WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT THE GRAFFITI SCENE IN TUNISIA, ACCORDING TO JAYE

MTN has been on the global scene for 30 years, supplying paint and helping to create a scene in many cities around the world. We realise that some of these scenes are not well known overall, and for this reason we would like to do our bit -once again- to help them extend their reach. Today, thanks to Jaye, a French-Tunisian writer, and Hatira, MTN’s distributor in Tunisia, we can appreciate the graffiti of the African country, understand its development a little bit more and admire the talents that push graffiti forward every day.

Alright, who is Jaye?

He is a graffiti writer and artist who was born in Paris and grew up in Tunisia. He is not just a spectator, but a driving force in the evolution of the scene in the country.
This writer started painting, in the city where he was born, in the early 90s. It was not until 1997 that he painted his first piece in Tunis, with 6 sprays that he had brought with him from France. At that time there was nothing else. Only his tags. Between that year and 2008, tags aside, he did 2 or 3 pieces, making the most of the times he would visit the city on vacation.

In 2012 he settled in Tunisia definitively and professionally, but in terms of graffiti, in the street he only bombed due to the lack of adequate means and materials. Basic bubbles filled with acrylic paint, and traced with black spray. The imported cans were of very poor quality, with a very limited color chart and at a very high price in relation to the Tunisian standard of living.

In 2015, in a country where the local scene consisted of 2 or 3 people, he decided to direct his artistic work towards metal welding. Together with his friend and artist Nono, he started this project and put his knowledge of graffiti into it.

A big turnaround: the 2011 revolution

During the 2011 revolution, also known as the Dignity Revolution, the Jasmine Revolution or the Intifada of idi Bouzid, the amount of pieces grew a little, but the high point came when he painted one of the houses of the family of the deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. That liberating moment led him to paint more on the street. With less repression people expressed themselves more freely. That was the beginning of the street art scene in Tunisia.

“Despite all these advances, access to quality painting remains expensive compared to the local standard of living.”

And the scene is growing

While Jaye was immersed in learning his new technique, a new generation of young artists appeared on the graffiti scene, of whom we can highlight Dzee, Psyko, GatOne, Dino, Trang, Mylow and Tnz. These writers paint regularly, are highly motivated, and are the seed of a small local scene. They are becoming more productive and their styles are becoming more refined over time, yet the economy and the lack of quality paint brands in the country sometimes gets in the way.

“You could immediately see the change in the new productions; the range of colors was much nicer”.

Montana Colors and Hatira

As we have mentioned, other paint brands appeared in the country, but none lasted long. Montana Colors arrived in Tunisia a year ago, thanks to Hatira, and brought about an exponential change. According to Jaye, “You could immediately see the change in the new productions; the range of colors was much nicer. You could even see colored tags on the street. Years before I was frustrated, even jealous, of the facilities that artists from other countries had.”
Despite all these advances, access to quality painting remains expensive compared to the local standard of living. Plus there is still no art market or specialized galleries or festivals, etc.
Even so, we are witnessing its growth, and we hope it will continue to grow in the near future.
In the meantime we leave you with more images of some of the country’s writers.

Trang1

Caligraffity, wild style, a clothing store with his designs, as well as his YouTube channel where you can see more videos like the one in this article. We will have to keep track of him.

Dino

This artist is also co-founder of Dlab34, a photography studio and a silkscreen printing and painting atelier.

Kero

What we love the most about this writer and multifaceted artist are the pieces that employ the aliphatic alphabet so well. You can see some of them on his Instagram account.

Mylow

She is a one-woman band. She does it all: graffiti, illustrator, fashion designer, podcaster, DJ… An entrepreneur if ever there was one, who puts all her energy into her projects.