Art

We have our own way

Russian artist Pokras Lampas was commissioned to paint one of his trademark Calligraffiti works across the square in front of Lokomotiv Moskva’s stadium. The result is breathtaking

WORDS Michael Harrold | PHOTOGRAPHY Yura Borschev & Ernest Em

Home fans on their way to watch Lokomotiv Moskva walk across a giant painting that takes the term street art to a whole new level. Ground level – to be precise. It is the work of 27-year-old Russian artist

Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

“We have our own way” was the club’s tagline during the 2017/18 season and they lived up to those words with this stunning commission in their green and red colours over 11,000m² on the square outside the south stand of the stadium. The goal is to make a connection, provoke a response and share an experience, as Pokras Lampas himself explains.

For me football is about the powerful energy of the fans all coming together at the same time. That’s cool. I don’t watch football all the time, but I like global events like the World Cup and enjoy getting into the mood of the game and the people around me.

Football identities are striking and the colours are very important. It was great to work with green and red – the green areas are like the trees and grass; the red is like the colours of the leaves in the changing seasons. It was important to be in harmony with the club, but even more so with the people who will experience the work every day, and to really excite them.
I try to show how art can change the environment of an area. That’s why I usually work in public spaces and look at how we interact with them, and how we can educate each other through art. Calligraphy is a way of communication. It is a language form. I’m always looking at how we can connect and show the harmony of different languages and cultures through calligraphy. Multicultural connections, fusion and harmony are a global meaning of my art.

Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

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Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

Even fans from clubs like Zenit or Spartak would stop me in the street and say it was an awesome job and that they were jealous I was working with another club.

An aerial view of the finished work in front of the Lokomotiv Stadium (above); the artist at work (right); Pokras Lampas with one of the giant rollers he used to paint his Calligraffiti (above right)

The reaction to the work was awesome. We got a lot of attention in the media and also had a day to meet the fans and talk more about the project. It was cool that people who had been following me for years were happy to see me together with Lokomotiv. Even fans from clubs like Zenit or Spartak would stop me in the street and say it was an awesome job and that they were jealous I was working with another club.

It’s not just about sport. It’s more about a new experience. I’m trying to show that, in a world with so many countries and languages and ways of communicating and different interests, we don’t need to be divided and that we can make a sort of fusion this way. That’s why sport is a very good connection to start to speak about art and art is a very good point to start to think differently about sport.

I’m inspired by people who mix graffiti, street art and public art and how it can be used in different technologies and mediums. We are always evolving and finding new ways to express ourselves and that makes me happy. I’m trying to create a script, with different styles for each letter form. It won’t be based on one language or tradition, but will be a mix of shapes and inspirations from different parts of the world. You could find inspiration for one letter from Asia, or another from the East or Egypt or something from Europe or Japan. I want to show how cultures can live in harmony. I call this philosophy of mine Calligrafuturism.

It took half a year to complete. It was crazy. We had to do a lot of tests on the paint and how to prepare the public space for painting. Russia has such a big difference in temperatures, so it wasn’t easy. The composition was tricky because we had to consider that people would be coming from every direction; we had to think about how they would find the centre of the artwork. We had to think about how the composition would help guide fans to the stadium and take them through the space in a playful way. You also have to consider different points of view – from the stadium, from on the square or even from Google Maps.

It’s my Calligraffiti. I can’t get someone to write for me, but a team helped with things like the paint. We used 5,000 litres – a crazy amount – and it took one or two months to get the right paint in the right colours and prepare it for the treatment we were using. A lot of people helped with the technical aspects, but I had to do the artwork because it is my own.

I was really proud when it was finished, but I was super tired because I worked every day, every day, every day to make it right, to make it cool. When I got the final picture of how it looked I was amazed.

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Art

We have our own way

Russian artist Pokras Lampas was commissioned to paint one of his trademark Calligraffiti works across the square in front of Lokomotiv Moskva’s stadium. The result is breathtaking

WORDS Michael Harrold | PHOTOGRAPHY Yura Borschev & Ernest Em

Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

Read the full story

Sign up now to get access to this and every premium feature on Champions Journal. You will also get access to member-only competitions and offers. And you get all of that completely free!

Even fans from clubs like Zenit or Spartak would stop me in the street and say it was an awesome job and that they were jealous I was working with another club.

An aerial view of the finished work in front of the Lokomotiv Stadium (above); the artist at work (right); Pokras Lampas with one of the giant rollers he used to paint his Calligraffiti (above right)

Art

We have our own way

Russian artist Pokras Lampas was commissioned to paint one of his trademark Calligraffiti works across the square in front of Lokomotiv Moskva’s stadium. The result is breathtaking

WORDS Michael Harrold | PHOTOGRAPHY Yura Borschev & Ernest Em

Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

Read the full story

Sign up now to get access to this and every premium feature on Champions Journal. You will also get access to member-only competitions and offers. And you get all of that completely free!

Pokras Lampas, whose eye-catching Calligraffiti style is a fusion – as the name suggests – of calligraphy and graffiti, all played out on the grandest public canvases.

Even fans from clubs like Zenit or Spartak would stop me in the street and say it was an awesome job and that they were jealous I was working with another club.

An aerial view of the finished work in front of the Lokomotiv Stadium (above); the artist at work (right); Pokras Lampas with one of the giant rollers he used to paint his Calligraffiti (above right)