CRIPTA DJAN

Djan Ivson or Cripta Djan, as he is known in the streets and in the art world, was born in 1984 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, started to pixar in 1996. Djan entered to the gang “Cripta” at age 13, to which he belongs today. In his early teens, he conquered space in the metropolis realizing the largest number of pixos in radius and complexity of execution. His activity in the streets consecrated him among pixadores. Djan was one of the pioneers of the riskiest modalities of pixação, the “escalada” or climbing, reaching the top of sky scrappers with over 20 stories without safety devices. After obtaining such legitimacy in the movement, he started to defend the cause of youngsters from the outskirts of the metropolis, becoming a leader, and a mirror, for those who wish to leave social invisibility.

“Our Daily Pixo”

Pixação usually written with X by pixadores is not only a stylized spelling of words in public spaces of the city, it is an expressive development done mostly by youths from the suburbs, and serves as the voice of the voiceless, the silent cry of the invisible, painted plea, existential run, and identity. In pixação there is no consensus, much less a single leadership. In reality, it is comprised of several groups that embody a wide crazy life loose in the city.

Those who pixa defend with teeth, nail and black ink the practice and philosophy of pixação. The spell of pixação snatches the subject pixador, asks disproportionate dedication and risk of death. In pixação what really matters is the dynamic creation of risks. Pixar is not enough, one must produce excitement and adrenaline, transgress to progress, radicalize, shock. Says Djan, “Exercise our freedom of speech, since we live in a fake democracy. The new urban field values and reinforces inequality and separation, it is therefore a non-democratic and not modern public space. Discrimination processes get combined to fear, what creates new forms of segregation among which the construction of walls is the most emblematic.”