Lost or forgotten were the walls that now proudly carry the messages of calligraffiti artist eL Seed. "Lost Walls", his first book, beautifully and poetically documents these walls, handpicked during his road trip around Tunisia in summer 2013. "Lost Walls" is a calligraffiti journey of discovery for eL Seed, who chronicles the painting of 24 walls in four weeks. Inspired by the reaction to his largest project to date, the minaret of the Jara mosque in his ancestral home of Gabes, eL Seed decided to set out on this month-long personal journey across his motherland, painting "lost" walls along the way. This book provides unique and rare insight into the world of calligraffiti and the Tunisian people
The book is already released, get yours here !!!
Author: eL Seed
format: 26 x 21cm
160 full color pages
photographs: 250 photos & illustrations
Released: 11th April 2014
ISBN softcover:978-3-937946-48-1
Price softcover: 24,95 €
Sparked by the reaction to his largest project to date, the minaret of the Jara mosque in his home town of Gabes, eL Seed decided to set out on a month long personal journey across his mother country painting ‘Lost Walls’ along the way. The resulting book provides a unique and rare insight into the world of calligraffiti and the Tunisian people.
eL Seed hopes that ‘Lost Walls’ will show another side of Tunisia to the world, at a time when certain negativities stemming from the revolution have drawn attention away from the deeper history, beauty and culture of his country. His walls, spreading messages of hope, love and unity have already touched the lives of many of the people he met on this highly emotional artistic journey.
“What I would like from ‘Lost Walls’ is to give another image of Tunisia.
After the revolution people now only link the country to politics. There has been governmental change of course, but the culture is still there, the history is still there and the focus should be on all of this beauty instead. I want to bring people back to Tunisia to discover the heritage that is left and lost there, just like the ‘Lost Walls’,” says eL Seed.
On the four week calligraffiti road trip, eL Seed painted 24 walls in total, spanning the entire country, “Sometimes two walls in a day,” he says. “I would drive to a place stop there and meet the locals. There is an Arabic saying that goes: ‘You enter a city only with its men’ and in Tunisia there is always a way to meet the people. And the people are the country.”
eL Seed is proud to have the added support of Jeffrey Deitch, art collector, philanthropist and owner of Deitch Projects New York and well known champion of the art of calligraffiti, who kindly wrote the foreward to ‘Lost Walls’. Jeffrey Deitch joined eL Seed in Dubai for the pre-launch of the book in March 2014, and an art talk discussing the future of calligraffiti as an art form.
Watch the conversation between Jeffrey Deitch and eL Seed during Art Dubai
