Icy & Sot

Censorship and Streets

"Everything is harder for Iranians, especially if you're living in Iran." Icy & Sot emphasized this to me, hours before they set out to open their solo exhibition at MOCO Museum in Amsterdam. I marveled at how incredible it is that two brothers from Tabriz, Iran, despite the unjust intersections of life, are enjoying a major showcase in the art center of Amsterdam. I was struck by a notebook example of how street culture and street art can impact the lives of people worldwide.

Growing up in the turbulent Iran of the 1990s, the brothers got hooked on skateboarding culture and everything that comes along with it: the visuals, sounds, attitudes and worldviews from the streets, parking lots and skateparks around the world. Eventually, skateboarding found its way to their hometown. Through skate videos and games, the brothers discovered the alluring world of stickers and stencils and new ways of interacting with their surrounding environment. Quickly, street art became their main form of expression. A decade later, they began to make sculptures and installations worldwide, from all across the US to Belgium and Berlin, having solo exhibitions everywhere from LA to this most recent one in Amsterdam.

Allowing their work and interests to grow while traveling the world, Icy & Sot, now based in Brooklyn, recently started creating some of the most momentous, politically engaged works within street art, with sculptural and in-situ works grounded in the intense life experiences and the harsh reality they endured in Iran. Considering what their destiny might be, and how their lives might develop if not for all those early influences, we can measure and better appreciate the mighty impact of street culture.

Sasha Bogojev: Do you remember what triggered your interest in creating art?