Mosta

From skateboarding to graffiti and hip hop, "Mosta," as he's known (Verviers,Belgium,1983), has always been immersed instreet culture. A look back at his journey… It all started in the mid-90s.This young Belgian not-yet-an-artist (who still remains anonymous to avoid being haunted by his past), then 13 years old, took the train to Antwerp with his family. Through the train window, he saw for the first time huge graffiti murals on trains parked on a parallel track. "It didn't last long, because we were moving, but I was amazed. I was glued to the window." A few months later, at the small local skatepark he frequented, some guys showed up and started tagging the concrete ramps. What had been just an intuition transformed into a compulsion. With his brother and a few friends, between skateboarding sessions, he started tagging abandoned walls in the neighborhood. Nothing resembling art yet, except perhaps the act of expressing himself with a spraycan. It was his meeting with Mike Them at school that would change everything. "Lloyd aka Wyxe was the driving force behind all the street art energy of that era. He was part of the Brussels graffiti crew 'NSE' from the 90s. We had the same tastes and the same aspirations. It all started with him: graffiti, but also a hip-hop group we formed." Our DJ’s were Lloyd, creator of the "V13" crew, DJ Swiffer and Richard Colvaen with as MC’s : Mike Them, Bug One, Phill and Mosta" This rap group also includes DJ Swiffer from Verviers, co-founder of Hermutt Lobby aka Beat Surfing, who has been constantly innovating in music since 2001, becoming, by the end of the 2010s, a multi-award-winning Belgian startup with global recognition in the music industry. In fact, Mosta will be creating some visuals for their app for a collaboration with DJ Klever (USA). Quite an achievement. But let's go back to the '90s for a moment. When asked what motivated him to do graffiti back then, the artist replies with a touch of nostalgia: "The adrenaline of the cat-and-mouse game! You spend time scouting, thinking, preparing because it has to be fast and you have to be ready. Graffiti is an illegal art form." Then you're surrounded by your friends. You're part of a movement. We existed within this street culture, this pop culture; we were part of it. At that time, Mosta and his BCS crewmates weren't messing around. They were putting up huge letters,sometimes over 20 meters long, on walls or trains. Time passed. Lots of murals and parties in this life of the moment… At the same time, he continued to hone his art: the art of lettering, style, and handling spray paint and markers. Around 2010, when the movement seemed to be losing steam a bit, he met a crew of highly motivated young graffiti artists with whom he enthusiastically started painting again: "They reminded me of my group 15 years earlier. With them, we painted on abandoned buildings, in vacant lots. There was a great energy.Then in 2014, some of them got caught. ”While I was living solely in the present, I also began to reflect on the possible consequences for my future life. My practice was going to change. We don't just spend our evenings partying; we also spend them drawing." While his love for street graffiti remained intact, Mosta began working on more thoughtful pieces, on walls but also on paper or canvas. Once the work was finished, he photographed it to preserve a record. It was during this period that he met the woman who would become the mother of his children. A young woman, daugher of an artist, but above all, a vegetarian since birth. Mosta and his partner quickly transitioned to a vegan diet, which transformed his vision of life and his art. "It was an awakening to the fact that life matters, and that every life matters. From then on, I wanted to build more than destroy! I discovered a love for Nature." We spent our time in Les Hautes Fagnes or in the Vallée de la Vesdre. I became fascinated by the history of our region. The castles, the Eburones, the medieval world, all that… My art became more structured, and I also took up photography." Today, his life is primarily that of a family man with strong and unwavering convictions. On the artistic side, he collaborates with music groups on cover art, recently with the guys from Beatsurfing, and he paints and photographs…Everything he does is “old school,” which is important to him. Handmade,without a computer or tablet. And when asked why he accepted to collaborate with Deerbie, he replies: "I think this little deer is really cool. It reminds me of pop culture, which I've always incorporated into my art, and it also evokes a Celtic god I admire, Cernunnus, in a yoga pose with two antlers on his head (Yeah, it's getting technical!)." Before adding: "This contribution to Le Parc Naturel des Hautes Fagnes resonates deeply with me. When I was offered the opportunity to paint on these collectibles, I saw it as a sign of destiny. A way to bring together all my passions, my past and my present, in one object."