BACK IN MEXICO CITY
On my first visit to Mexico City, I met GERSO on the last day, an incredibly quiet, nice but busy local writer who is also the organizer of the Meeting of Styles Mexico. He told me that there were some problems for this year’s meeting and that they had not yet been able to find a can sponsor for the event. I offered to put him in touch with MONTANA CANS in Heidelberg/GER – but of course I couldn’t promise anything. Long story short: After a few weeks, Gerso wrote to me that it had actually worked out and that Montana would be the sponsor of MOS Mexico 2023. As a small thank you, I was invited to the event in Mexico City in October 2023. So I was supposed to fly to CDMX for the second time in a year. It could have been worse. However, the event was scheduled for a total of 4 weeks with several individual events in Mexico City and other cities, but I simply couldn’t do that due to an upcoming exhibition and a few jobs. My maximum time slot was 10 days. In retrospect, it was a real shame, because the guys and girls around Gerso had put together an incredibly exciting, intensive but also very pleasant program. Of course with lots of graffiti, but also with sightseeing, culture, cozy evenings together and every now and then a day or two that you could use as you wish. And since my buddy DATER had also told me a few weeks before that he was going, the time could only be good, because I had already taken part in a few international events with him in the past and you really couldn’t imagine a better and more relaxed travel companion. Gerso picked me up from the airport in the middle of the night with my buddy PLUS, who had already been traveling in Central and South America with his girlfriend RAYKA for more than a year, and took me to his house, where I was able to make up for my lack of sleep. The next day, the whole gang gradually arrived. Dater, Rime, Ewok, Trav, Emjay, Greyk, Post, Miedo, Desk and a few other Mexicans. We went to Yautepec in two vans, where the first event was to take place in the vicinity of a football stadium. In the evening there was an opening event with a press conference (which Ewok mastered very confidently in Spanish), a bit of culture, an exhibition and the best food. I quickly noticed that this was no ordinary graffiti event but had a completely different drive and was valued differently on site. We were immediately made to feel welcome and this was proven to us again and again over the following days. For the event in Yautepec we were each assigned different walls. Some alone, some in combination with other writers, and they really had an incredibly good day, which ended with a completely unexpected highlight: At around 6 p.m. the main gate suddenly opened and several hundred people came in a kind of parade – dressed up in colorful costumes and traditional music, and transformed the location into a huge party within a few minutes. I was pretty perplexed and just thrilled.
The next day we went back to Mexico City, where we had been rented two large, beautifully furnished apartments in the immediate city center, because that was where we would be spending the next few days. Everyone quickly got into the groove and we started a variety of activities from our base – mostly related to graffiti. One was the BLACK CAT GARAGE – a pretty cool car repair shop, whose entire backyard we painted and – once again – we were completely spoiled with culinary delights. We discovered the EX FABRICA – a huge old factory converted into a cultural and scene meeting point with lots of restaurants, bars and a graffiti shop. AFEKS, the owner of the shop, supplied us with materials and also offered us a beautiful, large and virgin wall at the back of the building. The wall was directly adjacent to the freight yard, however, and this was completely fenced in. Afeks had a key – but we had to speak to the security guards first (and probably slip them something) so that we could paint undisturbed. After a while he got a grill going and suddenly we were having a barbecue with the security guards. Shortly afterwards Afeks told me that we could also paint the trains – a train costs 20 pesos. Of course I didn’t need to be told twice and was allowed to choose a model. However, as it got dark pretty quickly, the head of security came and gave me his flashlight to light me for the last 20 minutes. As a thank you he asked me to take a selfie. I thought that was good.
After a rather adventurous night with Dater, Plus, Parek and Serik, including contact with Metro Security, it was time for the final event in Mexico City. The inner walls of a basketball court were reserved for 6 artists and the lineup could hardly have been any tougher: Rime, Ewok, Trav, Dater, Kems and me. If someone had told me a few years ago that I would one day get the chance to paint a wall together with these heavy hitters in Mexico City, I would have just laughed. Last but not least, the homie NYCHOS came by, although he was painting a few trucks outside on the street. The joy of seeing each other again was still huge. All the other guys and girls were working on many walls around the area – all of course surrounded by an incredible number of visitors, fans and hangarounds. Unfortunately, later in the afternoon it was time for me to say adios amigos, because my plane was heading home. With a heavy heart, I left the arena and followed the rest of the Meeting of Styles from afar. In any case, the caravan continued to travel through the country for another two weeks, experienced spectacular moments and then split up after the grand finale – the Festival of the Dead. The MOS Mexico City was without a doubt one of the most intense and best graffiti events I have ever attended. Many thanks to Gerso and his gang for everything you put together.
