ELNINO76Jolly Roger

A native of Charleroi, ELNINO76 started drawing as a child and came to graffiti through skate culture. He studied art, but his real education came from the street, abandoned lots and work experience. In the 1990s, he took an active role in the world of Belgian graffiti where he honed his technique and his universe, always within the group dynamic so essential to his practice. He also works on major situational murals and sculptures.

The graffiti artist’s first individual exhibition centres on the Jolly Roger, the pirates’ famous black flag. The artist displays his approach to piracy, both as a desire for freedom, travel and camaraderie, and through graffiti-linked rules and codes that give rise to marginalized practices often associated with vandalism. The skull and crossbones is a recurring motif that ELNINO76 pursues in his work, like a mantra, reminding us that we must live life to the full, here and now. He uses the pirates’ talisman to examine the subject of the vanities in major works created exclusively for his exhibition at the BPS22.