Michel „Cren“ Pietsch, born in April 1970, now lives in Berlin and currently works in a studio in Berlin-Oberschöneweide / Köpenick.
On train journeys to France, Cren first encountered hip-hop culture in the early 1980s, when he discovered the new graffiti that was emerging along the railway line. A short time later, he began to design his own lettering with fascination – at the beginning with pens on paper. In 1989, Cren used the spray can for the first time. Since then, he has painted walls in more than 15 countries and on three continents with his lettering. The impressions he collects on his many journeys and in the exchange with numerous artists whom he gets to know around the world are incorporated into the development of his personal calligraphic compositions on a wide variety of image carriers in a process that has now lasted 31 years.
Scripture considers Cren to be his great passion. It is the source and to this day the basis of his artistic work. He sees Scripture as a central pillar of communication and as an essential everyday medium of information. In everyday life, however, it is usually perceived superficially and purely functionally.
