Falcon, 2020

Marko93  

Marko93 grew up in Saint-Denis, a historical, strongly working class suburb North of Paris. It was here where he laid down his first strokes. In the late 1980s, the Hip Hop movement emerged onto the scene and rapidly laid roots in big cities and suburbs. Marko embraced graffiti as his means of expression. It was the time of city walls, wastelands and railways tracks. Marko93 painted and bombed there, revealing slices of the suburban life where he lived.

Big letters entangled, realistic scenes, caricatures or free-style pieces, he was learning to master all the techniques of the urban art form. Originally in influenced by the American styles, he soon formed his own identity with the discovery of Arabic calligraphy which he took over and reinvented in the early 1990s.

With “calligraphism", the “calame" (an Arabic word referring to the reed cut out to write) became the signature bomb which Marko93 adapted. His gesture, always large and accurate became more vigorous. This abstract style blending calligraphy and an urbanesque flavor with his spontaneity elevated him as a key player on the graffiti scene. As street art entered into art galleries in the late 1990s, Marko was travelling the world. He was discovering new pictorial and human horizons. He began to paint human bodies. His complex and ethereal calligraphies covered the dancers' bodies in night-clubs from Rio to Hong-Kong.

The early 2000s were a turning point. He was becoming as assertive as his art. Marko started experimenting with state-of-the-art technologies, making his the effects of retinal persistence. He reinvented, enhanced and popularized the light-painting process touched upon by Man Ray and Picasso. He built his first light paintings with gestures, colors and light. He also developed the first “instant-live" - real-time- video-, a unique technique to paint the space live. This allowed him to perform in places as eclectic as the palace of the Arab Emirates princess, a live show in Bombay and the famous World Auto show.

Today, Marko93 performs all over the world. He spreads his unique aesthetics and his enlightening sensitivity all over, from in situ performances to collaborations, mural paintings, light-painting videos and workshops - through institutional or private orders.