Last October, I had the chance to discover NeSpoon stencils scattered in the small seaside resort of Cefalù in Sicily! A Polish multidisciplinary artist, she is inspired by traditional lace patterns in her must-see works. NeSpoon interprets in her own way, through street art, this ancestral craft technique which has “a universal aesthetic code deeply rooted in most cultures* “.

As she likes to say, NeSpoon was “born” in 2009 when she pasted her first ceramic artwork on a wall. She uses different materials and techniques such as ceramics, stencils and elastic band installations in the public space to recreate these patterns. For NeSpoon, lace offers “symmetry, order and harmony which are things we all aspire to, we humans* “.

Beyond street art, she also works with canvas painting, screenprinting and porcelain.

At Invisible Walls, we knew her work from the large murals she painted for the Poliniza Dos festival in the Cabanyal district of Valencia, and in front of the Urban Nation Museum of Urban Art in Berlin, but until then we had never seen her smaller scale work in the streets.

I was on holiday in Sicily and one day I went to Cefalù for a trip to the beach. I was pleasantly surprised to find these small artworks standing out in the landscape. Intrigued, I proposed to NeSpoon a short interview to understand what had brought her to this city which is not a street art destination, and to unravel the mystery of her stencils

Following in the footsteps of NeSpoon in Cefalù

NeSpoon told me that when she painted in Cefalù last July she too was on holiday.  Usually she travels a lot all over Europe to take part in many urban art festivals or for commissioned projects. This stay was a bit different for her as she was not invited as an artist. But as a street artist she leaves her mark everywhere she goes, even on holiday by the sea! Besides, outside of festivals or commissions, NeSpoon always paints illegally. And when urban art festivals ask her not to do it, she does it anyway because it is her means of artistic expression. 

In her street art activity, NeSpoon adopts a very spontaneous approach. She does not scout for locations. She walks around at night and, as soon as she feels it, she sprays a stencil. As free as that!

In Cefalù, she chose to place her artworks on the small utility doors built into the street façades and probably belonging to the town’s service. The contrast of her artworks on the smooth, metallic surfaces of their support amidst the roughness of the stone façades bring out her fine patterns. They appear as embellishments to the street and underline the beauty of the architecture. 

During her trip and night time activities, she met many young Sicilians who were very enthusiastic about her work. She did not have any negative reactions or altercations with the police. Her friends who accompanied her were apparently not reassured to see her painting illegally in Sicily, especially in Palermo where she stayed for a day, she told me laughing! 

She creates and cuts her own stencils with the same rigour, patience and precision as a lace worker. Cutting small sizes takes her one to two days of work. This is the most important step. According to her, the artist’s touch can be recognised in this handmade process, whereas machine cut would completely depersonalise it. 

When she applies the stencil, she sprays one or two layers of paint. Very often one of white and then one of black, or vice versa. 

For my last question, I asked her for one of her street art crushes – either a mural, an artist or a city in Italy. She couldn’t choose and didn’t want to answer because so many amazing artists have painted in Sicily! Nevertheless, she did not hesitate to choose her favourite street art destination: the Fame festival in Grottaglie in the south-east of Italy, in which she took part in 2011 and which left a deep mark on her. According to her, it is the most independent festival she has ever done. Many other world-famous street artists have painted there, such as BLU, Conor Harrington, JR, Swoon, Vhils or Os Gemeos.

You can admire many of NeSpoon’s artworks in Italy. She travels there to paint almost every year. This year, after her getaway in Cefalù, NeSpoon took part in the Emergence festival in Oliveri in September. She had already painted a mural for the 2018 edition of this Sicilian festival in Valverde. And still in Sicily, in 2019 she was in Favara for the first edition of the Countless Cities Biennial organised by Farm Cultural Park. 

Are we going back to Sicily for our next holidays?

A dive in NeSpoon’s thoughts and commitment

For the twenty minutes of our conversation, NeSpoon was modelling a piece of porcelain clay while talking to me. This little piece of clay quickly took shape into a petal for her long lasting project “Thoughts”. Since 2012, NeSpoon has been producing 50 kg of porcelain petals per year. Each petal takes a minute of her time (or occupies her during a slightly longer conversation!) and all her petals are gathered on a large table during her exhibitions. Visitors can then touch them and feel a little of the artist’s thoughts as they were made! Her goal? To have 1500 kg of petals in 2041!

On October 30th, the day of our virtual meeting, one of the most important demonstrations in Warsaw for the right to abortion took place following a decision of the Polish Constitutional Court on October 22nd which made abortion almost illegal. NeSpoon, who lives in the Polish capital, was preparing to take part later that afternoon. 100,000 people gathered that day and many artists were present. The feminist artist Ola Jasionowska notably designed a red lightning bolt that became a symbol of these events. At the beginning of December, when we publish this article, the demonstrations continued in Warsaw for the fifth consecutive week.

⇒ Find NeSpoon on her Instagram, Facebook or Behance ⇐

I hope you enjoyed this article! Feel free to leave us your comments
And see you on @invisiblewalls.eu for the rest of our street art discoveries in Sicily, heading to Palermo this time! 

*Quotes from the book (in French) Le street art au féminin by Xavier Tapies, published by Graffito Books in 2017.
Another interesting source (in English): NeSpoon Artbook preview.

© All pictures were taken by Invisble Walls.

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">NeSpoon and her lace stencils in Cefalù, Sicily est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Ememem is making “flacking” art, a term he invented himself* to talk about his first hole “filling”! For this short article, we wanted to tell you about this artist and his unique technique.

He creates artworks that can be used to fill or repair a hole in a pavement or sometimes in a wall. Ememem uses mosaics and ceramics to bring small touches of poetry and colour to our streets while easing the work of the municipal road department !

Intrigued for some time now by his technique and the stages of creation of his artworks, we reached out to Ememem who agreed to answer our questions by email, to maintain his anonymity. He explained us his work and his creative process with a good sense of humour!

Ememem chooses his spots as he walks around. He lets himself hear the noises of the city and remains attentive to the holes that speak to him and inspire him. As he says there are holes that “vibrate and others that don’t”!

When it comes to the choice of patterns and colours, the magic happens in the intimate discussions between the artist and his subject. You might say that the mystery remains!

Most of Ememem’s works are vandalism. The question we then ask ourselves is: how does he create such meticulous, made-to-measure works in situ on the pavement, without being interrupted?

The answer is simple, there is no miraculous recipe: he works at night in order to isolate himself. And he has never felt in a position of illegality. By filling in the potholes of a city, is he in a form of vandalism that presupposes an infringement of public space?
The few times Ememem met the police, they left without disturbing him. Sometimes they even encouraged him!

As for his creative time, it’s quite relative since he can spend between an hour and six hours to give a hole a makeover! It all depends on the weather, the size of the flacking, the materials used (all from waste material), the initial condition of the pothole, etc. The last stage of the process, namely the drying stage, is always the longest.

In short, the artist works in complete freedom in the privacy and solitude of the night.

As far as we are concerned, his works are little gems that we come across by chance in the streets of Paris. They brighten up our day as much as the famous Parisian greyness. So we thank Ememem for his works and his answers which made us laugh!

→ Check the artist’s instagram to see more of his works ←

We hope the flackings you will encounter on your streets will have the same effect for you, and that this article has helped you identify or discover this technique

Another well-known artist on the international street art scene uses a similar technique to “repair” damaged walls, this time using lego! This is Jan Vormann and you can discover his work here.

*According to some urban legends, the term appeared on a slightly drunken evening and Ememem kept it to talk about his practice.

© All pictures are by Invisible Walls.

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">The flacking technique by Ememem est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Maye is a French artist working in the public space. He started with graffiti and then evolved in the more institutionalised scene of international street art. His murals are inhabited by filiform, emaciated characters and his universe is a complex interweaving of details that embody a fragile balance.

Inspired by urban and nomadic cultures, his cities are covered with graffiti, his characters wear tattoos and his universe is rhythmed by music and games. The result plunges us into the depths of an atypical imagination and fills us with poetry.

Maye’s artworks are like tales one must take the time to contemplate in order to appreciate all their contents. The message conveyed in his work often refers to ecology and the excesses of our modern societies.

One of his mural can be seen in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, 131 boulevard Vincent Auriol, created as part of the Boulevard Paris 13 project. It evokes the Camargue region, from which he originates.

Discover his work here!

This article was originally published for Artenders, a French contemporary art media and artistic incubator.

Cover picture: painting by Maye, presented at the collective exhibition ‘Walking down the boulevard’ (2019) at Itinerrance gallery, in Paris.

© All the picture are by Invisible Walls.

L’article Maye’s fragile balance est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

This autumn we had the opportunity to rediscover PichiAvo‘s work in London at the opening of their exhibition ‘Marbles and Bronzes‘ at Stolen Space Gallery on Brick Lane in Shoreditch.

PichiAvo is an artist duo who mix classical art and graffiti, taking inspiration from the masters of ancient sculpture and the precursors of graffiti in the 70s and 80s in the United States. They studied Fine Arts and Design and met on the Valencian graffiti scene. In 2007 Pichi and Avo (or Juan Antonio and Alvaro) decided to leave aside “the artist ego,” as they like to call it, in order to work in total collaboration and focus entirely on the final result of the artwork.

‘Marbles and Bronzes‘ is constructed as a study of the sculptures of the classical period, specifically those in marble and bronze.

Several black and white drawings are on display as well as numerous canvases. There is also a 3D work majestically placed in the centre of the gallery, like a miniature of the sculptures they represent throughout all their works.

PichiAvo pays homage to these exceptional classical sculptures. They bring back to life those mythical figures and statues that were in their time covered with colour! Over time the colour has disappeared and today we associate the beauty of these classical sculptures with their whiteness. PichiAvo gives them back colour and reinterprets them in a contemporary urban art style!

In their prolific work, they mix techniques and media: walls, canvases, statues… Their stroke of spray can and brush is almost translucent and the work on details is extremely meticulous, to the point of finishing some of their artworks with gold leaf.

A small trademark, the light bulb, which is found on all their pieces as a small signature tag, is the symbol of the idea and creativity: ‘It’s a familiar element that everyone recognises and gradually with new technologies is disappearing despite attempts to maintain its place’ (PichiAvo interview for Graffiti Street).

Now well known artists they have participated in many international street art festivals and events such as POW WOW festival, the creation of the second largest mural in the world in collaboration with Vhils, participating in the opening of the Urban Nation in Berlin and making their debut in London with the exhibition ‘In Gods We Trust‘ in 2017 at the Unit Gallery.

As for us, we discovered them when they were exhibited in the Cloister of the Carmen Cultural Centre in Valencia in 2019. The images are insane and the association of graffiti in this heritage monument was quite magical. It was also in the same year they created the great Falla of Valencia, a 26-metre high sculpture!

In short, we are fans! Between history and street art the association of these themes is fascinating to us and this is actually what unites us at Invisible Walls

Stolen Space is a gallery of the London artist D*Face which has been exhibiting urban contemporary art artists for 11 years. The exhibitions change regularly and lately we have seen works not only by D*Face but also Maye, Kai & Sunny and Brusk among others. The openings are always very nice and it’s a great opportunity to talk with the artists face to face or… on instragram live! Watch the live video between PichiAvo and the people present at the opening.

The exhibition is open until November 1st, 2020 at Stolen Space gallery:
17 Osborn Street
E1 6TD LONDON
Open from 11am to 6pm from Thursday to Sunday, or by appointment Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

© All the pictures are by Invisible Walls.

→ If you want to find out more, you can discover another artist from Valencia: JANK!

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Portrait of PichiAvo through their exhibition ‘Marbles and Bronzes’ at Stolen Space Gallery in London est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

La Cala d’En Serra is a small cove situated in the north of the island of Ibiza. Uphill from it, the abandoned site of an unfinished hotel stand out. An idyllic spot of graffiti & urbex, I absolutely wanted to share with you the images of my exploration!

If you have never been to Ibiza, you should know that in addition to its summer nightclubs, it offers real natural and architectural treasures all year round. Two archaeological sites are listed by UNESCO, as well as the old town of Eivissa. And when it comes to street art, the BLOOP festival has been working for 10 years to promote it and organises the visit of unmissable artists to paint incredible murals all over the island.

But in my opinion its greatest attraction lies in the diversity and beauty of its Mediterranean landscapes. In fact, some protective measures have been taken by the public authorities to preserve biodiversity, which is in the grip of increasingly dense urbanisation. La Cala d’En Serra is located at the heart of a Natural Area of Special Interest (ANEI), which prohibits building there since 1991.

The current ruins are the legacy of a hotel complex project undertaken in the 1970s by Josep Lluís Sert, a renowned modernist architect. The building site was temporarily suspended due to his opposition to Franco’s dictatorship and then abandoned on his death in 1983. As a new urban planning project took shape in the 2000s, the financial crisis swept away the prospects for reconstruction. Many years later, the building site still remains in the state in which it was left.

To get to Cala d’En Serra, you have to go down a rocky road at the bottom of which you will discover turquoise waters and a wild panorama overlooked by the concrete remains. Some will find that this contrast spoils the natural spectacle of the cove. Personally, I find that it adds a bit of surrealism.

The building is completely accessible despite some poor barriers and it seems almost unbelievable given the decay and the danger that the place lets fear. Around the two buildings wild nature is omnipresent and at the end of the land you can access a wide concrete platform that overlooks the whole cove.

I climbed up the two or three floors, avoiding some wobbly stairs and falling into holes! The walls are fissured, the floor is cracked and all surfaces are tagged. In fact, there is so much graffiti and messages (some in French!) that I deduce that it is a space hyper frequented by graffiti artists and urbex adventurers!

Exploring it also allowed me to identify some street artists from Ibiza, such as Butron Delcastel, Rubiio.One, Inkrustart, FlowHer Power, and international artists like the Barcelonian BubleGum or the famous French Noar Noarnito and the English Morf.

I discovered that an artistic residency had been organised in 2018 by Ses Dotz Naus association. The first building was taken over by the Luxembourg artist duo Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil. As part of a collective action, they invited inhabitants and volunteers to take possession of this abandoned site by painting one of the façades, mixing street-art and visual arts. The traces of their work are still visible under the recent tags, as ephemeral and fragile as these walls. Their performance highlighted the artistic and historical dimension of the place and the building, which was originally part of the modern architectural trend.

The residency was filmed to produce an audiovisual artwork, entitled Hotel Utopia. It can currently be seen at the Hab Gallery in Nantes (FR), as part of an exhibition of the artists, Automatic Revolution. Until November 1st, 2020. The production creates a lasting archive of this heritage.

The history of Spain is there, this ruin is a living testimony of its time and it also have its own story through the art that covers its walls.

This place raises a lot of questions for me and I don’t know what will become of it. But here we bring our little contribution to the building in its valorisation.

Bibliography:

U. C. du patrimoine mondial, « Ibiza, biodiversité et culture », UNESCO Centre du patrimoine mondial. https://whc.unesco.org/fr/list/417/

D. de Ibiza, « Las ANEI de las Pitiusas quedan inedificables como en el resto de Balears » https://www.diariodeibiza.es/pitiuses-balears/2016/01/09/acuerdo-govern-declarar-inedificables-anei/815966.html

« Es Amunts ». http://makingofibizamagazine.com/es-amunts/

diariodeibiza.es, « Estructuras abandonadas e inacabadas en Ibiza » https://www.diariodeibiza.es/multimedia/fotos/local/2019-11-03-172490-estructuras-abandonadas-inacabadas-ibiza.html

D. de Ibiza, « Cala d’en Serra: el arte entre las ruinas » https://www.diariodeibiza.es/pitiuses-balears/2020/01/19/cala-den-serra-arte-ruinas/1116801.html

L’association « ses12naus.org – ses12naus ». http://ses12naus.org/index.php/en/sesdotzenaus/

« Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil, lauréats de la Bourse Francis-André 2019 », Culture.lu. https://culture.lu/fr/actualit%C3%A9s/martine-feipel-jean-bechameil-laureats-de-la-bourse-francis-andre-2019

« Martine Feipel et Jean Bechameil », Issuu. Disponible sur: https://issuu.com/revue303/docs/feipel_et_bechameil

« A visit to Josep Lluís Sert’s abandoned Hotel built in 1969 in Cala d’en Serra, Ibiza – purple TRAVEL », Purple, mars 09, 2017. https://purple.fr/diary/a-visit-to-josep-lluis-serts-abandoned-hotel-built-in-1969-in-cala-den-serra-ibiza/

« Celluloid Diaries: Urbex – Abandoned hotel on Ibiza », CELLULOID DIARIES. http://www.celluloiddiaries.com/2013/10/urbex-abandoned-hotel-on-ibiza.html

« The fascinating story of the Ibiza lost resort – The White Isle – Ibiza Blog ». https://www.thewhiteisle.co.uk/fascinating-story-ibiza-lost-resort/

« Ibiza Hors des Sentiers Battus | Voyage Authentique », www.partir.com. https://www.partir.com/Baleares/ibiza/coins-secrets.html

Ivan, « The sad story of the half-constructed abandoned resort at Cala d’en Serra – Ibiza », RANDOM Times •, avr. 30, 2020. https://random-times.com/2020/04/30/the-sad-story-of-the-half-constructed-abandoned-resort-at-cala-den-serra-ibiza/

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Ibiza: the abandoned constructions of the Cala d’En Serra est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

This great news cheered us up throughout the whole summer: we’ve released our Invisible Walls stickers to invade our cities – and yours

As you may have observed, they are inspired by the pretty banner of our blog! The pattern is taken from a photo of azulejos in Lisbon. These are traditional ceramic tiles from Spain and Portugal that often cover the facades of buildings.

It made sense for us to get into the street art game, developing our own little artwork. We integrated a QR code to allow you to access our website directly and to create more doors to our invisible walls.

For the design we collaborated with Cali O, a young self-taught and multidisciplinary British artist. He divides his artistic practice between graphic design, street art and ceramics on a contrasting palette of blue and red patterns inspired by mandalas.

To your walls and your cameras!!

Feel free to write to us if you wish to receive your little batch by mail, and repost the photos of your finds or collages, tagging us on insta @invisiblewalls.eu and #invisiblewalls!

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Surprise of the summer: we lauched our stickers! est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Rouen, the city of a hundred bell towers where I spent every summer of my childhood, is becoming an unavoidable street art destination in France. For the second edition of the festival “Rouen Impressionnée” I rediscovered this city and it impressed me!

Beyond its history and its vast cultural heritage that you should certainly not miss, I would like to present a non-exhaustive panorama of the urban art scene in Rouen through this festival, the local artist InkOj and the art centre, Hangar 107.

Just as it is happening in Rouen, more and more cities are adopting a cultural policy in favour of street art, which is seen as a local development lever. It is a new touristic phenomenon and many festivals are emerging in France. In short, street art contributes to embellishing the city and renewing its attractiveness. Indeed, it often participates in revalorising districts or territories that are marginalised compared to a centre, such as the 13th arrondissement in Paris, Vitry S/Seine or the Cabanyal in Valencia (ES).

The urban art festival ‘Rouen Impressionnée’, on the Left Bank

The urban planner Olivier Landes is the organiser of this large-scale event. Specialised in urban art, he is the founder of the association Art en Ville, within which he was also the curator of the In Situ festival in Aubervilliers.

For its second edition in 2020, ‘Rouen Impressionnée’ is taking over the Left Bank with about twenty artists programmed so you will need to cross the Seine from the city centre. At the time I was at the festival, 9 artists had already created their murals during the first part of the festival between June 23rd and July 17th.

I take this opportunity to tease you the second part of the festival which started on Monday 24th August. The artists will perform until September 25th. Among them I must mention Manolo Mesa and Elian Chali, who have been my personal highlights since I had the privilege of discovering their work in Valencia. However, a festival is above all an opportunity to make discoveries, sometimes moving ones! I present you in photographs a selection of 4 murals out of the 9 which were painted during the first part of the festival and which particularly captivated me.

In short, Rouen Impressionnée takes place from June 23rd to November 15th 2020. Two routes have been created in Saint-Sever and Grammont to allow you to easily find your way around the city without missing a drop of it!

Tip: the program is in two parts and depending on when you follow the routes, all the murals may not be completed (I got caught in this trap!).

Part 1 / part 2 / route maps

Free tours can be booked here and dates for September and October are available. All the infos are on the website but I’m breaking the back of the work for you!

The first edition of the festival was held in 2016 in three areas: the city centre, the quays and the Sapins district in the upper Rouen area. This geographical strategy is probably a result of the organisers’ desire to produce an event that is in the dynamic centre of the city, but also enhances the more distant neighbourhoods.

So I went to see some of the artworks from the previous edition! Here are a few pictures of them!

Some of them no longer exist, notably the Giant Squid of Brusk, whose support building was demolished in 2017. And I didn’t have the time to go to the Sapins district, but I hope to get an opportunity soon. 

InkOj murals in Saint Mark’s district

To fully understand the relationship between the city and street art, I went outside of the festival setting to immerse myself in the vandal scene. Close to the shopping streets, the Place Saint-Marc is a more peaceful part of the city centre. I immediately noticed there a piece by the artist InkOj whose work seemed to be particularly symbolic.

Since December 2019, he has been stenciling and spraying the entrances of buildings in Saint-Marc district. The motifs resemble those of Portuguese and Spanish azulejos. Beyond this style that I like very much, it is his territorial approach that deeply appeals to me. Indeed, the profusion of works in the district’s perimeter enhances the streets, pavements and the entrances to buildings. It is renewing the entire urban aesthetic. Moreover, the location of his murals no longer invites the passer-by to raise his eyes to what surrounds him, but rather to look beneath his feet! By the way, when you look at the streets to discover the street art that is hidden, you will often find little wonders by lowering your eyes

This project is a personal, spontaneous and vandalous initiative of the artist, which he finances himself and enjoys total freedom. Rouen’s town hall apparently adopts a posture of tolerance, as it is becoming more and more common in many French cities nowadays.

Urban art is truly a vehicle for cultural identity and social cohesion. It can act as an image or ambassador for a district. I have experienced this on several occasions through unexpected encounters (cf. my excursion to the Cabanyal). While photographing works of art, I was approached by the manager of the Café de l’Époque, 43 rue Armand Carrel. It’s beautiful to see that pride and enthusiasm mingle in these conversations in which urban art becomes a natural pretext to discuss the neighbourhood and its aura. It’s him who pointed out to me that the designs in InkOj’s works were a continuation of the tiles inside the buildings entrances which are closed most of the time. This is nonetheless visible in front of cafés where we can publicly enter during the day. 

I then invite you to cross Eau de Robec street, where you will be charmed by the city and its half-timbered houses. This street has also been transformed by the artist InkOj, following a group order from restaurants. 

The artworks of InkOj bring a hidden architectural heritage back into the open: the traditional concrete or ceramic tiles of Rouen’s interiors. From the private space, they now extend out onto the street, into the public space of the city thanks to his practice of contemporary and urban art!

Hangar 107 on the Docks

Hangar 107 is a must-see for urban art lovers. I think their program is excellent and I loved this summer’s group exhibition. It brought together all the artists who had been exhibited at the Hangar since its opening in 2018. Among them, I would mention a few of my favourites: Tania Mouraud, Tilt and Thomas Canto.

The next exhibition will showcase the work of Olivier Kosta-Théfaine and will be open from 24 September to 31 December 2020.

Hangar 107 is located on the docks, a more modern and industrial area in contrast with the architecture of the city centre. The art centre’s setting is luminous thanks to the bay windows that give a beautiful view of the right bank. I also invite you to cross the Flaubert Lift Bridge to stop under its huge concrete pillars and admire the Seine.

To conclude, here is a surprising work with a 3D effect by the artist Jaw created last June. It was commissioned by the Rouen Normandy Metropolis to enhance Vergetiers street. A short walk from the Gros Horloge, it is located in the heart of a very lively area. The aim was to give this pedestrian street with very little traffic a new look. This project reflects perfectly the appeal of street art in the strategies of urban planning.

© all pictures are by Invisible Walls.

Resources:

Rouen Impressionnée festival’s website

Instagram page  of Olivier Landes, curator of the festival

Rouen’s website

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Rouen unexpected! est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Photographer and artist of note, Thomas Jorion captures the beauty of ruins and forgotten heritage. On the terrace of a café on the banks of the Ourcq canal in Paris, we talked about his memories of his childhood and discussed his experience of vandalism, inherent to his urbex approach.

From his first urban explorations to the affirmation of his artistic career, we wanted to know the details of two of his projects that particularly touched us: The Forgotten Line and the Piscine Molitor.

The focus of the series “The Forgotten Line” about the Petite Ceinture (or ‘Little ring’) is an old railway line that surrounds Paris. It is 32 kilometres long and connected thirty stations in the 20th century. Now disused, the stations have been restored as cultural sites and the line has become a promenade.

Also in Paris, in the 16th arrondissement, the Piscine Molitor, was both a swimming pool and a sublime Art Deco building. Closed in 1989, it was listed as a historical monument in 1990 but abandoned, it became a Mecca for Parisian vandal graffiti until the 2000s. It was eventually restored in 2014 as a luxury hotel.

For this interview, we collaborated with the young platform Artenders, a contemporary art media engaged in the promotion of French artists and in the consolidation of a network of art professionals and enthusiasts. To discover their video-portrait of Thomas Jorion (in French), it’s here!

I discovered Thomas Jorion’s work during my internship at the National Monuments Centre last year when I was coordinating an exhibition at Francis I’s castle in Villers-Cotterêts. Before its restoration, Thomas Jorion had come to immortalise the interior of this Renaissance monument and to bear witness to its tumultuous history and the cultural heritage it represents.

I am delighted to have had the chance to meet him again through Invisible Walls for this exciting interview. Enjoy the read

1. Why are you photographing abandoned buildings?

It just happened by chance. I grew up in the Val-de-Marne, in Champigny-sur-Marne, and at the time I had a certain passion for films like Indiana Jones or the Goonies. I had made friends in that universe and we liked to go after school or at lunch break to an abandoned garage next to the college. We’d scare each other a little, smoke cigarettes… And eventually, it’s something that lasted. We did some research in the area, even going to city hall, to the map department to see if there were other buildings or abandoned sites in the area. And then we grew up. After graduating from high school, I went to law school without much passion and bought a camera. Spontaneously I wanted to photograph abandoned buildings. I think there was a desire to save them, because I had the feeling that I was photographing buildings that were about to collapse or be damaged.

We didn’t talk about urbex at that time. Today, it’s a practical term.

     2. What were your first explorations?

We were very bored and we didn’t have video games or internet so we often went to the abandoned garage next to the college, on the banks of the Marne. The architecture itself wasn’t very interesting but it was nice to go up there. I remember that we could climb up to the roof by passing through a hole with a rope. That was fun! And closer to my house, there was a house from the early 19th century. There was a small pavilion and a canopy at the entrance, and a wooden staircase that went up to the upper floors. That was more impressive because it was a residential interior.

Those were the first two places I explored when I was very young. Later, I moved to Seine-et-Marne and explored castles. The one in Lesigny for example, and the castle of Malnoue, near Pontault-Combault.

     3. How do you choose the places you photograph?

In the beginning it was photographing abandoned places for abandoned places sake. From a warehouse, for example the customs warehouse in Pantin, to the Petite Ceinture, to Belgium, to factories, houses, or villas in Italy. It was something that wasn’t really done in photography.

At one point, I realised that I had to organise it as a series or by theme. It had to be tied in with history. I think the most important example was this series on the vestiges of the French colonial empire that I photographed from 2013 to 2016: Vestiges of Empire. It was interesting to go back to those traces of the past. When the coloniser builds a slaughterhouse in Casablanca, he does something that will remain in time by an architectural style, by the fact that all of a sudden it is Europe that builds in the Maghreb.

     4. What’s your relationship to street art?

I was in college in 1988-89. It was the beginning of rap, of hip-hop culture in France, and I had friends who were starting to tag in the street. It was great!

Did you try it?

Not much, but it’s something I like, something that touches me, that talks to me!

And of course, abandoned buildings are convenient places for expression. I think at first it bothered me because I liked the immaculate side of them. But it depends on the context. I take the example of the petite Ceinture, I think it’s an element [graffiti] that brings a lot. I really like to find that in certain places.

I remember, for example, the Sudac compressed air factory in the 13th arrondissement, near the Porte d’Ivry, on the banks of the Seine. Today it’s a school of architecture [Ecole Nationale Supérieur d’Architecture Paris Val-de Marne – ENSAPVS] but at the time, when it was abandoned, it was a cathedral of tags. It was really sick in this industrial place! I liked that!

Are there any artists or works of street art that struck you?

I think of the artist André at the time when all of a sudden the guys started to develop another form of art and stand out because I think it’s still relevant today. We always try to stand out by a name, a lettering or a positioning.

     5. How much of your practice is vandalism? And how much of your project work are commissioned?

90 or 95% of what I do is unauthorised because it’s too complicated to get permission. You have to identify an owner, explain your approach, and then there are insurance issues as well… Now that I’m starting to be well-known, I’ve been offered commissions, often carte blanche, which is an overview of the property before transformation. For example the castle of Villers-Cotterêts, in such a dilapidated state that it could very well have been photographed like urbex.

Are you attracted to the vandal element?

Obviously, there’s nothing else like that! The adrenaline makes you have an acuity that is increased tenfold and you cut to the essential. Sometimes I find it hard to keep the same rhythm when it’s commissioned. For me, it’s obvious to do in vandal mode. I have access to places that I would never have access to in any other way.

Artenders : What touches me in your work is that you never see the man but you always feel him. Perhaps, with this authorisation, humans have a different place because the space is no longer abandoned. In the same way, street art disturbs this abandonment in your paintings… Your photos, sorry! It’s funny that I say painting because some of them really look like it!

Very often people feel like they’re seeing paintings! I think it’s the fact of using the colour negative, the large film-plans that I use in the darkroom and then the print on fine art paper with a bit of cotton that really gives this impression.

Graffiti all of a sudden takes away the immaculate aspect. It feels more difficult to travel to the place, into the image, because there is a form of appropriation. All of a sudden, it brings us back to reality.

     6. I’d like to discuss one of your first projects: la Petite Ceinture. Why did you want to explore it?

I discovered it very early with this same group of friends when we were looking for access to the catacombs. A friend’s cousin told us that there was an entrance in the south of Paris, from a disused railway line. We had no GPS, no internet and the line is more than 30 km long. It is a bit hidden in places, in tunnels or high up, so we didn’t find it directly. We finally found an access further north, towards Porte de Clichy. I found the photos I had taken at the time in argentic, the tunnels at that time were still lit. It was the end of rail traffic [1996] but it still seemed very busy, so we were expecting to run into a train at any moment, or meet people… we were really at a peak of adrenaline.
Then I happened to go back several times. I moved to the 19th arrondissement in the early 2000s and started exploring that part of town. I was getting more and more into photography at that time and testing cameras in those abandoned areas. I had the feeling that it was a world that was going to change, evolve or disappear. I love it very much as it is today: abandoned, wild and tagged. It’s one of the few places where you can no longer hear the noise of the city. It’s a real temporal change.

7. Can you tell us about your experience at the Piscine Molitor?

I had discovered it while visiting the greenhouses of Auteuil, another less known abandoned place. In the distance I had seen a building that was full of graffiti and tags. It was the Molitor pool but it was completely closed. Later, I met up with a friend to go there together, around 2010. To get there, we had to get organised. We arrived at night at 5am with a ladder on the car. We climbed up through the roof, went inside and waited for daylight to break and take pictures. And then we realised there was someone there. We thought it was a caretaker, but it was actually an artist who lived there. He helped to regulate the place a little bit. It was a time when it was a little more organised. Before that, I think it was wide open and a lot of street artists went there.

So I first went there in vandal mode at night, and two years later I was able to return there officially to photograph the place before transformation. I had the keys to the place to myself. The artist who was guarding the place was gone.

Today, it has become a palace hotel. They had to demolish 90% of the building to rebuild it identically, which allows them to continue to relay the story.

     8. Are there any other abandoned places in Paris or the Greater Paris that you haven’t explored yet or that you would like to return to?

I don’t know all of them and there are always small places opening up, buildings, factories… For example, at the moment there is a factory in the south of Paris being dismantled. And then, I still go to the Petite Ceinture from time to time. I went there not even a month ago. What I like about the Petite Ceinture is that at all times in my career it has always brought me new things. When I wanted to photograph architecture, there were things to be found there. If I was looking for human beings, there are people who live there. That’s what I like a lot about this Petite Ceinture, which will gradually disappear. It’s a place of freedom where you can go and do what you want. By the way, you asked me if I had been tagging: I had tried stenciling, I had forgotten! At one point I felt like stenciling, I wandered around on the Petite Ceinture at night and I made stencils!

As usual, we are suggesting a few additional resources to help you explore the subject a bit further:

– Thomas Jorion’s website to discover the exhaustiveness of his work.

– The Forgotten Line, an article about the Little Ring as a medium for architecture and urban planning.

– Molitor, This is not a swimming pool, Ludovic Roubaudi & Thomas Jorion (2019): a book retracing the history of the Molitor swimming pool with Thomas Jorion’s photographers. In French and English.

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Thomas Jorion – Petite Ceinture and Piscine Molitor, ruins enhanced by the photographer est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Vestiges of an ancient village, the Old Town of Goussainville, in Val-d’Oise French department, is an enclave in the middle of the suburbs. A sort of hybrid urban and rural cluster, with old abandoned houses covered with graffiti.

Vestiges of an ancient village, the Old Town of Goussainville, in Val-d’Oise French department, is an enclave in the middle of the suburbs. A sort of hybrid urban and rural cluster, with old abandoned houses covered with graffiti.

Actually, the place hasn’t been completely deserted. The Old Country is similar to what was originally supposed to be a village, but which the city has taken over by incorporating it into its suburbs. Goussainville developed and this area became a little marginalized. In the 1960s, its proximity to Roissy-Charles de Gaulles airport caused some of its inhabitants to flee, leaving behind them empty houses, now in ruins and covered by nature.

To get there, we stopped at the Goussainville Station on the RER D. We walked for about twenty minutes along a commercial area to reach, completely unexpectedly, the corner of rue Brulée, the entrance to the old village. This road with a very evocative name is the only segment of the hamlet that is really in a state of ruin. For the sake of anecdote, I read that this name was often attributed to places that had been destroyed by fire in the past. Besides, the atmosphere is not gloomy, it has a certain charm. You can appreciate the graffiti on the street facades.

In this area, all but one of the houses have been walled up. Planted in front of the gate, which was greenened by the oxidation of zinc, we finally decide to push the door open and cross the nettle forest in the garden to enter the house. The ground floor is very dark but we manage to make out a few stencils. Upstairs, the light coming in through the broken windows allows us to discover the walls of the first floor entirely covered with spray cans by the graffiti artists. Here are some pictures!

After that, we started looking for the old castle of the city. What is left of it is located a little further on the main street, in the municipal park. Unfortunately, the roof has collapsed and barricades are closing the access. To get closer, we went through them, but a few minutes later a police patrol spotted our presence and escorted us to the exit.

This little adventure is for me the opportunity to address the question of urbex (from English urban explorations). It consists in visiting abandoned and, a priori, inaccessible places. Street-art is intimately linked to this practice for its vandal side as much as for urban exploration, which essentially embodies the game of graffiti: to mark one’s territory or where one is passing through! These are great places of freedom and experimentation for graffiti artists. It is also seen as a form of alternative tourism that more and more adventurers are indulging in.

However, this activity is illegal and dangerous. In this excursion to Goussainville, we didn’t really take any risk, even if in truth the ground could have collapsed under our feet. What is certain is that the police could have really punished us (and not simply escorted us as was the case).

That’s it for the little getaway! We discovered this place thanks to a recent article published on Le Bonbon. Feel free to read it if you would like more information about the history of the village. Another resource here!

Our photographs were taken by the talented Manon Descamps, thank you for supporting her work

If you search on Google or Youtube, you will find an infinite number of resources on urbex. Here are some of the links I found interesting:

– An article on the Mausoleum, a must-see spot for graffiti and urbex.

– The instagram account of the artist Rone who paints frescoes in abandoned places. A short article that presents his approach.

– The platform of the photographer Thomas Jorion. A very artistic look at abandoned places around the world and an essential work of history and memory.

– A Youtube video of Mamytwink at the castle of Villers-Cotterêts, a place that is very close to my heart personally.

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Goussainville: graffiti in the Old Town district est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.

Welcome in this second part about Bucharest! I now bring you with me for a stroll in the city, along the murals I discovered!

Street art in Bucharest offers a new economic and cultural attractiveness. There are more and more murals in the public space, but also in private spaces, which is a characteristic of the urban art scene of this city.

First things first: Bucharest part.1 : a city of many contrasts, it’s this way!

In April 2019 I was on a study trip to Bucharest with my Masters’ class. Welcomed by professors from the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Planning (UAUIM) in Bucharest, we attended lectures and guided tours of the city centre, and we also walked around on our own, like grown-ups

I have not walked all over the city in these few days, but I offer you a panorama of the artists that you can encounter the most and the muras that I found.

The tool that was most useful to me in my discoveries and to tell you about my trip in this article is the map Un-Hidden Bucharest which lists a hundred murals in Bucharest, and many more in the rest of the country! In fact, most of the murals mapped here were painted between 2016 and 2020. It shows the growth of this artistic practice in Bucharest in recent years.

1.  Street art to the rescue of cultural heritage

Our first stop in the city is the University of Architecture and Urban Planning in Bucharest where we attended a conference on the urbanisation of the city. At the end, I walked around the university building and discovered a large terrace on the first floor which houses several murals!

The largest and also the most impressive in my opinion is by Obie Platon, in collaboration with Alexandru Barat and Sandu-Milea Lucian. Painted in 2016, the artwork is entitled ‘The Architect’. It is a portrait of Ion Mincu (1852-1912), a major Romanian architect who gave his name to the UAUIM. Obie Platon chose to pay tribute to this man and his former university since he himself studied architecture there. The influence of his first profession can be found in his art among many other influences such as kinetic art, surrealism or pop culture. He began his street art practice with graffiti in the early 2000s and became known in the local street art scene under the pseudonym Allan Dalla. He has created several other monumental murals in Bucharest, and he also exhibits his work internationally.

Little tip: if you get a little closer, you’ll find the artist’s signature and a flash code linking directly to his website. Flash codes are quite common in street art to self-promote! Keep an eye on it and flash for interesting discoveries sometimes!

Still in the UAUIM courtyard, another large wall displays two murals. The upper one, also painted in 2016, is by Saddo, a Romanian illustrator and muralist. He studied graphic design at the University of Arts in Cluj-Napoca, his hometown. His first contact with the graffiti culture was during a trip to the United States. After the fall of communism, young people turned to western culture, travelled and discovered hip-hop, in which graffiti was originally a part. Back in Cluj, Saddo created with friends a street art collective “The Playground” and became a major artist on the Romanian art scene. He is also commissioned on various international projects.
In retrospect, the artist, probably a bit of a perfectionist, writes about this mural on his website:

“I feel like I have to be honest about this mural – it’s a pretty frustrating mural for me, I see it as a symbol of failure for me: the moment I painted it was a moment of personal failure in my life. Also, the original idea of the mural itself was initially that of a juxtapozition of natural, organic elements, and a white line drawing of a Corinthian capital. The whole idea was to illustrate the way architecture finds inspiration in nature. But at the moment I felt like adding that extra element might fuck up the whole thing, I was a bit worried, so I just left it like this, and now I feel like there’s something missing, and that I should’ve made that extra effort.”

The lower mural is by the Dutch illustrator Hedof. It was painted in 2017 as part of the Visual Playground illustration and graphic design festival.

We also find the invader’s artist Toy Box for the mural in progress, and the maze is anonymous.

During our pilgrimage in the city, I discovered another mural next to Cişmigiu’s park, painted during the festival Visual Playground by Akacorleone. Swiss Portuguese illustrator and graphic designer by training, he started by graffiti in his home town of Lisbon. He had an international street art career and he participated in the Tour 13 festival organised by the Itinerrance gallery in 2013 as well as in a group exhibition at the Mathgoth gallery in 2017 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris for instance.

C.A. Rosetti Street, a work of art by Pisica Pătrată. The funny characters are hiding in the alcoves of a building right next to the Artmark art auction house. Pisica Pătrată is one of the most appreciated and recognized Romanian street artists and illustrators. He is also the founder of the Comic Books Museum. His characters are always located on old buildings in Bucharest. His work in situ in in the city allows him to engage in a dialogue with forgotten historical buildings and to show this abandoned cultural heritage. For example, he has painted on the old buildings of the Cinema Marconi and of the Capitol Summer Theatre.

A second mural by Obie Platon at the corner of Stirbei Voda Street and Ion Campineanu Street for the Bram Stoker restaurant depicts the historical character of Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the novel character of Bran Stoker Dracula. A mythical and emblematic figure of the Romanian popular culture in Transylvania, which has become an important tourist attraction for the region.

Returning to the Lipscani district, on Victoriei Street, an artwork by Cristian Pass created in 2017 depicts an eagle.

2. Open air street art gallery

During our free afternoon at the end of the trip, I went to another district close to the metro station Piţa Romană to discover the Arthur Verona street which houses the Graffiti Walls gallery. No interior spaceor website  for this gallery but a lot of murals and graffiti covering the walls of this street. Several walls of this street at the corner with the Dionisie Lupu street are hosting murals that are changing every year during the festival of urban cultures Street Delivery. The murals I discovered were created during the 2018 edition of the festival which takes place every year in June.

The largest is a collective work by female artists on the theme of Girl Power: Wanda Hutira, Livi Po, Grafette (Sandy Balasoiu & Irina Mocanu), Ana Constantinescu, Irina Giuglea, Laura Ionescu, Ira Merzlichin, Mihaela Semeniuc & Andreea Pe Câmpii.

The year before, in 2017, Obie Platon and the NOM Crew  had painted this wall for a mural entitled “Don Quixote and the windmills” on the question of the effects of technology on our contemporary society.

The opposite wall is covered by another Romanian artist and illustrator from the local art scene, Kseleqoqynqyshy. He paints almost childlike worlds full of poetry. His murals are mini towns in the town, populated by colourful animals. On his instagram, he explained this very particular universe:

“Inside each building there is another world. And in that world there are infinit buildings that each one have other universes inside. And on each planet there is another world with infinit buildings and characters. So basically there are infinit universes.”

Then comes another large and quite impressive mural of Kraser. The Spanish muralist artist has chosen here to represent a brown bear, an animal very present in the mountains of Romania.

The rest of the street is covered with tags, graffiti and collages. And there are artworks by AEUL and Ortaku again!

While going to the square Piaţa Romană, I discovered a last mural also made during the festival Street Delivery in gable of building which overhangs the bookshop Carturesi Liberia, boulevard Magheru. Its author, the artist Pisică Pătrată mentioned above, paints at the same location every year a new artwork on the theme of books, in reference to its location above the bookstore.

To finish this stroll on a mystery – because yes, when one is passionate about this art, one is in a constant state of investigation and observation (by the way, don’t hesitate to read our article “How we find the artists of the works we meet in the street”)-, here is a pair of eyes that observe the city from above. Located on a building on the Independenţei river quay Dâmboviţa,I didn’t find any mention of this artwork online.
If you know more about it, leave us a little comment!

That’s it for this little city walk through the murals encountered in Bucharest. I hope that it has made you travel and that it makes you want to discover this city when we can all go again on an adventure in faraway lands!

© all the pictures are by InvisibleWalls.

Some links to help you plan your stay:

• [EN] Street art guided tours by Bucharest Alternative Tour 
• [EN] Urban Collectors: gallery and librairy dedicated to street art
• [EN] The website:  Feeder.ro to know more about the project Un-hidden Bucharest

And for further reading, check out the bibliography at the end of Bucharest part.1!

L’article <p class="has-medium-font-size">Bucharest part 2: city tour along the murals est apparu en premier sur Invisible Walls.