“We tried this time to organize like really fucking German way,” says one of the 7 anonymous graffiti writers from Kreuzberg. Positions on this massive 10 x 60 meter wall in Wynwood are spread far and wide, and it is astounding that 1UP has accomplished this much in only two days.

Graffiti crews may typically work fast and furious if the painting is illegal, but when Mana Public Arts gives you one of their largest and somewhat infamous walls during Art Week Miami 2021, the level of discipline and planning ratchets up another level.

“The crew worked 14-15 hours a day,” one tells us. “We paint into the night. Actually we have really super good street lights here. We also have some tripod lights, ’ he says as he recounts the list of requirements for materials they submitted to organizers before they could start this moonscape of the future.  “Lights, three lifts, paints in organized colors, brushes, ladders.”

The massive letters are rising from the sand (a nod to the beach town locale), and within the next three days those letters will probably be filled with tags and tributes to crews abroad and local – “Like the MSG over there is from Abstrk, for example,” says one of the 1Uppers about the guests who are joining in to bring the full roster to about 13 artists.

“Finok (VLOK), our friend from Brazil, is here,” he starts, “GIZ from New York, Fuzi UV TPK crew from Paris…” Naturally, some of these guys are in town for other events – Fuzi for example is in his own show opening this week at the Museum of Graffiti just a couple of blocks from here entitled “DEFACED” featuring a 360 degree fully painted immersive room with his signature figures and faces.

But right now, all eyes are on 1UPs massive wall in Wynwood.

“So it is kind of a movie planet, we don’t know which planet it is,” says one of the 1UP guys, “But it is a planet of the future – and there are all these Metro’s coming up out of the sand along with pyramids and street signs and figures… It’s growing now. I think that we have three more days to paint.”

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