Jeremy Weisz 18:10
How did you find him, or did he find you in this space?
Nicolas Munn Rico 18:16
It’s a long, lasting relationship. Yeah, he was one of the first supporters of Mural Festival when we started at the beginning, he came to our launch events and show public support to us. And the relationship started like that.
Jeremy Weisz 18:32
Love it so I could see it. So phase one was kind of like, okay, we’re building these spaces, products. Phase two is licensing, and you kind of see some of the like we saw, probably, I don’t know if Jose Cuervo kind of goes under that category, and Aldo, what was the next phase?
Nicolas Munn Rico 18:54
So it’s kind of the one we are in right now, and it’s been a long, lasting dream that we are slowly working on, which is reshaping a little bit the company into becoming an artist agency. So we started as the production towards licensing, and now there’s some artists that we really have a special and unique connection with, where we really want to build them specifically, not just connect them with opportunities, but really like build and now the goal is to structure ourselves, to represent those artists in the commercial world. I mean, we couldn’t pretend that to be a gallery.
We’re not a gallery, so we don’t touch the stuff that a gallery does. But everything commercial, we want to represent those artists, so we’re slowly building our roster towards the next phase, which would be to build this agency that represent artists. And that’s what we are in right now. It’s really a passionate moment right now for us, because everything’s new and we only work with, obviously, we do connect artists with brands constantly. We have, the roster is ginormous, but the exclusive part of it is what we’re building right now, because we have a special relationship with some of them. We became friends. We have a common vision, and that’s what we want to focus on right now.
Jeremy Weisz 20:19
Yeah, it all kind of flows together, right? It’s like, okay, there is still all of them going in at the same time. It’s like, okay, it’s not like we’ve entered phase two. It’s like, there’s still production going on, still licensing going on, and still the whole artist agency going on. Talk about the licensing piece. That’s interesting, is the artist kind of participating in that? If they create some specific, like these 10 Special Edition bottles. Or how does it work from the artist’s side?
Nicolas Munn Rico 20:53
Well, we make sure that everything is clear, right off the bat in terms of how many are printed, how many are done, where they’re distributed, etc. Because the formula of licensing. You just need to really understand where the produce, how much produce will be done, etc, etc. So that’s really to frame the client’s desire there, to really build a proper licensing program and then to follow it afterwards. But I think it’s a nice model because it doesn’t involve too much production work as well. So it’s free. It’s a leaner process, which we all appreciate.
But then for me personally, that part of it has always been like kind of a passion project, because just as a, just as, like a little funny story, like when I was a kid, I remember I was obsessed with those lollipops called chipotopes, and I remember my grandfather, which is one of the person who was my mentor, and really got me into art as well. He told me, this is designed, the logo has been designed by Salvador Dali and blew my mind, because he was obviously one of my favorite artists. And it was like, how can this be connected together?
Jeremy Weisz 22:11
Yeah, because we visualize him in a museum, his stuff in a museum, not like on a lollipop rapper. So, yeah.
Nicolas Munn Rico 22:20
Exactly. So it’s kind of like, for me, that’s where it’s that’s where it stemmed this desire, this strange mix of brand and artists, which, to me, seems so strange at the time. So I kind of like wanted to crack that code my whole life. And I think it kind of drove me to build this in my life as well. So for me, it’s seeing artists on brands and products has always kind of been a passion. And when I can feel them, touch them, or, in the case of Jose Cuervo, I have a little sip of them, like I just feel proud. I just feel like it’s a good accomplishment of Rome.
Jeremy Weisz 22:55
Yeah, and we’re looking here at the Jose Cuervo and that’s really cool. They did it on their 222nd anniversary. It looks like, and they had limited edition bottles. Obviously, those limited edition bottles sold out in weeks. So kind of like a really cool way to give tribute to the company on the anniversary.
Nicolas Munn Rico 23:18
Yes, there’s always a brief somewhere, like, for example, yeah, here’s the anniversary. And then they give us, like, some guidelines, and they give the artist some feedback on the company and their desires, and some funny stories or, or sometimes they will have the artist travel to the factory or meet the workers, or meet the team, just to really immersed the artist into the products. So then it really created this genuine collaboration. This was a beautiful project. I still have the box here, and the packaging was amazing. It was overall, like a really good experience.
Jeremy Weisz 23:53
So then, a little bit after LNDMRK enters Mural Festival, which is a really great piece of serving the community, networking with a lot of different people, and becoming kind of the hub. So talk about maybe some of the challenges on doing that. I mean it sounds amazing, but it’s a lot of work. And there’s a cool video here talk about some of the challenges of putting this on.
Nicolas Munn Rico 24:27
You can maybe choose the video about the festival. There’s one of them is a recap of the event. I’ll let you find it for a second. It’s not this one, the other one. Okay, perfect. You can put this one in the background just to show because obviously I think I would say that one of the biggest challenges of Mural Fest was that it became very big very quickly, and that was kind of a good problem. I guess, right, it’s a good problem to have. And I think, when you don’t really understand the scope of things, when I think we were a little too young to really understand the way that we’re putting on our shoulder. But I would say, again, we were leading by passion for us, nothing was impossible. And our vision was to create this Mural event, then we connected with this Merchant Association, which said to us, do you want to take over that street closure as well?
Because this will be a great occasion to frame it with dates you guys take over the street closure. The street closure was kind of like this need, needed a lot of love, per se, I would try to be with nice adjective, need a lot of love. The neighborhood needed a lot of love. So they were kind of like, take over the street closure. Frame it as the Mural Festival. Give us programming on the street, paint on the walls, etc. And then with our endless ambition at the time, we also kind of rented the parking lots that were available on the street and set up stage.
Jeremy Weisz 25:51
There’s a lot of logistics involved in this. I mean, at this point you need, like, security, traffic control, you need all these things, and you’re like, listen, we just want to have an event. And there’s a lot involved.
Nicolas Munn Rico 26:02
There is a lot involved. And I mean, over the years now we understand how to make all those things, but everything had to be learned from scratch, to be honest. And I think I would kind of define us as pure entrepreneurship spirit, where we didn’t even have the school background to do all those things. So basically, it was all like pure will, and we really worked hard with our muscles. Now we’re working a little bit more with our brains, but I think one of the biggest challenge, one was the size and respect, be able to finance the festival and respect the integrity of the artist and the movement we were representing at the same time we are mostly representing, the muralism community, but it was over overall, also crossing with the graffiti community.
And then we just needed to understand a bit more about how these things works and how, it’s not just about the city politics and the brand politics. It’s also about, I would say, the street politics as well, and how artists works amongst themselves. There’s tons of layering there as well. So learning all this was a pretty aggressive learning curve, to be honest, in all the fronts and all the sides. But I think we managed to find a good middle ground. Because hey, we’re still here 12 years after, always bigger and better. We invited all the biggest artists to Montreal. We managed to probably like, right now, our collection of walls in Montreal is probably around 125 walls standing at the moment. We did showcase so many local artists, kickstarted so many careers as well.
Jeremy Weisz 27:42
We can see this resulting. It’s really cool stuff on this video.
Nicolas Munn Rico 27:45
Yes. You can also see that we’re trying some stuff out, you know, like trying to push the movement further as well. So we do projection mapping on the walls, try to change the aspect of things. You know, we started to do theatrical play around the Murals as well, set up block parties near the walls as well. I think one of the other challenges was kind of the democratization of the movement at the beginning, because I would say we could put a poster out and say, hey, we’re inviting Shepard Fairey in Montreal. At the time, no one knew who anyone was. So it was kind of a challenge at this time. So we were, hey, this here, all these cool artists were bringing to Montreal, and literally, like maybe 5% of the population would know who it was.
So for us, it was about finding a recipe that allowed people to come and discover that over time and become experts themselves. And for us, the street closure and the music were kind of key elements, aspect of generating mass amount of people, immerse them in the event and surround them with art and have them ask the question themselves and find out about the artist on the spot, and over time, it created this education. And now people know a lot more about muralism and these artists and etc. There’s so many more organisms doing murals in Montreal, but we kind of differentiated ourselves by this is a celebration. This is an event.
This is the moment to celebrate all of us, all the artists, all the collective and do it all together at once and exchange together. That’s kind of like was our thing that would different soul aspect, I would say. But yeah, there’s tons of challenges. I could go on and on and talk for hours about so many challenges, but I think I kind of isolated a few here.
Jeremy Weisz 29:40
Why do you think it took off so quickly? Because a lot of people put on events and try things, and no one shows up.
Nicolas Munn Rico 29:49
I think, I mean, it’s hard to point out. I would say one thing is, there was a desire for a big art event. I think Montreal is a big festival city, and I think there was nothing of its kind. There was and still is a graffiti festival called a fest. And it’s really, it was there, but we just brought a new life and a new scale, and I think that’s what was interesting, and it emerged with urban culture, like hip hop and muralism and all the local brands and etc. Like it really had this unique recipe. And I would say, also, something that I now think it can point on, is, I think there was nothing for the generation that we were presenting at the time. And when I say that is, there was those big Jazz Festival, there was those big just-for-laugh festival, etc, but they were not speaking to our Generation at the time, and they didn’t have a programming that was adapted at the time.
There was no hip-hop in the festival. There was nothing talking to the 20-year-old at the time 20 to 30-year-old, I would say. And then, and we kind of came in and say, Let’s take that space. No, let’s give them what we want to see. You know, what we want to see is what they want to see. Let’s bring something that we all want to enjoy, and not go to these. And I think overall, these festival adapted and became super awesome again, but it was a bucket of time where it kind of was a little bit more bland. And without disrespect, I think they’re doing amazing work, but I think it was that’s kind of when we came into play, and it brought so much colors and novelty that, like, I think it turned ahead really quickly, in a way. But that’s, I think, would say, is my own analysis of things. And I say also something that was differentiating, is the walls, they stay afterwards. And the event comes and goes. Yes, the celebration, but the walls stay there. So it does this rejuvenation aspect that is not just a big party also, it stays there.
Jeremy Weisz 31:55
It’s long lasting. Yeah, I could totally see how it revitalizes certain areas, or if they are nice, it just makes them look super interesting and nice. I know we only have a few more minutes. Nicholas, I wanted to just talk about the team. What’s the team look like behind LNDMRK and Mural?
Nicolas Munn Rico 32:17
We are lucky because of the team.
Jeremy Weisz 32:19
This is one of my favorites. But I just have to say this, looking up Bob on this field, these hands grabbing each other, is crazy. And it looks like they kind of like spray painted, It’s incredible how they created this.
Nicolas Munn Rico 32:34
I know this is the crazy part is because even when you’re in front, you don’t even see it. You need to be, like, really taking an angle to see that part. And that was part of a project of site European artists, and he’s doing those hands shakes all around the world and connecting communities and connecting the world together as kind of his message. And it was his first in North America, and it was kind of a very specific project, because as you see, it’s a unique cannabis right? We’re painting on the Mount Royal, which is hard to think about with all the layering of rules and etc, surrounding parks and city etc. But he used kind of an ancestral technique that’s biodegradable.
Sorry, I’m trying to find the right word, but with egg shells and ash and something that was like an ancient technique, and that goes away with time and without damaging the ecosystem, and also kind of touches on the ephemeral part of street art, which sometimes appear and disappear really fast. So that piece was lasting for approximately a month for people to enjoy, and then we kind of became part of this gigantic campaign of love and community that this artist was bringing to a show, a beautiful project, one of my favorites as well.
Jeremy Weisz 33:47
So quickly, I know we have a minute, but about the team a little bit.
Nicolas Munn Rico 33:51
Yeah. So we have a, I would say, a very small team overall. I think I would say, Mural Festival, approximately 10 people, LNDMRK, approximately 10 people, and very similar dynamic in terms of who does what. But we are lucky that our people are really passionate and have been with us for a very long time. I would say, even I would say, maybe 1/3 of the staff right now, and the team and I have been there for, maybe since the beginning. So, I can see how passionate they are, and it’s amazing. And growing with them is also being an amazing experience. So without them, nothing’s possible, obviously, and it’s always feel like home going back to the office.
Jeremy Weisz 34:41
Nicholas, I want to be the first one to thank you. Thanks for sharing the journey. This is fascinating. Everyone can check out landmark.com and check out muralfestival.com as well, and we’ll see everyone next time. Nicholas, thanks so much.
Nicolas Munn Rico 34:57
Thank you, Jeremy.
