Les Travailleurs de la Nuit

Born in Brussels, Pablo Sozyone Gonzalez has been working on line, form and rhythm for over 30 years. Coming from a proud and modest Asturian family, fleeing Franco's Spain, but with the joie de vivre and the bestial humor of a noisy pack, Pablo quickly felt free to think and do what he wanted, where he wanted, in his city, Brussels.

In 1988, at the age of 15, he meets Smimooz, his faithful artistic partner on the benches of St Luc, where he discovers and integrates the techniques of the great masters and is passionate about art history. Together, they will start by tagging everything and anything, signing with his artistic avatar: Sozyone, while writing the first texts and rhymes of the group De Puta Madre. 

In a few years, Sozyone becomes a reference in Belgium, for his music, his texts and his paintings. In 1994, he meets Claire, with whom he lives and works on each of his projects, presenting her as his 'secret weapon'. Together they developed one of the main characteristics of Sozyone's work: colors (Pablo is colorblind).

In 2000, Claire and Sozyone opened the first art gallery dedicated to Graffiti in Europe, INK Gallery in Brussels. They organized the first exhibition of Fredéric Platéus, Olivier Kosta-Théfaine, Honet... 

From 2001 to 2003, he created the brand Twelve Inch in France. At the same time, Sozyone became artistic director of Ticket magazine, and then created the magazine Voxer. The taste for publishing will never leave him. 

In 2004, Sozyone made the leap to the gallery and exhibited "One Million Murders" (ALICE Gallery). During this period (from 2003 to 2013), he works on a single concept "La Voyoucratie". Portraying the most beautiful specimens of the milieu, the French anarchists on bicycles, in front-wheel drive or in BMWs, the German terrorists of the "patte d'eph" years, the old-timers of the Port of Marseilles, the reds of Spain, the gangs of the streets of New York, the white gloves of the Place Vendôme... A romanticized universe with aromas of poppy and gunpowder, whose profile would have a broken nose and a bestial look. 

In 2013, Sozyone joined Jaba Mathieu for a 2-year adventure. Between Singapore, Los Angeles and Valencia, they will develop, write, draw and finalize "Enemies", an intergalactic comic book of 142 pages (Éditions Ankama, October 2015). In 2015, Sozyone opens a new chapter with "Cabaret Bordels": A carefree universe whose characters with casual looks and peaceful attitudes, almost inert, wander en masse in the nerve of a cold metropolis, waiting for an attack or a destructive wave, phone in hand, thinking to immortalize the moment, whatever it is. In response, Sozyone paints those who take the time to appreciate the present, a chickadee landing on their head. 

In 2018, the city of Liege entrusts him with a double facade of more than 1200m2 of surface, which will see the emergence of: "The Man of the Meuse", his ante-apocalyptic masterpiece, today considered by many of its citizens as their emblem. That same year, he opens a gallery in the center of Brussels, which serves as his laboratory: ULTRADADA. A space where art is free of any commercial constraint, exhibiting some "unposable" artists because of their commitment or simply because they no longer identify with the current art world. 

From this experience, Sozyone and Griffin launch SAUVAGE, a survival project that they develop at the beginning of the pandemic crisis. During the month of May 2020, the first issue was released, which sold out in less than 24 hours without promotion and in full confinement, at the risk of being ticketed. Consolidating the idea that the curious continue to appreciate physical objects and publications, in an era where virtual images surround us, unrolled with a flick of the thumb on our smart phones. By the 4th issue, SAUVAGE magazines, now with a print run of 200, sell out in less than an hour. 

This same strange period, allows Smimooz and Sozyone to meet in studio to record a new album under a new name: GRISBI. A project mixing music, texts, paintings, posters and cartoons, whose release date is planned for spring 2021. 

Currently, Sozyone is working in a studio and in a team, preparing an exhibition of new work in Hamburg (GOLDEN HANDS Gallery). 

Constantly searching for new forms and media, he works with steel, sculpts clay, empties bombs, tears paper and tries his hand at virtual reality in order to respond to these visions that no longer have any technical limits.