Takeover #15 MAFM
to record the ephemeral
I used to see a lot of REPS in the streets. Today a lot of them are gone: cleaned, covered, forgotten. I wish I could have saved the most beautiful.
Only for the Takeovers my text will be in italic, just to distinguish it from the guest’s. My name is Federico and welcome to Representations of Architecture #41.
Intro
Tags and Throw-ups, despite being produced with indelible colors, have a relatively short life. They are easily absorbed by the urban landscape and their freshness depends on the spot, the writer's skills but above all on uncontrollable factors. These forms of expression can have a lifespan of years or a few hours. Their living on the street makes them subject to any kind of eventuality.
In the MAFM Miniatures the roughness of the street is perfectly expressed. Models representing the same subject but made in a clean and surgical way with polished materials would, on the contrary, be "fake": not credible.
MAFM creations are small pieces of cities that host thow-ups. Dioramas that instead of representing an idyllic elven landscape or fantastic elements give us a 3D snapshot of unexpected city corners. Their miniatures are like action figures from the graffiti world. Through recycled materials belonging to the street, MAFM condense moments of urban perfection with a sincerity of purpose that is moving.
Insights
We are a creative collective based in Rome, since adolescence we have been fans of urban culture in all its different forms. Our purpose is to create the opportunity to have a piece of the street right in the houses of our collectors. With our main product: The Miniatures we are starting from a picture of important graffiti and street artists and we reproduce their most iconic spots. The Miniatures are entirely handmade with natural cardboard and acrylic colors.
MAFM is also able to create almost any kind of model, miniature, objects on commission.
This is a classic example of our work in collaboration with the NYC graffiti artist Nemz Tis, XTC crew:
a variation of this process was the collab with the Italian crew Bologna Bombers where we adapted their throw-up (drawings of bubble letters designed for quick execution usually consisting of artist's name and only two colors) on the roller shutters of the famous arcades of their city. Here is it the Chob piece:
Another piece where the combination of the artwork with the location is perfect is this one that is part of the series in collaboration with 7Linertstudio, side project of the artist Duel of New York City:
Very beautiful links
StockX: the biggest secondary market for streetwear, sneakers, collectibles and other stuff that we like.
The Toy Chronicle: all the latest news about art toys.
Sweet IG pages
Some pages of people we have collaborated with:
Misc
Talking about something bigger, we recently created an entire facade of the Cassino town hall building designed by the architect Massimiliano Fuksas, where our friends from MOTOREFISICO painted their artworks. This artwork its currently displayed until June 24 2022 at the group exibition “When the Walls Become Canvas” hosted by Galleria Rosso 20 Sette, Via del Sudario n. 39 - Rome, Italy
Thanks Flavio and the MAFM team for your time, this was great.
Enjoy your weekend kids, see you next week!
CIAO
Federico