ITALIAN WRITERS - KRESO ERG

Hello Creso, tell us who you are! What inspired you to start painting? Why? Hi, I’m Kreso, Creso ERG; I started painting in the early 2000s, my crew was born in 2007 when I met my partner Push. The group was born in Florence, the city where I spent my university studies, at the time there were many sources as insipiration and the writers I looked up to are still a great reference in the research and study of what I'm actually doing nowadays.

I am referring in particular to the Piars and the Nerds crews, who I would like to take

this opportunity to say hello.

I started painting a few years before in my hometown, I started alone, I didn’t know anyone in my area and so it was until I started to shoot for the first parties where I met other people with whom I share this interest.

I have always drawn, and I started to travel since I was a child with my family; in fact the first stimuli related to graffiti came from these childhood trips to the big European capitals; the cinema has also made a great contribution, I remember those 80s movies, set in NY, where you could see the underground’s cars all smashed! What a blast!

It took me a while to understand how you could do something like that, I mean finding the proper tools, the right materials, understanding the right moves to do, in short, the basics. There was a street artist in the 90s in my town, Zeb, he wrote satirical phrases with references to politics and current affairs, I found it funny, he also used to make comic strips, as soon as I was allowed to go out alone I brought a marker in my pocket and I started to draw too on the walls of the square. I had already chosen the name.. Kreso! Almost 20 years have passed since then, and I still find myself looking for a marker before taking the walk with my dog in the same fucking square.

Do you have a reference style or a writer you get inspiration from?

As I told you before, I am for the classics! : ). Clear style, pass me the term "readable" (at least for us) without too many frills and maybe some dripping!

Writers from which I take inspiration are a lot, specifically we’re talking about groups and collective movements like VDS, BBS, and TBC which are based in Italy, as for the rest of Europe, I mainly look at France, especially to 156’s members and little else.

In the United States I’ve always looked at everything with great charm, west-east makes no difference; 156, IRAK and BTM in NY, the Philly style (Nemel4ever), theSouth West Cholo and so on. First of all the Californian collective par excellence, THR, DFW.

The spontaneity with which some of these people live their discipline is something difficult to explain. It looks like some people are born with certain talents. Do you know when they talk about "attitude"?

What do you think of the current Italian scene? How do you think graffiti are considered in Italy?

About that, I cannot give you an opinion, I have a personal point of view and I do not care much about what happens around me; as I previously said, I observed in the past who was there before me and I tried to earn their respect with my own skills; I don’t care that much about anything else, but I’m happy to have some good friends to hang out with in the north or south of the Italian boot.

Your most beautiful piece? Tell us about it!

My most beautiful piece? I still have to do it! Now I would say the last, there is always a good reason to improve. : )

During the covid-19 period, did you manage to experience something new? What?.

Good question, during that time I realized that my life was already in lockdown mode since 2015.

Freelancer, smart-worker, serial dog walker, zero social life, gloves, mask. If you also put some tags around (maybe more than 200mt far from home) practically a normal day.. But seriously, I realized that people should work less and be closer to their family and beloved ones, instead I find that the contemporary model of capitalist society has imposed an unhealthy lifestyle in which the human being is obliged to devote most of his time to a work he is often not motivated to do and isn’t right for him. We should work less and everyone should get a job, we should learn how to spend our time doing something concrete, it would be nice if each individual could succeed in establishing himself and play a role suited to his own vocations, ambitions and passions.

Anyway, I didn’t draw much during the lockdown. Travelling, moving, discovering for me are the engine of everything, so let’s move on to the next question!

Have you ever traveled to get your name up? Tell us an anecdote!

To push my name? It doesn’t sound that spontaneous but in a way, maybe yes...

Let’s say that I always try to combine the useful with the pleasant, I like to travel, I live in a very small country with little visibility on the scene, we can say that before wasting time and energy to gettin' myself up on the non-existent scene of the place where I live I’d rather take a few days off and take a nice ride to a big capital. And If the tour in question is sponsored in part by some commercial brand initiative or Youtube channels it’s even better.

In this case a few years ago I spent a month in California, the goal was not just to travel to gettin' the name up but the affirmation of certain dynamics in the places where these things matter has meant for me the achievement of good goals, but as i said, I didn’t go there with the intent to get more phame, raise the bar or whatever, I was just invited by friends.

In this regard I can tell you an anecdote: I was on the Golden Gate bridge, the pedestrian bridge is usually closed at night because of the many suicides that happened there, but during the evening of the solar time’s change it would get dark an hour earlier, so in that moment we got a really evocative atmosphere standing on the side of the Bridge in the darkness, flashed by the cars' lights.

I worked as a carpentry designer so I know a minimum of the design at the base of the cable bridges, it has been unique to see my friends, and my girlfriend listening to how this kind of structures share the weights of the spans on the supports; after an afternoon spent telling each other anecdotes of graff life it was exciting to be able to share different knowledges and passions with those nice and generous people.

What do you think the graffiti world has given you? Have you ever wondered what drove you to continue day after day?

That’s a good question too! I believe that the graffiti world has given me so much, perhaps some of the most solid and lasting experiences I have ever had.

Friendship, passion, hate, love, lost sleep, stains and torn clothes, esteem, respect, rivalry, competition, pain, challenge, union and sharing but also isolation and marginalization. I think the graffiti gave me a bit of everything that matters in life, I hope that I gave something in return!

Yes, I asked myself what drove me to continue after so long, but I cannot give an answer; I know, however, that writing for me is a sort of primary need and I can't live without it.

Are you working on projects?

I am working on multiple projects at the same time, along with some graphics for commercial brands of clothing, specifically I am currently preparing an exhibition named "Places for People" (in contemporary dystopian society-ed) ; It's nice to live with your own passions and it would be good to be able to do it in a serene and dignified way, which is not easy in a country like Italy where meritocracy doesn't matter at all levels.

I believe that the realization of the individual passes through the affirmation of his own nature, I was touched by the nature of scribbler so I try to carry on what is my main project that is to be able to devote as much time as possible to writing representation and drawing.

What is your dream? My dream? Well I have many! If you talk about graffiti my dream was to paint with some of my greatest masters and to join one of the above mentioned collective. If you talk about dreams of life, my dream would be to live my passion without giving up my nature or attitude.

If you mean dreams in general my greatest dream is just a normally shared desire: living happily near my family, possibly with a progeny able to carry on the name of the line, along with cousins, a new generation Erg.

Besides writing, what other passions does Creso have outside of graffiti?

In addition to writing there is very little, I am what I do. For the rest there is personal life, and that is just personal..

Describe yourself in three words!

2 words are too many and 3 are few.

What advice to the new writers who are approaching this world?

One piece of advice, screw with the others, with the rules, be yourself, be true and authentic, put passion into it; do it for yourself, try to grow in tune with the world.

Do graffiti because it makes you feel good, do it because they are beautiful, do it for yourself and no one else, you have nothing to prove. Graffiti and politics are on two different floors that should not dialogue, for that there is street art.. I wish you, new generations, to always be on the subject in 20 years and to be able to make your own contribution to this game, if and as much as you like.

You can find Creso on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kreso_erg/?hl=it

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