TILT - Future Primitive Book
[PUBU22-TI-FPB]

Graffiti is like art: everyone thinks they know what it is, but things get complicated when you try to give an accurate explanation. This book traces the history of graffiti art through the evolution of Tilt's work. Graffiti writing, based on drawn and painted letters, is a movement that many of today's graffiti artists-including Tilt-feel a part of as they seek to highlight their own uniqueness and resist the "street art turn" of visual artworks currently being produced in public spaces.

The artist painted his first tag as "Tilt" in 1990, and from then on he knew that graffiti would be a lifelong passion. Graffiti is an expression of a libertarian, if not anarchist and invasive, relationship with the city that is directed against architectural and urban authoritarianism, ubiquitous advertising and defaced blocks. As for Tilt, the content does not necessarily have to contain an explicit political message: The gesture itself embodies an activist form of intervention.

Since 2016, Tilt has been creating a series of abstract works in his studio. His most recent artworks tell their own story, which is as surprising as a graffiti you happen to see in the city. They are both inscribed in the subversive origins of graffiti and in the history of painting. Whether vandalized-on the street, where it belongs to everyone-or used as a decorative object-as the first writers who entered New York City art galleries as early as the 1970s decided, graffiti is an ongoing story to be told-or rather, written.

368 pages, softcover, 30 x 22.5 cm, text: French, English