Street Artist HERA
By HERA of herakut in Vincennes, France for Le Point Millepages.
Translation of the murals text: The children asked the fox how to escape from everyday life. He answers “it’s easy, all you need is to open a book”
Le Point Millepages: What is the place of books in your home?
HERA: I have an apartment with high ceilings in which the living room also serves as my workshop. So when I entertain friends, we sit in my open kitchen where a huge bookcase takes up an entire wall. There are a lot of children’s books, and just as many books by photographers like Christina Mittermeier and Steve Mc Curry. They are a source of inspiration and I take them from apartment to apartment, like an essential part of who I am.
Le Point Millepages: Women you love to read?
HERA: Susanne Goga, German novelist, is single-handedly responsible for my renewed interest in the city in which I live, Berlin. Her series “LEO BERLIN” is full of historical glimpses when she tells the life of her hero Leo Wechsler, Commissioner for Crim ‘in the 1920s. I have as big a weakness for thrillers as for history. The combination of the two is therefore perfect for me!
Le Point Millepages: The book that changed your life?
HERA: There are many of them but one that I take in my luggage when I travel to paint is “Alibi School” by Jeffrey Mc Daniel. It’s a collection of poetry, and in fact, he gave it to me himself in 1997: I was 16 and I was on a school exchange at Venice High School in Los Angeles. Jeffrey had been invited as a lecturer in Lynn Sabin’s poetry class and he had an insane way of mixing humor with the gruesome side of life. To be honest, at 16, I didn’t really understand where his energy was coming from, but I did understand a few years later when I started doing graffiti. It was at this precise moment that I rediscovered the book of Mc Daniel and that I reread his verses over and over again until I knew them by heart. AND I have often quoted him on many murals to share his thoughts with the rest of the world.
