everyone’s telling me how hot tel aviv is rite now and having been introduced to pilpeled’s work thru king adz, i asked him if he’d share some insider shit on tlv…
Tel Aviv is the party capital of the world (believe) and it has the freshest, most unspoiled street culture scene. The street art ‘scene’ currently holds little monetary value – no marketing opportunities or street art ‘dealers’ hovering on the periphery, eyeing up gaps in the ‘market’. Chances are that this could all change – the very fact that you’re reading this, and the fact that the place will feature heavily in my next book, goes to prove that. But for now, for this trip, it’s all pastures new, chock-full of fresh talent and virgin visions. Okay, so Israel has a bit of negative spin right now (perhaps rightly so), but remember I’m here for the love, the talent, the people, not the bulllshit politics…
The one thing you need to know about Tel Aviv is that geographically it may be in Israel, but it’s a fucking oasis of cool street shit in a mad ol’ country. Tel Aviv is not like the rest of Israel: it has its own state of mind. Forget what you know, read, watch, hear, none of this applies. My guide is my good pal and amazing artist PILPELED, and he picks me up at the airport and we shoot into town and a ton of brand-spanking-new skyscrapers roll past. “You see, it’s not a desert” he tells me (he’s jokingly referring to when I asked if my cell phone would work here). I spend a few hours booking the talent I want to meet up with and then we head out to a bar that would be too cool for Berlin. A DJ is rocking the non-existent Sunday night crowd and we hook up with local DJ Walter Einstein Frog and a couple of promoters. Tel Aviv, it seems, is a small place. The boys spark up the chronic and the smoke begins to rise. No-one in the place bats an eyelid. I get a grip on how the club scene is run (totally hands-on). Walter has a party on Friday and I’m on the list.
On the way back to our ride we pass a kid sat on the kerb with his laptop, jacking someone’s WiFi, like it’s the most normal thing in the world to be doing on a Sunday night. “Welcome to Tel Aviv,” Pilpeled tells me as we pass by…
Tel Aviv by day is what I imagine Beirut must have been like before it fell. Coffee kiosks everywhere, people chilling and chatting in groups in the sun in the wide central reservations, plenty of youths sporting dreads and skaters galore.
Sub-cultures are important round these parts — which is a seriously good indicator of the psyche of the place. The one thing is that there is no sign of trouble. Day and night there are people walking the streets. To go back to my original analogy — the one thing about South Africa is that after dark, the streets empty. Here they don’t, and this tells me something. It’s one of the most laidback places I’ve ever been, the polar opposite to LA, and it has a real bohemian sense. The only reminder that I’m in Israel are the occasional soldiers strolling nonchalantly about packing some serious firepower — toasters galore, as they say in BKLYN. Obviously I don’t take any photos of this, as people are a little ‘camera shy’.
After seriously abusing the cappuccino machine, my first morning is spent in a photographic studio where Pilpeled is having his photo taken for Israeli Time Out. He’s been up all night finishing the design for the cover, and is not (quite rightly so) feeling the photographer’s request for him to ‘Act’. The guy is on fire right now and I’m honoured to be down with him. He certainly deserves it. After this we go for a kosher burger (like a fucking 1/2 pounder in a loaf of bread) and then meet up with local hottest-artist-in-Israel, Know Hope, who is like a major dude (I’m stoked to be getting some serious time with him). He signs up for my new book and his work is unique (double bubble!). Then we swing back to HQ to meet local producer/musician Kutiman, who has been a pretty big name over this side for some time and has recently completed his most insane project to date, THRU YOU (I can’t really explain it, so you’ll just have to watch the video to see how amazing the concept is.)
http://www.pilpeled.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kutiman
http://www.myspace.com/waltereinsteinfrog
Know Hope: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisislimbo/
words and images by KING ADZ
http://www.100proof.tv/
http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500514306.html
