Mahn Kloix Interview – 5-12-2025
1A- How do you define yourself? How do you define your projects?
Hi, my name is Mahn. I’m painting in urban space. I tell stories. Contemporary stories. Those of people around us. People who fight for their dreams. But above all I am talking about this vibrant capacity that we all have within us to change the world in which we live.
2- How did you start working on street art?
I grew up in a committed family, driven by major social struggles. I choosed artistic creation to express my opinion. In 2013 in Istanbul, I crossed paths with hundreds of young demonstrators. I was inspired by their strength to change their condition. Then I began to sketch faces of people around the world who where fighting for our rights.
The uprisings of the “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia or the “indignants” movement in Athens
It’s like a leitmotif to express and highlight the struggles, to reclaim the struggles, to bear witness to the great currents of resistance. I’m interested in extraordinary life journeys, in people transcended, sometimes even overwhelmed, by their messages or their experiences.
3- Where do you find the inspiration to create your projects? Are they modifiers of urban space?
The portraits I’m painting are an echo of our world. Our generations are facing globalization, the environmental crisis, gender emancipation, migratory flows. It is a time full of challenges. As I look around me I see lots of people fighting and struggling to change the world around them. They are the ones who inspire me. It is their refusal of fatalism and a desire to assert their rights that pushes me to highlight them in the public space. As if to leave a trace of these everyday heroes. As if to say that anything is possible… that everyone can act.
I work a lot from information that comes from the media, using almost exclusively portraits of living people. In fact, my relationship with the living is very important… I was in contact with the majority of the people I choose to paint.
4- What does Street Art represent for you in this constantly changing world?
I chose street art as a means of engagement because its reason for existing is public space… It is accessible to all… and in its initial form it is, in my eyes, a social reaction…
5A- Do you think Street Art should be legal or should it continue to be a form of art pursued by the police? Have you ever had problems?
I think both are important.
6- How long does it usually take to prepare each project?
A long time. As I make a lot of research for my subjects. I read a lot then, I choose pictures, I contact people, make different sketches. The painting is just the final act.
Interview conducted by Art Bill – journalist and owner of Street Art In Action.
TAKE A LOOK TO THE WHOLE WORK THAT HE DOES, IT’S COOL, ESPECIALLY
his piece at Rillieux La Pape.
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