Paris: Lek & Sowat |

The 400 square meters of the contemporary art space of the Pavillon Carré has been transformed by the duo of artists Lek and Sowat. Invited by Elise Herszkowicz from Art Azoï, they have created immersive installations from the floors to ceilings. Through their multidisciplinary approach both artists invite the viewer into their urban, experimental and subversive universe through ephemeral wall paintings, stained-glass windows made of urban furniture, installations built from the ruins of the previous exhibition, as well as photos from their practice at Mausolee (see here), Lasco project at Palais de Tokyo (see here) or residency at Villa Medicis and movies like Traces Directs (watch here) which is part of the permanent collection at Centre Pompidou.

By investing this new place, they continue to push the boundaries of traditional graffiti and mix their architectural abstractions. Impressive and captivating, their work fits perfectly into the history of the Pavillon Carré and surroundings as it offers great art accessible to all. For street artists, accustomed to urban exploration (Urbex), industrial ruins and illegal interventions, Lek and Sowat raise questions about the paradoxes of the institutionalization of urban art and its legitimity. Is having a self-taught and independent art practice enough to constitute a “circonstance attenuante” (mitigating circumstance)? Through this multidisciplinary exhibition, Lek and Sowat invite us to reflect on the place of street art in art history.

In parallel the prolific duo experimented with the techniques of the silver print for Polka Magazine to reinvent the works of another duo, Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre (published in Polka # 33). They also produced a large fresco of interpellation by Emmanuel Macron from the images of twelve photographers (Issue Polka # 38)