Meet Eltono: Beijing’s Newest Street Artist

Those of you who attended our 2011 Reader Bar + Club Awards might still be finding wayward pieces of confetti in the corner of your living room, in your shoes, maybe even in your underwear drawer.

Now, meet the man responsible. French street artist Eltono was based in Madrid for the last decade, but now calls Beijing home. Though he started his career with the usual tools of the trade – spray paint cans – his practice soon morphed into using acrylic paints and stencils to draw geometric graphics alluding to Escher-like tuning forks. His name morphed with him into its current incarnation, “Eltono” being a play on the Spanish for “tone” (hence the tuning fork imagery).

He bounced off on a world art tour shortly after pulling off the glittery piece de resistance at our B+C Awards, but we were lucky enough to catch him between hops to tell us a little more about the future of his art in Beijing.

Tell us about the piece you did for our Bar + Club Awards:
The idea was to do an interactive artwork where the people is part of the process and where the final result depends on their participation. Then the use of confetti always means it's going to be a big party! I like to think about art pieces that people can be part of it and enjoy.

Why Beijing, why now?
After living for 11 years in Madrid, I wanted to move somewhere else. Sierra, my girlfriend told me what about China? And I just said, let's go!

Have you done other public art in Beijing yet? Any in the works?
I did some pieces in the street and also in Guangxi and Hainan. I also did some experiments in my neighborhood.

After having done street art all over the world, can you tell us what's distinct or interesting about the Beijing scene?
The first big difference with cities like Madrid, Buenos Aires or Berlin is that they are over saturated with graffiti and street-art. In Beijing there is not that much happening in the street, except for the advertisements with phone numbers painted everywhere! Then what I miss the most is genuine Chinese art in the street and not only copy of western street-art. With such beautiful characters why Chinese graffiti artists keep on using western alphabet when doing graffiti?

Is there anything you've seen on Beijing's streets that's really stopped you in your tracks?
Yes, the phone numbers painted on the floor and the small posters stuck by thousands on the walls!

It definitely has an influence on my work and some experiments I am testing in the street are based on the observation and re-interpretation of these things.

How do you find sites for your public art? In Beijing, would you need to seek official permission or use spaces that are "sanctioned" for public art, for example in 798?
When I work independently, I always work wherever I want to. If there is an area where public art is legal, I will probably not go and paint there, I want my painting to be unexpected for the public.

If you could do a public project on any surface in Beijing, what would you choose, what would it look like, and why?
I'd love to do a residency in a popular neighborhood in the suburb and paint people houses. I'd love to do a big mural painting in the city also, there is a lot of interesting buildings to paint on.

Your name evolved as you spent time in Spain. How might it evolve here in Beijing? Do you have a Chinese name yet?
I do have a Chinese name. But the evolution is happening within my graphics, I am already adding some Chinese radicals to my street paintings!

What new significance might the idea of "tone" and your trademark tuning fork iconography have here in Beijing?
I didn't thought about that but it is true that the tones are very important in Chinese, I might think about that and develop something special... I'll let you know!!!

Photos from eltono.com and TheBeijinger.com Gallery.