Documentary photographer Mark Madness, specialized in the trainwriting subculture and author of the Barcelona Showdown (2021) book, is currently working on a new project that will be released after the summer.
“Füu di Frei” is the name Mark has given the short film, his first piece as a videographer. After tracking him on Instagram and collaborating with him, he has also shown us some of the analog snapshots that will be part of the project. But what role do photographs have in the project? Let’s see if Mark tells us about this.
Hola de nuevo, Mark! Cuéntanos, qué es “Füu di Frei” y cómo nace el proyecto?
Hola familia! “Füu di Frei” nace de manera imprevista. Cuando tenía un 70% hecho del proyecto #globalpass
, tenía que volver a un par de ciudades fuera de Europa para terminar algunos capítulos, pero ocurrieron cosas en ambos lugares y por prevención me aconsejaron no volver hasta un largo tiempo.
Es entonces cuando me puse manos a la obra y pensé qué hacer mientras dejaba en stand-by #globalpass. Le di vueltas al coco y voilà! La mente me pidió hacer un cortometraje. Contacté con un grupo de writers de Suiza y les propuse la idea. Aceptaron de una.
“Füu di Frei” es la historia de un grupo de writers de graffiti que rompen las leyes de la vida cotidiana, desafiando cualquier adversidad, disfrutando de una pasión sin límites.
“Goretex jacket, winter hat, ski pants, thermals, gloves and a lot of patience, that’s the key.”
Why a short film?
Cinema has always fascinated me. At home I was raised with music, cinema and photography. My imagination, my references and my friends who also share a profession, help me in my daily life to materialize my projects. I wanted to go beyond the limits of photography and experiment with video. I was indebted to myself to make a video, from scratch, as a scriptwriter, cameraman and editor.
Apart from the analog photographs that you have published on Instagram and those that we have been able to see exclusively, are there any more? What are you going to do with them?
Yeah! I have a selection of more than 100 analog photographs for this project, but I prefer to keep the exclusive of what I will do with them. It will be a great surprise.
We really liked the first teaser and it left us intrigued in some scene… Will there be a second teaser? What happens when the police show up?
I greatly appreciate your comment. And yes! There will be a second teaser to reveal the big surprise of this project and also to announce the dates of the screenings to see the short film. So we will have to wait to find out what happened in that sequence that left all the people who saw the first teaser intrigued.
Why did you choose Switzerland?
I like the country a lot. There is a lot of graffiti culture, design, cinema, music, languages… Apart from that the landscapes, the climate and the atmospheres are breathtaking. There are many aspects that made me choose this country.
Switzerland is a very strict country, plus we must add the orography and climate that can make actions and long waits difficult in winter. How are the preparations for this type of actions? Have you noticed differences in the attitude towards graffiti between Switzerland and other countries?
The people there are super prepared for any climatic adversity, I’m not (laughs). I remember a couple of missions below ten degrees and I still don’t suffer from it. Or pouring rain for hours waiting, soaked up to the eyebrows. Goretex jacket, winter hat, ski pants, thermals, gloves and a lot of patience, that is the key.
And regarding the next question, I get the feeling that society’s attitude towards graffiti is very similar to that of any country in northern Europe. They give up many spaces so that people can paint calmly and people in general like that, but we must not forget that graffiti is wild and without limits.
In cities like Bern, Zurich or Basel there is a lot of graffiti culture and, for years, many galleries have exhibited the subculture of trainwriting. I think this is great to create a door between society and the graffiti community and understand the origin and evolution well.
However, it is also worth highlighting the attitude and mentality of the writers. Methodical and organized to carry out actions and hermetic to protect their identity on a daily basis.
Recording videos and taking photos should not be an easy task.
The truth is, no. In the first three missions of the project I hardly shot, I limited myself to recording. Then I began to flow with the sequences, the shots, the story and I put myself into both tasks.
References for this project?
Martha Cooper, Gaspar Noé and Michael Haneke.
We are very excited to be a partner of this project, but is there any brand or foundation that also collaborates in “Füu di Frei”?
Yes. At the moment the project partners are: NBQ, Layup Shop, Analogue Delinquents and System Boys.
Thank you very much for granting us one more interview and we look forward to the release of “Füu di Frei”!
A thousand thanks to you for always supporting me. “Füu di Frei” is coming!
