0:00:03 > 0:00:06Graffiti can be many things.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08The ephemeral lasts.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11That's just so damn cute, isn't it?
0:00:12 > 0:00:15From the scandalous scrawling of Roman citizens
0:00:15 > 0:00:19to the radical graffiti of revolutionary Parisians.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24It can be scratched, written, even painted.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26But what does it mean?
0:00:27 > 0:00:29For tens of thousands of years,
0:00:29 > 0:00:33humans have been leaving their marks on walls.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37From caves to city streets,
0:00:37 > 0:00:42graffiti is something that seems to bubble up wherever humans go.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46It's an explosion of creativity.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50Graffiti surrounds us, but is it a blessing or is it a curse?
0:00:50 > 0:00:53When does vandalism become graffiti?
0:00:53 > 0:00:57When does graffiti become street art?
0:00:57 > 0:01:00And when does street art just become, well, art?
0:01:02 > 0:01:05In this film, I'll show how the best graffiti is
0:01:05 > 0:01:09shaping the world of art with its sheer vitality.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Graffiti is a state of mind, it's not a thing. It's not a product.
0:01:13 > 0:01:15And that graffiti can be political
0:01:15 > 0:01:20and even help us to come to terms with the past.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23It is really, genuinely moving.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27I'm Dr Richard Clay and this is my brief history of graffiti.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31It's underground art history.
0:01:40 > 0:01:46Is graffiti the artless scratching, scribbling and spraying of vandals?
0:01:50 > 0:01:52Or is it something much more interesting?
0:01:52 > 0:01:56For me, graffiti is almost always the latter.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05This is Berlin's Reichstag -
0:02:05 > 0:02:09it's the seat of the German parliament, but it's also a symbol.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14It stands for one of the most important events
0:02:14 > 0:02:17of the 20th century - the defeat of Nazism.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26After a devastating street battle in Berlin,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31the young men and women of the Red Army took the Reichstag.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42As the dust settled, they lay down their arms.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46And some began writing on the walls of the ruined building.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56I've been looking at marks left on walls all over the world.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03And these are probably the most moving of the marks that I've seen.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08Marks left by Soviet soldiers
0:03:08 > 0:03:11who survived the battle for the Reichstag.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24This graffiti is deeply moving -
0:03:24 > 0:03:28a list of friends calling themselves the Brandenburg Boys.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38The towns and cities they fought in
0:03:38 > 0:03:43on their gruelling march to victory on 2nd May 1945...
0:03:48 > 0:03:50..and a vengeful comment.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52"This is for Leningrad."
0:04:00 > 0:04:04I just can't get over the fact that it's all painted with charcoal
0:04:04 > 0:04:07from a burned-out building.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11It's painted with crayons used to mark maps,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13it's painted with chalk,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17it's painted with the tools that soldiers had to hand,
0:04:17 > 0:04:20I just can't believe it's survived.
0:04:29 > 0:04:35It is genuinely moving to be in this space,
0:04:35 > 0:04:36with these marks,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39left by these men and these women
0:04:39 > 0:04:44who fought for what turned out later
0:04:44 > 0:04:49to be freedoms in Europe and in Russia.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55It is really, genuinely, moving.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05This compulsion, this urge to leave a mark that says,
0:05:05 > 0:05:08"You need to know that I was here,"
0:05:08 > 0:05:11seems to be at the heart of this graffiti.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13Why?
0:05:15 > 0:05:18The clues might lie deep in our past.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I've travelled to Burgundy, France,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34to look for some of the earliest examples of graffiti.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47The cave system of Grottes d'Arcy was first occupied
0:05:47 > 0:05:49well over 30,000 years ago.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Generations of families who lived here also used these walls in
0:05:57 > 0:06:02the darkness of the cave system in ways that celebrate their humanity.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06A handprint.
0:06:07 > 0:06:08HE CHUCKLES
0:06:11 > 0:06:17It's not a print, it's a stencil, it's...a child's hand.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25This floor would have been lower.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33Could this have been a child reaching up?
0:06:35 > 0:06:41And then having paint blown onto their hand to leave
0:06:41 > 0:06:43their own personal mark.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49In this age before writing, the mark of the hand reveals an urge
0:06:49 > 0:06:56to put a lasting message on the wall saying, "Remember, I was here."
0:07:08 > 0:07:10But deeper into the cave,
0:07:10 > 0:07:15the walls also provide further clues as to the origins of graffiti.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27The people who lived here so long ago decided to paint
0:07:27 > 0:07:30even more thought-provoking symbols on the walls.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38There's a massive mammoth. It's incredible.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43And one in ochre and then another in a different medium entirely,
0:07:43 > 0:07:45in black.
0:07:45 > 0:07:46HE CHUCKLES
0:07:46 > 0:07:49It's extraordinary.
0:08:01 > 0:08:02It's incredible.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07There's almost movement in it.
0:08:09 > 0:08:15A real economy of line, really carefully considered.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18It's almost Picasso.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25This is art, and it's high quality.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37The painter has chosen the location of each of the paintings carefully.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The line drawings use bulges in the rock surface to create
0:08:40 > 0:08:43an impression of volume.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47They've animated the rock itself, it's absolutely incredible.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55I do love art that's best seen on your hands and knees!
0:08:56 > 0:09:01I can't believe I'm about to say this, but it's almost like IMAX art.
0:09:01 > 0:09:06You see it so close up, so in-your-face,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08if you're down on your knees.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12The mammoth starts to tower over you.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15Makes you feel...small.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24These paintings, beautiful records of people's engagement
0:09:24 > 0:09:28with the world around them, remind us of how much we hold
0:09:28 > 0:09:31in common with our ancestors.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35To create art on walls and leave a mark of our brief existence
0:09:35 > 0:09:40seems to be at the heart of this urge to make graffiti.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44But how did they create that haunting image of the hand?
0:09:47 > 0:09:52Street artist Xavier Prou lives a short distance from the cave system.
0:09:52 > 0:09:55I've dropped by his studio to delve deeper into the technique
0:09:55 > 0:09:57used to create the hand stencil.
0:09:59 > 0:10:05Today, we've been to some caves, amazing, absolutely amazing,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08300 metres into the mountainside.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13But there's a couple of spots where there'd be an animal,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16and then a hand.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20He's put their hand against the wall and somehow
0:10:20 > 0:10:25they've sprayed around it and take their hand away,
0:10:25 > 0:10:30and more than 30,000 years later, the mark remains.
0:10:30 > 0:10:31Incredible.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33It's absolutely extraordinary.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35Absolutely extraordinary.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36So, how?
0:10:37 > 0:10:41Amidst piles of spray cans, Xavier digs out the raw materials
0:10:41 > 0:10:45for Stone Age art. Scallop shells and red ochre.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56He wants to try using the Stone Age version of the spray can.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Blowing hard out across a tube immersed in the ochre paint,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07he can create a fine spray of colour.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21That's amazing.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25That's...that's it. You've got a Stone Age hand!
0:11:31 > 0:11:35We reproduce what people were doing before us.
0:11:35 > 0:11:37But we refined it.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42The spray can is portable, it's quick, it's precise.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44Yeah.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47It opens up a whole new world of opportunities
0:11:47 > 0:11:50but, fundamentally, it's the same.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52It's absolutely the same.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Whether using a spray can or a scallop shell,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00this urge to mark the walls around us seems to be part of what makes us human.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12As more sophisticated civilisations like the Roman Empire appeared,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15our lives became more complicated,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17and so too did our graffiti.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Are ancient cities really all that different to modern cities?
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Thousands of voices, clamouring for attention.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30But the spoken word, it comes and goes - the written word,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32that lasts longer.
0:12:32 > 0:12:38Write those words on walls, and walls become arenas of conflict.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45In the Roman world, graffiti wasn't just about "I was here" -
0:12:45 > 0:12:49it would also be used to let the world know whose side you were on.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Researchers like Jorge Cardoso are revealing the images
0:12:58 > 0:13:02and the messages scratched into the walls of the old Roman city of Lyon.
0:13:05 > 0:13:06So, Jorge, what is it?
0:13:06 > 0:13:11The image is very, very simple.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14You can see it here, it's the helmet of a gladiator.
0:13:14 > 0:13:15Oh, yes!
0:13:17 > 0:13:21And he's holding a sword, a gladius. OK?
0:13:22 > 0:13:27If you get back here, you can see his shield.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31This gladiator was found scratched into the walls
0:13:31 > 0:13:34of a large third century town house.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Why this gladiator was such a big deal
0:13:36 > 0:13:39that somebody would want to scratch this into a wall?
0:13:39 > 0:13:42I think he was a kind of supporter.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46Is this guy particularly special and worth supporting?
0:13:46 > 0:13:49There's a clue here. You can see it.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52It's a double X with a line for one.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59The Roman numerals XXI - 21 -
0:13:59 > 0:14:03almost certainly represent the gladiator's number of kills.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09It appears to be the work of a superfan, in their own home.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12You've got people who are prepared to scratch into their own walls
0:14:12 > 0:14:16images of a gladiator because he has killed 21 people.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18There must be other fans.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20At the arena, I'm getting a sense of a kind
0:14:20 > 0:14:24of football hooliganism of the ancient world.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28It shows that people were really interested in games
0:14:28 > 0:14:30and supported gladiators.
0:14:33 > 0:14:37Roman graffiti wasn't always about showing your allegiances
0:14:37 > 0:14:40in relation to the arena's dark world.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43It can also give us a tantalising glimpse
0:14:43 > 0:14:46of the conflicts within ancient society.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50This wall painting from 59 AD in Pompeii
0:14:50 > 0:14:55memorialises a deadly street battle between locals and visitors
0:14:55 > 0:14:59from the nearby cities of Capua and Nuceria.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Lyon University professor Pascal Arnaud
0:15:02 > 0:15:07is using graffiti to reveal the deep conflicts in Roman society
0:15:07 > 0:15:09that gave rise to shocking events like this.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12This is Pompeii's amphitheatre.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17These are not gladiators, these are people from the audience
0:15:17 > 0:15:20who have started fighting each other.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Instead of just watching the violent spectacle in the arena,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27the Pompeiians launched a savage attack
0:15:27 > 0:15:29on the visiting team and its fans.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33And people have tried to escape
0:15:33 > 0:15:38and the Pompeiians are now killing them in the street,
0:15:38 > 0:15:42using any kind of weapon they could find.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47But it's the written graffiti from elsewhere in Pompeii that lays bare
0:15:47 > 0:15:53the raw hatred between rival cities like Pompeii, Capua and Nuceria.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56In the graffito, we can see
0:15:56 > 0:15:59that some among the Pompeiians say
0:15:59 > 0:16:03that one victory allowed people from Capua
0:16:03 > 0:16:05to perish altogether
0:16:05 > 0:16:07with the people of Nuceria.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12People from Pompeii were not ashamed at all.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18This was their day of glory, to have killed the hated neighbours.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Other graffiti from Pompeii tells us the opposing side of the story.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30A sympathiser with the victims from Nuceria hopes
0:16:30 > 0:16:35the Pompeiians will get speared on a meat hook for their crimes.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39The graffiti reveals in gory detail
0:16:39 > 0:16:42the vicious rivalries between Roman communities.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49This is a very frightening kind of graffiti war.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52That was the actual life and relationship
0:16:52 > 0:16:55between neighbouring cities.
0:16:55 > 0:17:00These struggles in the arena, that's an afternoon's entertainment, right?
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Whereas the writing on the wall outlasts the entertainment
0:17:05 > 0:17:09and memorialises identity around violence and struggle
0:17:09 > 0:17:10in-between matches.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14And fortunately, thanks to Vesuvius only,
0:17:14 > 0:17:19we have preserved that aspect of municipal pride.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25The Roman world shows that graffiti can be
0:17:25 > 0:17:28political as well as personnel.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Writing on walls is clearly
0:17:31 > 0:17:34not always a meaningless act of vandalism.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40And here, in present-day Lyon, 2,000 years later,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44wars on walls are still raging.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49If there's one thing that I've learnt in Lyon it's that graffiti
0:17:49 > 0:17:53is open to interpretation. But then I kind of always knew that.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56This kind of thing, that's more unusual.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01Graffiti that is entirely unambiguous - "God is love"
0:18:01 > 0:18:04or "Christ the redemptor".
0:18:04 > 0:18:08Evangelising Christian graffiti isn't something you see
0:18:08 > 0:18:10every day in Britain nowadays, that's for sure.
0:18:13 > 0:18:18But it seems to me that in Lyon a struggle is still continuing
0:18:18 > 0:18:23between different groups of society, different communities of belief.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Here we've got a stencil artist.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31He's gone to the trouble of creating this piece
0:18:31 > 0:18:34that seems to be so pro-Catholic,
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and somebody has actually bothered to chip out the face.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42This is an ongoing war of the walls.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44It's a war of words.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51Graffiti can reveal power struggles between communities.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Walls often become sites of conflict.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00And 18 centuries after the height of the Roman Empire,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03graffiti would ultimately become a revolutionary weapon.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09Paris, France.
0:19:09 > 0:19:11From the 1790s onwards,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15this was a city awash with radical political ideas
0:19:15 > 0:19:19and haunted by the spectre of revolutionary violence.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23But even from such a turbulent period,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28graffiti still survives in dark, secret places.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43This place...
0:19:45 > 0:19:50..has millions...and millions of people in it.
0:19:55 > 0:20:01This is where the dead of the city's graveyards were moved.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09This is indeed...
0:20:09 > 0:20:11the empire of death.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21In the late 18th and 19th centuries, overflowing Parisian cemeteries
0:20:21 > 0:20:24were emptied into this tunnel network.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Originally a quarry for the limestone that built Paris,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32it soon became an enormous tomb.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Now, that is astonishing.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Now you really get a sense of how far underground we are.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42There are shafts like these sunk across Paris.
0:20:42 > 0:20:43In the 19th century,
0:20:43 > 0:20:47when the graveyards were cleared above ground,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50the bones were decanted down here.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54They used to have ropes down these shafts to pull them round
0:20:54 > 0:20:57so that the bones wouldn't get jammed in here.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05While above ground 18th- and 19th-century graffiti has been lost,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08down here it should have survived the centuries.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15The question is, can I find some in the 230km of tunnels?
0:21:17 > 0:21:18It's underground art history.
0:21:21 > 0:21:23I've found the underground.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25I'm just looking for the art.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33First, I find a name - Pierre.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36He engraved this in 1779.
0:21:37 > 0:21:43Could he possibly have imagined that more than 200 years later,
0:21:43 > 0:21:47people would be standing here reading it?
0:21:47 > 0:21:51It's as if he wanted to be remembered,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54a kind of stab at immortality.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57It's amazingly powerful.
0:22:00 > 0:22:0314 years after Pierre had left his name on the wall,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05the French king lost his head.
0:22:07 > 0:22:09Decades of revolution were under way.
0:22:12 > 0:22:13And 1881.
0:22:13 > 0:22:161841.
0:22:17 > 0:22:18Carved into the stone.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24There are traces being left, you know, this graffiti that survives
0:22:24 > 0:22:27down here, these signatures, these...you know, a boat!
0:22:27 > 0:22:30Who knows when that was put there?
0:22:30 > 0:22:34This stuff would have been happening upstairs too,
0:22:34 > 0:22:38but we lose all of that, the modern city becomes clean.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44We lose all of that. And it's preserved downstairs.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48I don't know, caves...catacombs,
0:22:48 > 0:22:53they're like museums of the ephemeral -
0:22:53 > 0:22:57the stuff that we would otherwise have lost, buried.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05In 1871, France was still in turmoil.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Having just lost a war, a new moderate republic took shape.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13But radical Parisian workers rebelled,
0:23:13 > 0:23:17forming a commune that took control of the city.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22Soon, revolution gave way to deeper violent conflict.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39If we go deeper into these tunnels, this vast network of tunnels,
0:23:39 > 0:23:44we find graffiti left by revolutionaries
0:23:44 > 0:23:47of the Commune of the 1870s,
0:23:47 > 0:23:53who made their last stand against their enemies underground.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05The graffiti left by the Communard revolutionaries adorns
0:24:05 > 0:24:07the deepest recesses of the catacombs.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Statements like "the Republic or death"
0:24:11 > 0:24:15inspired generations of revolutionaries.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21But while they were scrawling political slogans on walls underground,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25the Communards were exploiting new technologies upstairs.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32They would take the idea of writing on walls and industrialise it.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Invented in the 1790s,
0:24:40 > 0:24:43lithography allowed revolutionaries
0:24:43 > 0:24:45to create one political message on stone
0:24:45 > 0:24:48and then print thousands of copies.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52These could then be stuck up on the walls overnight.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57It was an incredibly powerful new tool.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Stephane Guillot the foremost lithographer in Paris,
0:25:01 > 0:25:02has agreed to show me
0:25:02 > 0:25:05the secret of this revolutionary process.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09In the early 19th century, it completely changed
0:25:09 > 0:25:14not just visual culture but the culture of our streets.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Suddenly, it was possible to produce images of the highest quality
0:25:18 > 0:25:23and produce thousands and thousands of them, but they're so cheap.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26You can stick them on the walls of the city.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29You can have a political point of view
0:25:29 > 0:25:33and plaster the city with these images.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Imagine how shockingly new it must have been.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Inspired by that solitary 30,000-year-old hand,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45I'm going to create a political poster
0:25:45 > 0:25:48that resonates in today's climate -
0:25:48 > 0:25:53a call for "liberte d'expression", freedom of speech.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56Ah, thank you. That's very considerate.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59I'm almost there, I'm almost a lithographer.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05- Can I be your apprentice?- Sure. If you have money.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08I'm a bit short of money.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12So, this is Arabic gum.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16It's very easy to put your hand in the Arabic gum
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and then print your hand on the stone.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24Right, two seconds in there, two seconds on there.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Lithography is the creation of an image on stone
0:26:28 > 0:26:30by etching the surface with acid.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35This etched stone is then inked up and pressed onto paper.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39First, my handprint in Arabic gum
0:26:39 > 0:26:41creates the centrepiece of the poster.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50Then the word "liberte" is drawn using a greasy black ink.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56As an art historian, I'm usually called upon to look
0:26:56 > 0:26:58and not participate.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02But as Stephane's temporary apprentice, I've been put to work.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08We build up the image using wax pencils and ink.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18Next, Stephane adds a wash of acid over our picture.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24You see how white it is? You see the reaction?
0:27:24 > 0:27:26Absolutely, it's immediate.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32The gum, greasy ink and wax pencils protect our picture from the acid.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36It's this protected area, our image,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40that will carry the ink onto the paper in the press.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42Now...
0:27:42 > 0:27:43the stone is prepared.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46We have to remove, totally move,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48the acid from the stone.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52Then we will leave the stone for two hours
0:27:52 > 0:27:54and we will start the printing process.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57- So it's the waiting game?- Yes.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01As we wait for the chemical changes to take effect,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03it's time to choose the colours.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05So we will use this...
0:28:05 > 0:28:07This is a primary blue.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Almost...cold blue.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11Oh, beautiful blue.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18That's deep blue. That is a good blue.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Yves Klein, eat your heart out.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23- It's Stephane bleu.- Yeah.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26C'est beaucoup mieux.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28Revolutionary red.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33There couldn't be any other choice for a poster to celebrate liberty.
0:28:45 > 0:28:51A Swiss visitor to Paris in 1817 said that the walls were screaming
0:28:51 > 0:28:55because of all the lithographs that were all over the walls.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01In 1871, the Communards' witty and satirical messages
0:29:01 > 0:29:05flooded the streets, grabbing the attention of the public.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09In one afternoon, a printer on a press like Stephane's,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12could produce well over 1,000 posters.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33Stephane's lithographic press is over a century old,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36but in his expert hands, it can still apply a pressure
0:29:36 > 0:29:41of 2,000 pounds per square inch to create each copy.
0:29:50 > 0:29:52It's like the Trois Glorieuses,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55the three glorious days of revolution in 1830.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Beautiful days. Beautiful blue skies.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02And the flag of the alarm.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04I love it, I absolutely love it.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06Texture.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08And, you know, the spray.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10It's really rich textures.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15The revolution didn't end well for the Communards.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18They failed to dislodge the government
0:30:18 > 0:30:21and they were butchered in their thousands.
0:30:21 > 0:30:26Since the arrival of lithography, posters created such controversy
0:30:26 > 0:30:29that successive governments turned to censorship.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Those ubiquitous "defense d'afficher"
0:30:32 > 0:30:37or "post no bills" signs, still visible on so many walls in France,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41have their origins back in 1881.
0:30:41 > 0:30:48Mass-produced posters and graffiti had become very dangerous indeed.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52As the 19th century progressed,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55increasingly powerful print technologies
0:30:55 > 0:30:59started to be put to work, serving a very modern master...
0:31:00 > 0:31:02..advertising.
0:31:07 > 0:31:13Cities like New York, probably the most image-stuffed place on earth,
0:31:13 > 0:31:17saw the madmen of advertising plaster commercial imagery
0:31:17 > 0:31:20across every available blank space.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Lithography in the early 19th century changes everything.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30Suddenly imagery becomes part of the vocabulary
0:31:30 > 0:31:32of commercial advertising.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Images layered over images layered over images on the street.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39In the 20th century, we end up with posters
0:31:39 > 0:31:42that are the size of buildings, multistorey images.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47And in the late 20th century, this kind of circus,
0:31:47 > 0:31:52this republic of commercial signs, it's all-encompassing,
0:31:52 > 0:31:56and yet still graffiti finds its place
0:31:56 > 0:32:01in the nooks and the crannies in this forest of symbols.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Cities changed. Walls became covered in advertising.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14As the 20th-century rolled on and urban areas sprawled,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17some inhabitants of the city made their mark
0:32:17 > 0:32:19in the gaps between the ads.
0:32:26 > 0:32:31This new graffiti that hit the urban sprawl of '60s and '70s America
0:32:31 > 0:32:33created a moral panic.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35SIRENS WAIL
0:32:38 > 0:32:41To those in power, it was symbolic of decay.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45For them it was barbaric, it was vandalism.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50And it harnessed a new technology -
0:32:50 > 0:32:54the paint spray can, invented in 1949.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00This new kind of graffiti would eventually spread
0:33:00 > 0:33:04across the globe and energise the world of art.
0:33:06 > 0:33:07You know what?
0:33:07 > 0:33:10We're kidding ourselves if we don't think
0:33:10 > 0:33:14that graffiti is implicitly, if not explicitly, political.
0:33:14 > 0:33:20Every blank wall tells us that this space is under control.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22This is why the authorities in New York City were
0:33:22 > 0:33:27so obsessed with the explosion of the throw-ups and of tags
0:33:27 > 0:33:31that emerged in the '70s and in the '80s,
0:33:31 > 0:33:32with the birth of stencil art.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36It is political, but on the other hand,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39if somebody decides to tag the side of my house,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41I'm going to want to break their legs.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52Born in Philadelphia in the 1960s, modern graffiti rapidly spread
0:33:52 > 0:33:55through the boroughs of New York City.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00The Big Apple of the '70s was near bankrupt,
0:34:00 > 0:34:04crime rates soared and garbage filled the street.
0:34:05 > 0:34:10In this brutal environment, a young Brooklynite called Lee
0:34:10 > 0:34:13made a name for himself as a graffiti king.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20In his Brooklyn studio, he's still painting, to great acclaim.
0:34:21 > 0:34:24This is the great day in Harlem in that famous photograph.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27But this is the great rush hour in the Bronx.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29And that's why it's called Benchmark.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Because it's taken at the bench, 149th Street, Grand Concourse,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36which was one of the main stables where we would come
0:34:36 > 0:34:41to talk about all our works and, you know, work out our quirks
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and all kinds of stuff, you know, and collaborations.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48The young Lee was surrounded by a like-minded peer group.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52They provided support and were a sounding board
0:34:52 > 0:34:55for the new, radical ideas that defined New York graffiti.
0:34:55 > 0:35:00You know, it was a very innocent, honest movement.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04And, you know, we never thought it was going to last for so long.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07That's what's represented in the bubbles.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10The very subtleness of bubbles, you see them, you watch them,
0:35:10 > 0:35:13and then they just go, "Pop!" They're gone.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19Lee made a name for himself creating increasingly audacious pieces
0:35:19 > 0:35:22on the subway trains of New York.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29- You're famous for having painted a whole train.- Mm.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32That's a totally different league of painting.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36In 1975 I was already thinking of the concept of creating something
0:35:36 > 0:35:43so grand and out of scale that it would be talked about for,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46you know, decades later.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48Lee and his crew treated the painting of subway cars
0:35:48 > 0:35:51like a quasi-military operation.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56Doing those cars in the yards, there was no room for error,
0:35:56 > 0:35:57there was no time, there was
0:35:57 > 0:36:00a very small window of time to create something
0:36:00 > 0:36:06and you had it pretty much all pre-planned beforehand,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10so that you could at least have a striking chance to create,
0:36:10 > 0:36:14finish and successfully launch your piece.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18Needless to say, with work like this, Lee and others
0:36:18 > 0:36:21got noticed by the gatekeepers of the mainstream art world.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29The man who helped Lee into the gallery was Jeffrey Deitch,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33until recently, director at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39Lee was in good company.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Deitch was also instrumental in the careers of pop art giants
0:36:42 > 0:36:46like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Back in...sort of the late '70s, you were part of
0:36:50 > 0:36:54the art world and you saw this stuff and thought,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57"This isn't just vandalism, this is art."
0:36:57 > 0:37:01You descended into the subway and it was this astonishing world.
0:37:01 > 0:37:04For some people it was like descending into hell...
0:37:04 > 0:37:05THEY LAUGH
0:37:05 > 0:37:08..others, it was like an artistic heaven.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11The conventional sense of order
0:37:11 > 0:37:15in New York City had just dissipated,
0:37:15 > 0:37:22and the subway belonged to the kids, and so the trains
0:37:22 > 0:37:26were covered with amazing wildstyle graffiti on the exterior.
0:37:26 > 0:37:34The interior was this maze of tags, all kinds.
0:37:34 > 0:37:39I found it remarkable, so my circle of friends,
0:37:39 > 0:37:42we would go down into the subway just to see this,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44just to experience it.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48And just take a ride, it wasn't important where we went,
0:37:48 > 0:37:50we just wanted to see what was on the trains.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56For Deitch, the best subway art was truly exciting,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01and needed to be taken seriously. But not everybody was convinced.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03There was some criticism.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07People said, "Street art belongs on the street.
0:38:07 > 0:38:13"Aren't you distorting what this art is about by putting it in a museum?"
0:38:13 > 0:38:16And my response is, "Every serious artist I know,
0:38:16 > 0:38:17"with a few exceptions,
0:38:17 > 0:38:21"they want their work ultimately to be in a museum."
0:38:22 > 0:38:24They believe in what they're doing,
0:38:24 > 0:38:28they want to be part of the history of visual culture.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32There's not a sub-category of art called street art,
0:38:32 > 0:38:33and then there's real art.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37The best of the art that emerges on the streets
0:38:37 > 0:38:40is absolutely real art. And the best of it
0:38:40 > 0:38:45is as good as the contemporary art
0:38:45 > 0:38:48that begins in the galleries.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Lee's graffiti crew were among Deitch's first proteges
0:38:51 > 0:38:54from the world of street art.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57I wanted to understand what drove a man like Lee from the thrill
0:38:57 > 0:39:02and the notoriety of the street into the relative quiet of the gallery.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06Was part of the move into the galleries to find a space
0:39:06 > 0:39:12- where your work would survive?- Mmm. Out here, everything changes.
0:39:12 > 0:39:18Architecture changes over time, attitudes change all the time.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21The work on canvas is done and it's preserved, it is
0:39:21 > 0:39:25that arrested moment in that time, and it's there forever.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30Lee's paintings are sought-after.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34Recently, Eric Clapton paid 120,000 for some of his work.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44But Lee continues to draw inspiration from his roots.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49In this image, he deconstructs wildstyle graffiti.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53I felt that wildstyle lettering, the way they were configured
0:39:53 > 0:39:57and sculpted in a two-dimensional way to painting, were actually,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01in real life, three-dimensional windows into our lives.
0:40:02 > 0:40:05The fact that it was unlegible to the average person didn't mean
0:40:05 > 0:40:11that we didn't know exactly the dance that those letters were having.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14So I wanted to revisit that in a fun way.
0:40:14 > 0:40:20It's more inviting for me, as a challenge, to take two Es
0:40:20 > 0:40:22and interlock them into each other,
0:40:22 > 0:40:24it's like two twins almost phasing each other out.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27But they have to coincide, because if not,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29they would just self-destruct,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and the name would just be "To Oblivion."
0:40:32 > 0:40:35Lee's painting is infused with the energy of his best work
0:40:35 > 0:40:40from the '70s and '80s, but given time and money, he's moved on.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44Yes, it is art, but it hasn't turned its back on the street.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54More than 40 years after Lee painted his whole train,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58graffiti artists like Brooklyn's Rusk are still at it.
0:41:02 > 0:41:04Rusk isn't after gallery space.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06In fact, I think he might have
0:41:06 > 0:41:10more in common with the Parisian revolutionaries.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14He's fighting a war on the walls - with words.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18We live in a world where's there's imagery everywhere,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21and there's advertising everywhere,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25and blank walls are still a statement - somebody owns this.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Do you see what you're doing as wrestling with advertising
0:41:29 > 0:41:31and all that kind of thing?
0:41:31 > 0:41:34This is part of my visual landscape, there is...
0:41:34 > 0:41:39an endless amount of advertising inundating my plane of vision,
0:41:39 > 0:41:41and I want to add my contribution,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45I want to see people reacting to the world around them and just become
0:41:45 > 0:41:50part of the unconscious environment that you walk by every day.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54Even, like, vinyl lettering is objectionable to me, I see...
0:41:54 > 0:41:57I see hand-painted signs and think they're beautiful,
0:41:57 > 0:42:02the touch of a human hand really enlivens an environment,
0:42:02 > 0:42:07and so when you can see some kind of stale wall enriched by...
0:42:07 > 0:42:12by someone who cared enough to put something there.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15It's an element of the city now, graffiti, it's been around for...
0:42:15 > 0:42:23really as long as time, it's just a really innate human impulse.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26I think you might have slightly changed the way
0:42:26 > 0:42:29even I think about graff, cos I've always felt if somebody
0:42:29 > 0:42:31painted on my house wall,
0:42:31 > 0:42:34- I'd probably want to do them a damage.- Sure!
0:42:34 > 0:42:38But now I'm starting to think maybe I should give them a break.
0:42:38 > 0:42:39Cheers, man.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44Of course, Rusk is well aware that there's a power struggle afoot.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47The walls of our city streets are covered with images trying to
0:42:47 > 0:42:50sell us products or tell us what to do.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Today's graffiti artists are working in the gaps,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57subverting these messages with their spray cans.
0:43:00 > 0:43:04The most exciting street art has an element of surprise,
0:43:04 > 0:43:07it leaps from the wall when you least expect it.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12And it can change the way you see the world around you.
0:43:13 > 0:43:19Former architect and godfather of stencil art, Parisian Xavier Prou,
0:43:19 > 0:43:24better known as "Blek le Rat", is a leader of the scene.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27We are leading a revolution in art,
0:43:27 > 0:43:32so we are the consequences of pop art movement,
0:43:32 > 0:43:39of surrealistic movement too, but we are really living a revolution.
0:43:42 > 0:43:48Blek's witty and smart art on our city streets has made him famous.
0:43:48 > 0:43:53As a trained architect, he knows it's not just about what he paints,
0:43:53 > 0:43:56but where he paints it.
0:43:56 > 0:44:00I realised, not with my first stencil but after a while,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02maybe one or two years,
0:44:02 > 0:44:07that the place was very, very important, and the environment around
0:44:07 > 0:44:14the place where I put my stencil was very, very important also.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19If you put your images in a very posh area,
0:44:19 > 0:44:25it will be completely seen and understood completely differently
0:44:25 > 0:44:30than if you leave the same image
0:44:30 > 0:44:34in a worker area of the city.
0:44:34 > 0:44:40This is the most interesting thing in graffiti in my opinion.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46- Is there something about leaving a mark that outlives you?- Yeah.
0:44:46 > 0:44:52When I'm painting in the street, when I'm finished my work,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55really the feeling that I leave
0:44:55 > 0:45:00my trace somewhere, it's very deep.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03I leave my trace for future generations
0:45:03 > 0:45:07and people will see it after my death.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10And it's very important for me.
0:45:10 > 0:45:15And I think it was very important for the people who made the hands
0:45:15 > 0:45:21on the caves also, they were thinking about to leave a trace, of their...
0:45:21 > 0:45:23"I was here."
0:45:27 > 0:45:30Even though Blek's work is politically engaged, at its core
0:45:30 > 0:45:36it echoes the simple impulse behind that hand in the cave.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39"I was here, don't forget me."
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Blek's art, and the work of those he inspired,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45like the work of the ever-popular Banksy, is in vogue.
0:45:48 > 0:45:49Like the '70s,
0:45:49 > 0:45:51the art world is again turning
0:45:51 > 0:45:53to the street for inspiration.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00In the Palais de Tokyo - a major Parisian gallery -
0:46:00 > 0:46:02a pair of graffiti artists
0:46:02 > 0:46:07have fused the art world and the street, with striking results.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11What a project.
0:46:14 > 0:46:1914 artists, a work signed by all of them and all their visitors.
0:46:21 > 0:46:27A little taste of the work of Sowat and Lek.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32Who's going to tell me that graffiti isn't art?
0:46:32 > 0:46:34Look at the sophistication of this stuff.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38Three artists perhaps?
0:46:40 > 0:46:44Look in close...and it collapses...
0:46:44 > 0:46:46then it finds form again.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49It's just exquisite.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55Sowat and Lek, two eminent Parisian graffiti artists, were commissioned
0:46:55 > 0:47:00to lead a 14-strong crew to cover the interior of this space with art.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08And then just the whole space, the ceilings, the walls, painted.
0:47:12 > 0:47:13Look at the movement.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22All-over painting. Jackson Pollock, eat your heart out.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26THIS is all-over painting.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Painting all over a canvas is one thing,
0:47:29 > 0:47:34treating a whole building as your canvas is quite another.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39It's staggering. An explosion of creativity.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43The shrapnel hanging from the ceiling.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48I love it, it's photocopies, it's peeling off,
0:47:48 > 0:47:53like the lithographs, the posters peeling off over the course of time.
0:47:53 > 0:47:59It's almost like they're saying, "Yeah, we know where our art sits.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02"We get where it relates to the poster culture."
0:48:05 > 0:48:06How many different hands?
0:48:06 > 0:48:08EERIE MUSIC PLAYS
0:48:10 > 0:48:11HE LAUGHS
0:48:13 > 0:48:18With 14 artists involved, the work ranges from a kind of futurism
0:48:18 > 0:48:23through nightmarish shapes to parodies of popular culture.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27EERIE WHISPERING
0:48:27 > 0:48:30Yeah, the problem with your graffiti artists is,
0:48:30 > 0:48:32they will tag your doors.
0:48:39 > 0:48:40You've got to love it.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44Graffito, coming from the Italian "to scratch" -
0:48:44 > 0:48:46THIS is scratching.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Chipping out in incredible detail.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57You stand back, you stand back, you stand back, it's...amazing.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59It's like pointillism.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03But with a hard point. Pointillism!
0:49:04 > 0:49:06HE MIMICS AN EXPLOSION
0:49:08 > 0:49:14And I love this. The 30,000 year old hand spray-painted onto a cave wall.
0:49:15 > 0:49:21"I was here." This one's left by an alien.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29With so many unique artists to conduct,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33how did Lek and Sowat bring this ambitious work together?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38TRANSLATION:
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Everyone trusts Lek so much that
0:49:47 > 0:49:48they will let him and Dem189,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51that also helped us create this,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54erase some parts of the paintings.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58And then we would intervene on top of those parts,
0:49:58 > 0:50:01keep what we like, the artists were free to come back and do
0:50:01 > 0:50:07the same with us, and this is how... It's like a layer kind of work.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10The murals in the Palais are fantastic,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13but they have a limited lifespan.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17Another exhibition will eventually take place in the same space.
0:50:17 > 0:50:23This work, like most graffiti, will be painted over and lost forever.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27In response, Lek and Sowat did something that in my opinion
0:50:27 > 0:50:31fuses the world of gallery and street art together
0:50:31 > 0:50:33in an entirely original way.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35We arrived to the Palais Tokyo,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38we understood that just like any other shows there,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41what we did was supposed to be temporary,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45and from day one we figured it would be interesting to have us
0:50:45 > 0:50:50artists that come from the ephemeral world of art,
0:50:50 > 0:50:52and we figured we want to find a time capsule inside
0:50:52 > 0:50:54the Palais de Tokyo
0:50:54 > 0:50:57to do something that would be vainly eternal,
0:50:57 > 0:51:01something that that is so out of reach and so complicated to see
0:51:01 > 0:51:06and to do, and that is so far away from the normal showing spaces that
0:51:06 > 0:51:09no-one would ever find the interest of erasing it.
0:51:11 > 0:51:16Lek and Sowat found a space, an air duct, inside the gallery.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19In total secrecy, they began to cover the walls of this
0:51:19 > 0:51:24out-of-the-way place in a manner that takes me back to the caves.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27Joining them were a small number of other artists,
0:51:27 > 0:51:32including the graffiti superstar and friend of Lee, Futura 2000.
0:51:32 > 0:51:34This is going to get heavy.
0:51:34 > 0:51:36This desire to preserve stuff,
0:51:36 > 0:51:39I know you understand that the art is ephemeral, but is there also
0:51:39 > 0:51:45a realisation that you're ephemeral, that both of you are ephemeral too?
0:51:45 > 0:51:48If you leave something in this inaccessible space,
0:51:48 > 0:51:51there's every possibility it's actually going to outlive you.
0:51:51 > 0:51:52We hope so.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55We don't intellectualise things like you just did,
0:51:55 > 0:51:57our only intuition is that it would be
0:51:57 > 0:51:59damn cool to do something in the dark,
0:51:59 > 0:52:02er, inside Europe's biggest contemporary arts centre.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05We really like the idea of doing something forbidden,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09hidden and out of reach to the public.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15The culture we work with now is
0:52:15 > 0:52:20so accessible with the internet that part of the mystery has gone,
0:52:20 > 0:52:23part of what is making this a bit magical is gone,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27everything is disposable, you can do a wall on the other side
0:52:27 > 0:52:31of the world, I'll see it an hour after you've finished on Instagram.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34And we wanted to respond to that.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41Do you see your practice, your experience as artists,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46- as having parallels with earlier pop artists?- It's a cycle.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50So, for a long time it felt like the art world had accepted
0:52:50 > 0:52:53and embraced and loved Basquiat and Keith Haring.
0:52:53 > 0:52:56Then for 30 years they stopped looking at what was
0:52:56 > 0:52:57happening in the streets.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00So you have this street art craze right now,
0:53:00 > 0:53:05and it feels like the cycles go with lack of memory.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08It feels like each generation thinks it's inventing something,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12when, truth is, we're just doing the exact same thing.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Maybe the ingredients change, the colours, the aesthetics,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19the places, but the raw energy is the same.
0:53:19 > 0:53:25The only time I felt connected with Basquiat is the pictures of him
0:53:25 > 0:53:28tracing letters on derelict buildings,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31because it's something that I've also done.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34But the aesthetic is very, very different,
0:53:34 > 0:53:36and we haven't banged Madonna, so...
0:53:39 > 0:53:41LAUGHTER
0:53:41 > 0:53:45MUSIC: Justify My Love by Madonna
0:53:45 > 0:53:47Lek and Sowat have pulled off an enviable feat,
0:53:47 > 0:53:51to bring street graffiti into the art gallery.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56For me, there's no argument. The best graffiti is art.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58Challenging art.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05Graffiti on the walls of our streets today, like those moving mottos
0:54:05 > 0:54:09from the Parisian revolutions, still speaks truth to power.
0:54:13 > 0:54:18The lithographic revolution of the 19th century changed our streets.
0:54:18 > 0:54:20Advertising in our face everywhere.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Street artists are challenging that, taking the language
0:54:23 > 0:54:30of advertising - "just do art" - and using it against commercial culture.
0:54:30 > 0:54:34Taking the brands of global capitalism and saying,
0:54:34 > 0:54:36"We're not all about money."
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Asking us to rise up, saying, "Shoot the bank,"
0:54:40 > 0:54:43saying, "It isn't all about cash,"
0:54:43 > 0:54:48saying, "To vanquish without peril is to triumph without glory."
0:54:49 > 0:54:55And all of this grows out of a tradition from the 1970s,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59the aerosol tradition, this revolution,
0:54:59 > 0:55:03this tool that allows artists to paint rapidly
0:55:03 > 0:55:07and to throw their mark up onto the wall with great precision.
0:55:07 > 0:55:13But we can also paint extraordinary works, almost like a sheila,
0:55:13 > 0:55:17the beauty, the sketch, the aerosol evolves.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22The blank wall is a provocation to so many individuals, whether they
0:55:22 > 0:55:28consider themselves graffitists, or street artists, or just vandals.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31They're angry, and sometimes their anger is directly,
0:55:31 > 0:55:37specifically stated, impossible to misunderstand.
0:55:37 > 0:55:45"18,800,000 dead in the Congo, and you don't have a word in the media."
0:55:45 > 0:55:48These are voices that are all screaming,
0:55:48 > 0:55:53clamouring for attention because they are part of a revolution that
0:55:53 > 0:55:58wants to challenge the dominance of commercial culture in public space.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02Do I approve? Does it matter? They disapprove.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11And today, some modern democracies have learned to live with
0:56:11 > 0:56:16the many and varied voices speaking through graffiti.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24At the Reichstag in Berlin,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28the graffiti scrawled by the Red Army could be harshly critical.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36But the parliament of a reunified Germany decided to preserve
0:56:36 > 0:56:40large parts of it for posterity.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44Could the Soviet soldiers possibly have imagined that when they took
0:56:44 > 0:56:48temporary materials and wrote on a wall in the Reichstag that you...
0:56:52 > 0:56:53..and you...
0:56:54 > 0:56:56..that would be reaped
0:56:56 > 0:57:00in due course would be a whirlwind of liberties,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04that, all right, means that governments remain anxious
0:57:04 > 0:57:06about writings on walls,
0:57:06 > 0:57:12but allow and celebrate multiple voices.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17Multiple voices.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23The fact that these marks survive is testament to the strength
0:57:23 > 0:57:27and the resilience of democracy.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31These marks have been deliberately preserved by members
0:57:31 > 0:57:33of the German parliament.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Because they believe in the freedom of speech, they believe
0:57:37 > 0:57:44in the right of people to utter uncomfortable truths on walls.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50HE TRANSLATES ALOUD
0:57:53 > 0:57:54On the walls of the Reichstag?
0:58:02 > 0:58:07Graffiti - scratching, painting or writing on walls -
0:58:07 > 0:58:10is something profoundly human.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Should we always succumb to the knee-jerk reaction of
0:58:15 > 0:58:17painting over it or scrubbing it off?
0:58:20 > 0:58:24Sometimes, we need to use our eyes to look,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27in order to hear what people are trying to say.