Livestress Ordinary is the podcast from the BBC World Service bringing you extraordinary personal stories from around the globe.

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Today we're meeting a man who creates artworks using the walls around us.

It's a dance between materials, history, time, layers, a process of incorporating mistake,

the fragility of the wall.

Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service.

I'm Abby McNeil and this week we're following the work of the extraordinary Portuguese artist and urban archaeologist,

Alexandre Fato, also known as Vils, whose works you can find in streets and galleries in over 30 countries around the world,

from Brazil and the US to Senegal, Vietnam and Australia.

I'm just going to curve and instead of painting with my colours that I want,

I will paint with the leaves of history that are underneath the surface of the wall.

We often follow creators as they're thinking about and making their works in the quiet of their studios or rehearsal rooms,

but Vils is working in a much more public and noisy space.

Today he's in Paris on the left bank of the French capital.

Vils is crafting an incredible 31 meter mural in the courtyard entrance of the Inesco headquarters.

His methods are quite unusual in that he's using a technique called Barrelier Carving.

So instead of painting something on the wall, he's actually scraping away with chisels and even hammer drills.

He's engraving the artwork inside of the wall.

The strength of a white wall, it's sometimes frightening, but also, you know, it's the beginning of a story when you start the car.

I'm just approaching the wall between them, just being informed about it.

I'll be happy.

I'll be happy.

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