Three French graffiti artists, witness to the Terror attacks in Mumbai, will paint the heroes and victims of the carnage on street walls, when they visit Delhi next week

Last week, French graffiti artists Dezer, Keflione and Migwel were planning a “very Bollywood tribute” to Mumbai when the guns started blazing. “We were staying at Four Seasons, a new five-star hotel and we didn’t know if it was on the hit list,” says 24-year-old Keflione. Even as news spread that terrorists were targeting white tourists, the trio did what defines their chosen art form — they defiantly took taxi rides at night. “If we’d hidden scared, the terrorists would have won,” says Dezer, 33, a prominent name in the world of graffiti art.

In the next few days, the three will “paint the martyrs, victims and bravehearts who fought to liberate Mumbai” on a memorial wall. A similar sentiment will dominate when they visit Delhi for the “First Graffiti Artists’ Week,” being organised by Alliance Francaise starting December 10.

Myriam Kryger, director of Alliance Francaise, Delhi, who is personally overseeing the project says, the initial plan was to spread awareness about graffiti art in Delhi. “The art form is very common in Europe but almost non-existent in India. That’s why we chose some among the best names to bring to Delhi,” she says.

Dezer’s works always have a political message and he’s gearing up to show people that the Mumbai attacks are a tragedy not just for Indians, but for foreigners like him too. Despite a degree in fine arts, Dezer does not like painting on canvases and prefers the walls of the street. “The very act of painting on the street is an act of individual self-assertion for me. A canvas belongs to the artist or the buyer, street art belongs to everybody,” he says. When he isn’t brandishing his spray cans of colour, Dezer immerses himself in Bollywood music. “I have 200 gramaphone records of Hindi music greats like Lata Mangeshkar and RD Burman,” he says, adding that he plans to increase his collection while in Delhi.

Unlike him, however, Keflione seeks to humour his observers by playing around with letters and fonts. “As far as I’m concerned, graffiti art is about making the city more colourful. Back home in France, there are walls where one can express oneself but I found space in Mumbai, too,” says Keflione, whose art has a bubble-gum appearance. In Bandra, he painted pink pigeons because “people would find it fun,” in a slum school in Dharavi, he painted a green teddy bear because “flashy colours make kids happier than drab brown”.

Migwel, 29, loves faces and figures and recalls times when he was shooed away by people who had caught him painting on their walls. “I would then paint ugly portraits of them,” he recalls laughing. In Mumbai, he rewarded a generous house owner by painting a lovely picture of him on the wall. “I love old walls and hope Delhi has lots of these. Old walls have stories and character that new buildings lack,” he says. He has traveled to New York, Spain, England by himself and to Brunei and Malaysia with Dezer and Keflione, leaving his signature figures on the walls. It’s their first trip to Delhi and they promise to leave the city more colourful than they find it.