The Wa is a guerilla artist who uses the tools of art formore social justice and the ideal of a free space for discussion concerning cultural hegemony.
He studied Fine Arts in France, then moved to Berlin, and here he met like minded people including Brad Downey, Akim, Jesus and F:A with whom he has created many projects. His illegal interventions and sculptures are stumbling blocks in public space: Whether they be the resumes of job seekers displayed as posters in the advertising boards of Marseille, a marble likeness of Nikolas Sarkozy at a Paris bridge, or an oversized balloon valve placed in Stockholm suggesting the potential deflation of the entire world - the context sensitive work of The Wa subvert the recognized order and are playful revolution in everyday life. "Some people call my work 'urban hacking' or 'Artivism' - maybe it's just a colorful way to get people think aout it". added The Wa in an interview. "I'm not sure, but I have always this one sentence by Pierre Bourdieu in my head: 'Democracy is the balance between people who have the power and thos who fight against them.'" The borders between the political revolutionary and the artistic avant-garde subversion is running through The Wa's work - he also references European avant-garde movements, for example the Situationists, Dadaism and Fluxus.
Text: Alain Bieber, Translation: Robert Stone
Exhibitions(selected)
2010
ENTKONTEXTUALISIERUNG, with Ari Sariannidis, urban art info, Berlin.
URBAN INTERVENTIONS, group exhibition, urban art info, Berlin.
2009
Switch tense, solo show, Parasites Hamburg.
2008
Wedding Dress, group show, Berlin.
2007
See You In 2047, group show, Münster.
Reclaim Your Streets, group show, Stockholm.
Wrong World solo show, sdw gallery, Berlin.
Publications
One Week with The Wa, DVD, 2009.