PJ Martini, BMX is shared art and individual discovery

“When I’m riding BMX I have this feeling of being an artist painting, or a musician playing: BMX is a very powerful means of personal expression. That’s why I don’t think there are better riders than others, everyone simply has their own way of expressing themselves on two wheels.” PJ Martini fixes his hat after a quick bunny hop, around him impassive cars whizz on a metallic Parisian bridge.

His BMX has just frescoed a no man’s land, composing a symphony graced by distracted eyes, lost between traffic lights and pressing commitments infusing a brief moment of peace. The metropolitan area, in the mind of this rider of Corsican origins, is a precious map dotted with mental landmarks, blank canvases on which to express talent, an imaginative playground and emotional escape. Urban equilibrist, and road artiste, his performances alternate verticality and horizontality in every place or rue of the French capital, blending the shapes and colors of structures, with the ideas of a diverse worldly community. “It’s true, BMX is an extreme sport and every injury reminds me of that, but above all it’s a lifestyle, part of a creative flow that intertwines elements such as design, art and fashion. Everything in my life revolves around BMX and everything is influenced by it.”

Next to PJ a marble structure rises diagonally, within a few moments the two wheels are already riding along it. From the passages of the Opéra to the colorful congestion of Pigalle, his attentive gaze, transported by rapid pedal strokes, lingers on the tone of color, lines and profiles of buildings, because PJ Martini, in addition to being an internationally recognized rider, is also an inspired video maker. “Since I started riding BMX, I’ve always had a video camera with me, it helps me describe and share what I feel on the bike. My videos don’t focus solely on the tricks, but also on everything around them, on the ‘moment’. Over the years I’ve learned to appreciate the uniqueness of each spot, its specific characteristics… It’s an overall beauty.”

Through expressive movement and visual landscapes PJ wants to try to inspire new generations of riders, he wants them to understand the infinite facets of a discipline that, in its structured vision, is also, if not above all, an instrument of social and individual discovery, a powerful leitmotif of a heterogeneous human condition that in the two wheels finds a common language, free of barriers and inequalities. “The first time I entered a park I realized that in BMX I could channel all the energy I felt pulsing inside me. Thanks to the bike I’ve traveled all over the world, from Barcelona to Tallinn, from London to Copenhagen, I’ve made deep friendships with Brazilians, Argentinians, Colombians…. BMX has shaped who I am, it has freed me from prejudices and relational fears. In the parks a utopian society is formed, where it doesn’t matter if you are poor or rich, if you come from the street or if your family buys you a bike every week. We all share the same passion, we all share the same love.”