Menno Kluin Commits the Ultimate Charity Art Heist

Art has been known to historically alienate different members of society - encouraging the rich to devour its cultural creation and providing the poor with little opportunity to enjoy it.

Street art as a medium has attempted to reverse this phenomenon by bringing art to the streets for free and allowing anybody to access it. French street artist JR attempted to catch the attention of atypical museum visitors by exploring themes of freedom and identity when in 2009, he decorated the rooftops of one of the largest and most dangerous slums in Kibera, Kenya. However, despite living beneath the million dollar roofs, those below continued to live in squalid conditions.

Enter Deutsch NY, that has created an innovative new campaign for WATERisLIFE to help disperse some of the wealth and bring better sanitation to the area. The Art Heist for Good project dismantled JR's artwork, before it became completely dried out by the sun; transported it back to the US and sold off the first piece at auction in September - using the profit to install a water filter and build a permanent hand-washing station in Kibera.

ECD Menno Kluin (below) talks to shots about the inspirations for the project, actually carrying out the heist and the impact of creating a new advertising approach for charities.

Was there a brief from the client for the campaign? And if so, what was it?

You can’t write a brief for a project like this. A lot of our projects now are inspired in some way, shape or form from the experiences we’ve had on past shoots. We know the problems WATERisLIFE faces on a daily basis and now we just look for solutions to either communicate or solve for them.

What was the inspiration behind the campaign?

The idea started several years ago when we were shooting our 4-Year-olds-Bucket-List project (below), which won a gold film Lion back in 2014. We visited Kibera briefly and saw all of the artwork on top of the roofs. And the idea of taking them has been lingering in our heads ever since.

What were the challenges involved in creating the campaign? I’d imagine it wasn’t easy filming in the African slum of Kibera or distracting the locals and stealing the artwork…

Every single part of this campaign was a challenge. The first was actually taking the artwork. We had to go into Africa’s largest, most dangerous slum and convince people to give us their rooftops. The second was getting the art out of the country. And the third most challenging part was to find someone to buy this art given the unconventional circumstance of acquisition. 

In the end, we managed to do all three. But the whole time, we made sure to keep reminding ourselves that we were doing the right thing for the right cause.

Talk me through the planning process for the campaign.

Kristine Bender, president of WATERisLIFE, is the real behind-the-scenes hero for this and all of our projects. She has the relationships in the community to make it happen. We needed a security team of people who lived in the area, translators and laborers. But as much as we can plan for the circumstances we’ll encounter, there are always issues that can’t be accounted for.

How important was it to strike the balance between artistic execution and being socially conscious in the campaign?

This was the most important part of the project. We constantly reminded ourselves why we were doing this project – to raise money and save people’s lives. The artistic part will help communicate the idea to the masses, but at the end of the day, we did this project knowing that we could make a direct impact on the people of Kibera without having to ask for any donations.

What was the decision behind shooting in black and white?

It’s an art heist, plain and simple. Black and white not only makes it feel gritty, but resonates with the tone and feel that we were looking to convey in this project. 

How did that fit with the overall message and tone of the campaign?  

Black and white not only is also very forgiving in the edit room. This allowed us to be scrappy in the production process and move around fast.

The voiceover Kevin Meagher, who was also the copywriter on the project, gives the video a gritty feel. The music and editing style help propel that as well.

WATERisLIFE has produced a number of emotive yet creative campaigns, Such as First World Problems. What was it like working on a charity campaign? And how did you have to adjust your style to suit theirs?

First World Problems (below) was our first project with WATERisLIFE and the core team has always remained the same; Menno Kluin, Frank Cartagena and Sam Shepherd.

With that said, the style is very much defined by us. We try to do something completely different every time and break convention from what all of the other charities are doing at the moment by considering how we could get PR built into the idea and whether it would be something we would click on if a friend posted it on Facebook. In doing so, we’ve actually see a lot of other charities try to follow and imitate us in the process.