dresden/Münster//GER) - www.liquidluck.de
You can contact Vidam at:
Attila Szamosi aka Vidam,PEACHBEACH
Fanningerstraße 3
10365 Berlin
attila@peachbeach.de /
www.peachbeach.de
Social Media Profiles:
facebook.com/PeachbeachBerlin /
behance.net/PEACHBEACH
flickr.com/photos/peachbeach /
twitter.com/peach_beach and http://soundcloud.com/vidam