We Come At Night: Interview Esher

Hoe kan graffiti zichzelf opnieuw uitvinden, blijven verbazen en grenzen verleggen? Het innovatieve experiment We Come At Night poogt hierop het antwoord te hebben.

23 internationale artiesten werden uitgenodigd in 1 nacht het slaapstadje Wupertal in Duitsland volledig te voorzien van hun eigen kunstwerken. Met namen als Blu, Os Gemeos, ZEVS en Akim One weet je wel dat het goed zit.

Wij hadden een interview met de creatieve mastermind, Frank (Esher) Lämmer.

Hi Esher, thanks for the interview!
Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself?
I am 34 year old, based in Berlin and I do graphic design (print & web). Graffiti was my first love and I am still stuck to that. Some outdated stuff can be found here.

Can you give a short summary about the book We Come At Night?
The book documents Red Bull’s Outsides project which happened 2006 in Wuppertal, Germany. 23 international artists where invited to do graffiti & street art they way they like it. It features great photos by Martha Cooper, Jürgen Grosse and other photographers. It includes opinions by Jörg Rohleder, Franz Liebl and others. Each book contains a DVD with the 30 minutes documentation by Volker Sattel: “We Come at Night”

How did the We Come At Night project come about?
This is special: Red Bull came with the idea, inspired by the work of the participating artists. Normally this works the other way around, someone’s comes to the company with such an idea. Red Bull build a loose frame to let everything happen.

Why Wuppertal?
Not to big, so one could get some attention. Not to small, urban and a little bit fucked up on some corners.

Much negative is said about corporate brands trying to get into the street art scene. In which way is this collaboration with Red Bull different?
There was more freedom to do what ever one want. The presence of the brand is very very decent. In the beginning it was all a mystery there was no one visible who enabled all this.

The project includes some of the biggest street artists around. On which criteria have the chosen street artists been selected?
The curators R.K.D.U. and Thomas Wiczak contacted the artists. Each artist had to come up with an idea in advance. Some didn’t want to join the project and some of the ideas where to similar. There where meetings in advance to prepare the project as best as possible.

What were the advantages or limitations of the project that were initially given to the artists?
Unlike in every other project money was not a problem. From my point of view there is an interesting battle about attention. Normally the most controversial work gets the props. This time the frame and the role of the sponsor was discussed the most. Take this interview for example: Highlight the words “Red Bull”

JR used photographs of Wuppertal inhabitants and displayed these on huge banners across town. An interesting way of interacting with the small village. Which artist do you reckon understood the potential of the project the most?
I can not judge and do not have a favourite. I like them all in their ways. For me it is funny how the works come out at the end: JR produced a huge big wave, the night action on one of the main roads was more a performance than simply hanging a few photos. On the other side is Dr. Innocent who went out alone at night doing his work in backyards. JR has 6 pages. Dr. Innocent has 12 pages.

The project sparked quite a lot of attention in the local german media as seen here. Was this the initial goal of the project?
Fame, glory and getting noticed is always a goal, isn’t it? But don’t forget that Street Art is a media itself. You reach a lot of people by just doing something on the road. Well, especially the local press went crazy about it. But we had an idea of how we wanted the works to be presented. That’s why we did the website, the book and the DVD.

It’s been a couple of months ago now. How do you look back on the whole project?
Street Artists are strange: They do really big works without nearly anything. You give them access to nearly everything, they do a little bit bigger work. The book was quite a bit of work. Most of it: communicating with all the different parties.

We Come At Night can be purchased here on the website of Die Gestalten