CHAPTER I: THE PREQUEL
In September 2017, SAMA got an incredible surprise : being invited to the 13 Art Fair first edition, an event planned by already renown 13 Urban Contemporary cultural comity and taking place at la Cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris, France.
Everything needed to be done in a very short notice, Anna had to roll up her sleeves and draw a massive emergency plan. Calling up magic streams, human wills, artistic vibes as well as a big adaptation ability and some strokes of luck, she started to pull all the strings she had at her disposal to represent and Amsterdam as well as SAMA in the French capital.
Gathering up!
The first move was to gather people. A small crew had to be summoned, led by Anna. She right away got in touch with one of the most talented and loyal genie she was friend with, Mexican grafitero Moste. Happily agreeing to the process, an AR plane ticket was bought, bringing him back again to Amsterdam. Looking for a communication and writing specialist, Anna decided to get in touch with French expatriate Julia who, after a summer SAMA guided tour, fell in love with it. After a lot of brainstorming, the three of them became the Paris special squad.
The second move was about gathering artworks and elements to fill our fair’s stand. Diving into her own collection, Anna decided to lend some of her personal stuffs, which were mostly gifts from her closest artists such as Stinkfish, Pez, Btoy, Orticanoodles and of course, Moste.
Modelling the space was quite a challenge, regarding the available funds, the stand’s set up was mainly based on recycling: squats posters, artists drawings, old stencils or maps, newspapers articles and pictures, odd souvenirs (coffeeshop plastic bags, opened condoms, private notes, etc…). A 75 sqm stand had to be fed with SAMA’s flesh, bones and blood, well, this new-conceived treasure chest would magnificently do the gig!
The third major quest was funding and to be honest, the trickiest. Putting aside a small donation by one of our partners, QRU (an Amsterdam underground place), not a single private or public investor was found to finance us.
The die was cast; as we couldn’t find money for SAMA’s journey, we would go by our own way to Paris with our best costume: dressed with crafty solutions, travelling bohemian style, wearing minimum resources and made up with punk colours so, basically naked, beautifully nude.
Recreative Creating & Recycling.
After collecting, time had come for true creating. Hours of debate and draft were necessary to seize the reality of the area we had to build on: 13 Art Fair comity had given us the entrance spot, a 5 width meters corridor of 2 parallel 15 length meters walls.
Another task was for Moste to conceive SAMA only cash source to survive in Paris: a t-shirt. Naturally, he chose the Mosquito on Holidays, foundation’s mascot.
At last, some small elves had to paint the huge paper scroll for the Amsterdam love letter. Moste powerful markers and Insan delicate watercolours prepared it with strength and grace.
A Rockn’roll Roadtrip for a Punk Ship.
As no fairy godmother appeared to enhance luck, SAMA came up with a backup bewitched strategy regarding the stay:
- Taking a pumpkin coach to the ball (also known as the 8 hours bus connecting Amsterdam Sloterdijk station to Paris Bercy station)
- Renting a marvelling castle (namely, a tiny Airbnb the city to avoid hotels’ aberrant prices).
- Excavating/extracting some dwarves’ diamonds (so, going with a few savings/earning the rest on site).
What the heck? Aren’t we magic? The potion was ripe: a flood of brain juice, mixed with a thick passion broth, a full ladle of handcraft, some Rock’n Roll ice cubes, a glimpse of madness, and a big pinch of nerve.
SAMA’s punk ship was finally ready to sail.
Check the photos and live streams here: