być

Być, a Swiss artist born in Lausanne in 1982, did not choose this pseudonym at random: in Poland, the homeland of one of his grandfathers, this word means "to be" or "to search".
Indeed, in all of his artistic approach, there is an undeniable existential quest, begun in early childhood. A time when he drew and painted everything, all of the time, required paper after paper, again and again... Back then, we could have believed this to be a fleeting whim, but it was nothing of the sort, drawing, painting, caricature, they are his fundamental means of expression, one could even say vital.

Early graphic design graduate at 18 years old, he immersed himself in the world of advertising, earning a good living due to his quick ascension to an international level. However, he also saw the limits, in both the artistic and ethical senses. Być voluntarily withdrew from the advertising scene after several years to entirely devote himself to his artistic research, which he had never abandoned in parallel to his career.

He leaves his comfort zone (his academic training) and for more than a year, 7 days a week, from morning to evening, he uses the graffiti technique to push himself in his methodologies and media choices. By giving up his previous career, he also gives up the easy way: he must solve material problems (premises, painting, supports, must be the least expensive possible). Then, he leaves for the United States, to Taos, and decides to face the vast desert spaces, embraces the culture shock, and shakes himself up all over again.

He is interested in recycled materials, and turns these new constraints of abandonned desert objects to elements of his message. Everything makes sense. The support itself inspires him, and dictates the work. For Być, there is a kind of complicit association between the used object, whose poetry he perceives from the previous use, and what it makes him feel and inspires him to do.
Thus is defined his vision of contemporary art and Street Art, which goes from the street to the greatest museums, which challenges codes, challenges the world, sometimes mocks, often denounces, or admires.

For Być, to provoke is to make people think, mix, connect: people, times, styles, perceptions. He says, "a good work grows with you", he hopes, for multiple, evolving and "nourishing" interpretations.