He was arrested on the spot. Though he pleaded guilty on a charge of criminal damage, he totally disagreed with what the representatives of Giorgio Armani said he should be responsible for paying the cost of HK$6.7 million to replace part of the "dirtied" facade. "That's surreal!" he said and argued he could easily clean the water-based paint on the wall. Don't know what will be the court final decision yet ... Such an interesting person, of course pinkcat has to come to meet him. It's easy cause he is not allowed to leave hk for 30 days ...
... Zevs told me his mood is deeply affected by this court case, so you could see there are 2 unfinished paintings in his hk exhibition ...so Who is he ? Christophe Schwarz aka ZEVS is a French contemporary / street artist and is among the prominent figures who pioneered the French street art scene in 1990s. He gained fame overnight in 2002 by cutting out the sexy "girl model" image in a giant coffee brand poster in Berlin (see below). Above the hole in the poster he wrote: "VISUAL KIDNAPPING - PAY NOW!". He also used the "sexy girl" part in many street and museum art exhibitions. He said the brand on the billboard kidnapped the attention of the public with the purpose of consumer demand, and he just reversed the situation. Though he just did "visual kidnapping" one time, he then triggered many artists in Europe and even Coca Cola to do "visual kidnapping" for art or advertising purposes.
ZEVS is also known for his liquidating (pouring paint over) famous brand logos, giving them an appearance of dissolving. He would wear his yellow rainsuits and mask whenever he do his street art or give interview. Zevs told me (a CAT) his main objective is not to hide his identity (of couse, otherwise he won't give any interview ...
) but it's just part of his artwork (he said it's kind of performance). What's irony is a great proportion of people in hk only saw his real face on newspapers and tv (because of his recent court case), very few media would cover a feature about his art and see him in FULL suit. * pinkwork city is not a media, i would cover things or person that i feel interesting, so maybe an exception ...want to sEE/hEAR (sound and video) of ZEVS talking about himself and his artworks, go to pinkwork artgallery.
www.pinkwork.com/artgallery/zevs.htm
want to see ZEVS 's artwork ? here is details of his first solo exhibition in Hong Kong .
Date: 2009 July 17 ~ Sept 30
Location: Arts Statements, 5 Mee Lun Road, HK / tel: 21229657
ZEVS 's official website : www.gzzglz.com
法國藝術家Zevs上星期在中環遮打大廈「溶解」一個Chanel圖案，當場被捕又被品牌的代表要求賠償670萬，以更換被他弄污的外牆。ZEVS因而上了報紙頭版、電視新聞，還被冠以「名牌溶解王」的稱號。如此有趣的人物，粉紅色貓也要跟他見見面。其實很容易，因為他被禁止離港一個月，應該很悶 ... 他跟粉紅貓說心情因為這件「巨額賠償」事件大受影響，所以今次展覽有兩幅仍未完成
。ZEVS其實在歐洲也很有名，代表作是2002年他剪走了一張型巨型廣告海報中的性感廣告女模特兒部份，留下一個人型大洞。上面寫上「視覺綁架，請付錢！」﹝看看下圖﹞。之後他還將那個「女模特兒部份」舉行了一些街頭及博物館展覽。雖然他只做了一次visual kidnapping，但之後引發很多藝術家做了很多類似的創作，甚至可口可樂亦用了這意念做廣告宣傳。
另一項ZEVS的藝術創作便是「溶解圖案」，通常每到一個城市做展覽，他都會在當地找一些具代表性的牌子圖案，例如LV、麥當勞、Coca Cola等等做創作。他說會故意用水性油彩，應該很容易清洗。每次創作時他都會穿上黃色雨衣及戴上面罩。他不是要隱瞞身份，這不過是創作的一部份﹝他稱這為表演﹞。諷刺的是大部份香港人都只從報紙及電視看見ZEVS的真面目，反而全套黃色雨衣武裝的ZEVS比較少見。另外他還叫大家別稱他為graffitti塗鴉藝術家。他有很多藝術創作在街上進行，但不代表這是graffitti。
別說那麼多，自己到pinkwork artgallery 親自聽聽 / 看看ZEVS ﹝他的聲音及小短片﹞講解自己的藝術意念 ...
To see all my holga photo at one time ~~> pinkwork artTower / pinkwork xanga
* photo provided by art statements, taken on the spot.
~~> film trailers at CatHall pinkwork 
