Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

As a graffiti artist Brit artist Paul Curtis operates under the alias Moose. But he shuns paint and aerosols. He got the idea for his ‘reverse graffiti’ when he saw a couple etching their names in the dirt in his hometown Leeds. Moose makes patterns and drawings by scrubbing the dirt off walls. He calls it “a completely ecologically driven guerrilla-style operation.”

Moose has applied his graffiti to walls, tunnels and pavements in London, Barcelona, Paris, and New York and is considered a “sustainable version of Banksy”. The authorities don’t really know what to make of Moose: Graffiti is strictly forbidden in most places, but does scrubbing walls clean fall under vandalism?

Moose does not only produce street art, he also offers the technique for advertising means with his company Symbollix. He quite literally brings advertisements for Xbox or Smirnoff to the customer’s doorstep.

A few days before the start of the game is up, Moose will come to Ghent to get to work in the streets. He will apply the logo of the game is up logo to several walls with reverse graffiti. The biggest drawing can be admired on the quay behind Vooruit.

Moose will also release seed bombs in Ghent. These are clumps of earth containing seeds of plants that used to grow in these parts, but have died out. Moose will drop the bombs on a few random places in the city: on the pavement, between bricks, at the water’s edge… With the first rain, the mud will be washed away, allowing the seeds to find their way through the city. A little while later, tiny plants that had become a rare sight in the city will sprout.

www.symbollix.com