NUMERO TRE - MARC

We were a little late after the interview with Hood14, Marc is already waiting for us at the Rondò bar in Milan. In the car Anna asks us what is the name of that song where Drefgold says I write all the words. Tesla with Sfera Ebbasta is now playing, meanwhile we quickly find parking. There is some confusion, it's aperitivo time, but we find a table and despite the noise of the tram passing by there the chatter flows like our spritz through the straws.

S: So what's in your fanzine?
Marc: I would say it's a collection of moments from 2018 to the present, I tried to select some parts of my journey.

AC: Chronological approach or not?
Marc: The chronological approach is not on the fanzine but in the idea, in the sense that I made an excursus of the phases I enjoyed the most but then they are not in chronological order, it's kind of all mixed up.

AC: Have you never stopped?
Marc: Yes, I've been doing it since ever and now I've learned how to deal with it. It's always been a passion since I was a kid, it's never been a trendy thing, so there are times when maybe I'm not down with it and I don't do it and there are times when I'm pushing as hell. On average I've done 250 panels a year, that's still a few for me!

AC: Well..you're painting now, aren't you?
Marc: Yes yes, in this period I'm painting quite a bit. I hang around so much with the Sabo boys, who are as hyped as 16 year olds, but also i paint with Frize. When I am ok and I have time I do 4-5 panels a week.

AC: When did you start?
Marc: 2005. As kids we were hanging out at the station and happened to see Mind and Rud doing backjumps, we immediately went crazy.

AC: What does 152 mean?
Marc: It is the km of the road that passes by us! It used to be BZK152 but then Lemon came to us to tell that we couldn't. To be honest at the time I didn't even know who he was, but out of respect then it just stayed 152.

He asks Hello cigarette lighter cartina filters? and we answer all together No no no, thank you!

S: So you started with throw-ups?
Marc: Actually I really started with tags, in fact Marc was for that, from marker! Just tag, markers,the little kid with a backpack.

S: Did you already have foreign references?
Marc: I can't hide that I was born in the internet graffiti generation. I used to go to forums like Bombersboard, which was probably held Nemco. But I have to say that my idols kept over the years: Tomcat, a lot of people from Milan, WCA, VDS, the Oslo scene, but also old school people who I may not take inspiration from but who however always motivated me, like Dare. And then a lot of people from Paris: the NAVs, the PALs, the FDs.
After a few years I spent some time there. I remember once in the tunnel we met a cleaner. We got a little upset but then we went to talk to him to ask him if it was a problem if we painted and it turned out he was a UV guy. Paris is a very different place than Milan, people fight over nothing there, it's a little dark in some ways but there's an incredible scene. I came back because the covid came.

TLLT: Another city in Europe where you would love to live?
Marc: In Amsterdam, Athens it's great too, in Paris I would go back only if i get richahahahah I would go Poland, for me it's super underrated! I spent a month in Danziva because I was visiting a girl and Covid broke out then I was stuck there. It's all new because it was all restored with European Union funds, there's even wifi on the tram. They even caught me, I did 36 hours in jail.

TLLT: No! How did it happen?
Marc: I was doing throw-ups in the street and a guy on a bike called Police. They have banner ads in the street that say to call if you see someone who is writing in the street or stealing. By the way we were also drinking in the street, which you can't even do, so this guy followed us on his bike, we painted, stopped at another bar to drink and they blitzed us there. It was a little bit hard. Once you are inside there's not a lot to do, you don't know what time it is, but you also know that you're not there for a month, you just stand there and wait. In the end it was 36 hours. At one point a giant man enters. I'm like, "Speak English?", he didn't even answer!

TLLT: You do a little bit of everything, if you had to choose between tag, throw up, panels, what would you choose?
Marc: Throw up on the street, we did mostly street. Not being from the city, we had a less spontaneous approach, but more premeditated. We prepared the spots, the colors, the action. Because there are less people in the province, people get attached to what they see. We don't have the myth of Milan, there is no ambition to be everywhere. I notice this a little bit in all generations of writers in the area.
For me doing graffiti is a very instinctive thing. Over the years I got to realize that even if I set out to make sketches every time I paint, what I keep from them is just a detail. I don't have the ambition to make a masterpiece and to take an amazing picture, it's something that comes to me in the moment, I have my tricks that are the only effective limits I have. We already have too many rules in life, if I paint I want to be free and to have fun. However, my style has always been simple, without too much stuff, classical, spur-of-the-moment. Then maybe there are periods when I add something particular, but in general I always wanted to do things where you can see that I had fun. I never had the ambition to be the boss of Milan, I mean, what the fuck does that stuff mean. The important thing for me is being recognizable, through the stroke or just the spots you choose or how you do things in general.

S: What is your relationship with seriality? Are there people who are always doing the same piece, the same tag, what do you think about that? Do you always want to do different things?
Marc: The important thing is that it's recognizable. One thing that made me proud is that even when changing tags, people always knew it was me. And it's not just a matter of style in my opinion: it's also how you do it, where you do it.

AC: Why "Catch"?
Marc: It's to scare people, sooner or later it happens, it's a reminder! Ahahahah then eventually doing Marc for quite a few years I got stuck in shapes and wanted to change. Now I feel like I have more flow, more instinct.

AC: When I saw the Catch panel with the chrome background on Milano Finest I thought it was the first time I saw this thing work.
Marc: This stuff here is a bit of a 152 taboo. What had happened was that a thousand years ago we did this fucking silver background because it was the only color we had left...we did it out of necessity. Then for a year people would say, "oh it's great that silver background" and we triggered. From there it became our brand. It works because it makes a lot of contrast. For me chrome is the most versatile color.

S: And do you have any references outside of graffiti? What inspires you?
Marc: Anything. I like the entrances of the buildings in Milan, I'm struck by the color combinations with the reflections of a light that I see while walking. In that sense I think that if I hadn't approached Graffiti I wouldn't have this filter on reality, I have a somewhat photographic approach. For example maybe one night I could see a dark blue floor with the reflection of a neon light then I remember and I put the desaturated background with the flashy color highlights.

S: What would you say to someone who is approaching graffiti right now?
Marc: I would say to not get into the cliché. I think being too academic, getting inspired only by graffiti and getting into the circuit of just looking at others, it is too easy.
The important thing is to go for the fun part, the self-expression and do things because you like them. There is so much communication about graffiti today but you have to do a little bit of what you want!

S: What's the fun part?
Marc: Deciding what to do, catching up with people you want to paint with, maybe adding something you haven't done before, drinking beer and finishing sprays around. That's it, I like to keep it genuine!

We stop the recording after more than an hour, after also recording theories and plots that is better not to write down. Everyone after the interview goes their separate ways, all satisfied and smiling, it was all very natural, spontaneous.
Marc is one of those people who writes all the words and has been writing them for a long time: we learned that his name has been for so long that of a graffiti tool, the marker, and now he is a memento for all the other writers, Catch. We don't know if he ever thought about it, but if the next one were to represent his approach to the game it would definitely be Fun, although we don't know if he likes those three letters to draw or not.