Feel like you are living on the other side of the looking glass? Yes, that is because your society is in the final collapse of this controlled demolition. No need to worry, though, Gilbert Petit has created an Alice in Wonderlandtheme for his newest mural to brighten your day.
The Parisian artist brought his illustration style 2-D interpretation to Moissy-Cramayel just as summers’ warm rays still had their full strength, the evening begins to cool. With his own interpretation of the children’s tale by Lewis Carroll and published in 1865, you may even find it tempting to step through the glass, but you may likely fall down through a rabbit hole of nonsense and hysteria.
Famous for his paintings of young children at play,
dreamily lost in a world just adjacent to this one, he was appropriately
painting in Grigny, also known as “La Cité des Enfants”.
Following other muralists like Case Maclaim, Alber and Jace,
this is the latest wall for the 2020 edition of a private/public improvement project
called Wall Street Art festival.
Aerosol in pursuit of the “Masters” (Eurocentrically speaking) is a permutation of Street Art and the mural making tradition going back decades, including murals made directly by “Masters” (Latino-centrically speaking) like Rivera or, say, those of the Olmec civilization in the pre Hispanic period, for example. In the last decade Frenchman and Street Artist Julien de Casabianca has documented, printed, and wheatpasted large-scale reproductions from classical painting upon city walls as part of his “Outings Project” in multiple countries.
Today we see an Italian former graffiti writer who went to university to study fine arts in Milan take his aerosol spray technique to a wall in Corbeil-Essonnes, France (population 50,400). Painted as part of the ongoing “Wall Street Art Festival”, the new mural may inspire the next generation of artists here as well.
Andrea
“RAVO” Mattoni sings praise to a slice of Mona Lisa on this school building as
his reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s original, which is much smaller, hanging
in the Louvre Museum about an hour’s drive north of here. The 38 year old
artist, who was born in Varese and comes from a family of artists, including
his father and grandfather, decided to leave the painting as an in-process “unfinished”
work that shows a grid pattern and da Vincis background color for educational
purposes.
“It
is a good teaching aid for the school’s teachers,” says the walls’ artistic
director, the gallerist Gautier Jourdain, “which they now use to explain the
process to their students.”
If Gautier had any doubts about Mattoni’s qualifications with the spraycan, he was likely persuaded by the artist’s Caravaggio reproduction on the side of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome two years ago. More recently, as part of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the artist created 5 large paintings at the Château d’Amboise. So this is number 5.5 perhaps.
“He wanted to highlight youth, its beauty and diversity,” says Gautier Jordain about French stencil master Jef Aérosol for this new public mural he just completed in Evry, in the south of Paris.
One of his biggest frescoes to date, the rocker/Street Artist doesn’t usually include this much red in his compositions, aside from his signature red arrows placed alongside the figures in his portraits. The striking graphic nature of these bands of color pops a new wave into his work, creating a fresh look that somehow feels quite modern.
Part of this year’s Wall Street Art festival curated by Mathgoth Gallery in Paris, this new monumental work dedicates itself to the diverse nature of many of the city’s newest immigrant communities, something that many European nations have been faced with in recent years with new arrivals fleeing war-torn countries.
For some reason, we humans are tribal in our behaviors sometimes and we can have a hard time accepting new members of our tribes. As is a historical practice, we depend on the intuitive knowledge and talents of artists to help us make the transition to being more accepting of others and to possibly help us find the innate great qualities in each other.
“He portrayed children who are happy to live and to share with you,” Gautier, who curated the project with his partner Mathilde, “without question of skin color, origin or religion.”
“Un enfant, Ça écoute le merle Qui dépose ses perles Sur la portée du vent*,” a lyric from singer Jacques Brel provided the inspiration, Jef says, and he spent some days with local kids and families in the neighborhood to make sure that they know this mural is for them.
A public/private mural campaign in the southern suburbs of Paris continues to bring international Street Artists to create works for the public space. While France continues to grapple with an increase of new immigrants, a rise in right wing sentiments and xenophobic attitudes toward populations that differ from the dominant culture, projects like this may help keep the peace and foster community.
The Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud continues with their mural program here with a fresco on the “Paul Langevin” school, named after the prominent French physicist who developed Langevin dynamics and the Langevin equation. Art duo Mina Hamada and Zosen Bandido live in Barcelona and braved the rains here during a week of painting 5 walls to create an abstract collection of “Spring Colour” in a rather spontaneous way.
“They were the best ambassadors for painting a wall in a popular neighborhood where people of different origins and religions live together,” says Gautier Jourdain, who curates the ongoing festival. In an atmosphere where tensions between cultures has hit some high points in recent years nationally and locally, the artists themselves hail from Japan and Argentina are quite familiar with some of the issues at hand here.
“That is also why we have chosen light, simplified forms,” say Hamada and Zosen in a joint statement. “We want to paint creations that speak to everyone’s heart, that are accessible to everyone and give joy.”
Japanese Street Artist/ Fine artist TWOONE is a man/beast. At least those are his favorite subjects to depict and merge, whether he is on a wall in a neglected building, or on film illuminated from behind, on a dripping illustration on a canvas, or spanning across an ambitious mural.
The Mid-80s millennial Hiroyasu Tsuri currently lives in Berlin, where he has done at least one huge wall and a solo show at Urban Spree, and he has created his realistic fantasy animals and people in his hometown of Yokohama, Brooklyn, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Perth, Djerba, Miami, Milan, and Bangkok, among other places.
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
Today we find him with Gallerie Mathgoth and the new 2018 edition of the Wall Street Art Festival, which is primarily sited in Grand Paris Sud. His tropical looking scene actually frames a locally sourced bird, the stately and elegant egret, which is not uncommon here in Lieusant (Seine et Marne) – a town which boast humans also, 13,000 of them. According to Łukasz Ławicki, the population of the great white egret in France is more than 5,000. Check out TWOONE’s unique approach to tagging this big bird. Our thanks to Gautier and the gallery for sharing these installation photos with BSA readers.
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
TWOONE for Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Lieusaint (Seine et Marne), France. (photo courtesy of MathGoth Galerie)
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
