The new MONTANA-CANS LOOKBOOK 2018 out now featuring special MONTANA-CANS products, brand collaborations, events and artists. At MONTANA-CANS we benefit, as a team and as company, from working closely with creative heads, our friends and partners. In return, it is our pleasure to support events, projects and artists. In our opinion, a fruitful cooperation is the source for creativity, development and growth on all levels. We are fortunate and grateful for the fact that we are approached by artists and collaboration partners alike, who have incredible ideas and inspirations, is something that we are very thankful for. Also check the previous issues MONTANA-CANS LOOKBOOK 2016 and 2017
APTART
APTART Montana Cans: I bet you have seen, learn't, listened to and experienced so many life changing experiences though aptART, but do you have any significant one you want to tell us about? Samantha: Every experience taught me something, but I don’t think one experience sticks out. Certain people stick in your mind though. There was this one 8 years old kid name Mohamed from Syria. He lived in Zaatari refugee camp and I am pretty sure he is still there. He had a learning disorder and at school his teachers didn’t have the chance to help him. During a workshop with Jumana Hokan—one of the artists—she asked him to tell her about himself. He told her that he didn’t know how to read or write but he knew how to draw because she taught him how to draw. Mohamed also asked us to bring him an umbrella. He must have asked us every day for a month straight. No one knew why he wanted it and when we asked, he would tell us to stop asking silly questions and just bring it. On our last day in his section of the camp, we brought him an umbrella. He grabbed it with a massive smile and shouted: “Shukran”, as he ran off. We still have no idea why he wanted the umbrella, but maybe that doesn’t matter. Montana Cans: In which sense has Montana Cans have helped aptART to keep going and doing what you guys do at the organization? Samantha: The love of spray paint is universal. It transcends age, gender, nationality and religion. Everyone loves to press that nozzle and watch colorful magic spew out into the world. It’s pretty special to be able to give kids the opportunity to use a spray can, but also such vibrant colors and high-quality paint. There is always a look of sheer joy across a child’s face as they blast paint onto a wall. Also, the spray paint available in most of the countries we work is pretty poor quality so for artists it can be critical for the quality of the art. Any and every project we have asked Montana Cans to support us, they have done it! I met them through Herakut back in 2012. Alex was super supportive with the idea of the work we do and offered to send us some cans to the Democratic Republic of Congo where we were painting an ambulance with street girls. There was a lot of violence and displacement in Congo at that time and needless to say, it was a logistical challenge but the Montana guys made it happen. They have been making it happen for us all over the world ever since. The future projects of aptART involves an upcoming book, next to Jonathan Darby. It’s slowly going but will be a retrospective of sorts chronicling the past seven years of work. Samantha would really like to do some work with communities in Mosul, Iraq as they rebuild and she is also looking forward to a project in Greece, at the camps for newly arrived refugees. “I always have a million and one ideas but… like everything, it’s just a matter of finding the funding”, concludes Samantha. www.aptart.org Photography by Apt Art/ Samantha Robison, Falk Lehmann 140
