Paris: Banksy joins the celebrations of Mai 68 riots

June 30, 2018 butterfly

While Paris has been celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the May 68 Riots with multiple exhibitions, elusive artist Banksy has hit the streets of the French capital with a series of new artworks.

May 68 in France – Ten million workers on strike, young people in the streets, public services at a standstill, a paralysed economy: the state faced a major social crisis which threatened to shake its very foundations. The entire country was affected, including all sectors of activity.

Facing the entrance of La Sorbonne University, Banksy put up a dark stencil of a man hiding a saw behind his back while an amputated dog is salivating looking up at a bone. Could be a play on words ‘Saw Bone’ which sounds similar to ‘Sorbonne’, but also is a very cynical symbol of our society, raising questions of sacrifice and perceived rewards from the powers in place.

Placement and context are always very important. This is where the major student demonstrations took place. Interestingly, less than 10 meters away from this ‘Saw & Bone’ stencil, Invader placed a pixelated commemoration plaque on the Place de La Sorbonne earlier this May.

Click on the pics to enlarge

Banksy painted additional little rats characters, with the tag 1968 and the 8 falling apart and being transformed into the bow of the famous Minnie mouse, nod to Disneyland, symbolising with his stencils that the 1968 uprising has lost its luster and morphed into capitalism.

Next to the Centre Pompidou, which hosts Le Musee d’art Moderne, the largest museum of modern art in Europe, Banksy painted a mischief rat, which was later transformed into a bigger one holding a cutter. He posted the caption on his Instagram: ‘Fifty years since the uprising in Paris 1968. The birthplace of modern stencil art.’

The entire city is celebrating the 50th Anniversary, from the streets to institutions. For further historical context about the 1968 riots, the Hotel de Ville is presenting historical pictures by photograph Gilles Caron who documented the student revolts while the Archives Nationales are showing the events of May-June 1968 as seen by the authorities of the time. Earlier in May we also shared the intervention of Spanish artist ESCIF on the external walls ‘Open Borders’ of the modern art institution Palais de Tokyo ( see full coverage here).

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Stay tuned as we continue our coverage of Banksy invasion of the French capital…

London

London: Banksy Vote Love

June 26, 2018 butterfly 2 Comments

For the 250th Anniversary of the Summer Exhibiton at the Royal Academy in London, Banksy submitted an artwork under the pseudonym Bryan S Gaakman, anagram of ‘banksy anagram’ and it was refused. However when curator Grayson Perry contacted him to submit something, Banksy did it again and it is now displayed in the gallery 3.

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A post shared by Banksy (@banksy)

The artwork features a heart shaped balloon with plaster over a political board that was used for the Brexit referendum vote. The initial board favoured the ‘Leave’ campaign.
With his humorous style, the ‘Leave’ campaign has been replaced by a ‘Love’ statement. To add further irony, the price tag on the artwork is £350 millions, a nod to the infamous ‘Leave bus’ claiming that Britain would save £350m a week after Brexit.

The heart shaped balloon is an image close to Banksy, starting with his iconic Girl with Balloon (2002) who was also used worldwide for the #withSyria campaign in 2014

The first Love Heart Balloon with plaster appeared at the MOCA exhibition ‘Arts in the Streets’ in Los Angeles in 2011.

Pic by BirdMan

A Heart Balloon mural was painted in the streets of New York in 2013 during his artistic residency Better Out than In.

And a painted canvas with the Heart Balloon was then sold in 2014 to support the Haitian Charity Auction for $650K.

Pic by Banksy

Throughout the years, Banksy expressed his views on political issues, and specially the Brexit. We recall the mural in Dover in May 2017 featuring a worker chiselling away a star from the European Flag (see our previous coverage here).

This was followed by the release of a revisited version of the Girl With Balloon featuring a heart with the Union Jack flag for the UK Elections in June 2017, which was later recalled due to criminal offence (covered)

Pic by Banksy

The 250th Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy features 1300 artworks from internationally renowned artists and exciting new talents.

Come back again soon for our full coverage on the exhibition.

250th Summer Exhibition
Royal Academy
Until 19 August 2018
Burlington House, Piccadilly,
London, W1J 0BD

Paris, streets

Paris: Banksy for World Refugee Day

June 22, 2018 butterfly 2 Comments

A new mural appeared in the streets of Paris . A black and white stencilled little girl standing on a wooden palette is painting a pink wallpaper over a Nazi cross.

It bears all the tales of Banksy. Timing and locations are key: It’s world Refugee Day and the artwork is located on the wall of dismantled refugee camp in the north of Paris.

It’s the first time that Banksy paints in Paris

The image is reminiscent of his 2009 artwork ‘Go flock yourself’, with the same wallpaper pattern.

The little girl is homeless as shown with her teddy bear and duvet stencilled on the lower part of the wall. Banksy continues to fight against xenophobia and continue to raise awareness about the refugee crisis.

Stay tuned for more Banksy news to come…

London, Shows

London: Sandra Chevrier – Les Cages: We Can’t Be Tamed

June 22, 2018 butterfly

StolenSpace Gallery is currently showcasing the latest body of work by Canadian born artist, Sandra Chevrier, as she makes her long awaited return to the UK. Evocatively titled ‘Les Cages; We Can’t Be Tamed’, the exhibition features a fresh series of Chevrier’s iconic ‘Cage Paintings’ – juxtaposing feminine subjects with comic book iconography in order to explore concepts of social expectation via the female gaze.

”A man can believe until his last breath that he is different from a Caged animal in a Zoo. But through all his life until his death; he will be living in a prison without walls and will still believe he is free when in fact, everyday he will be shackled, whipped, and exist in captivity. We are all slaves of something, of someone, of an idea.”

“The Cages series as been revolving around submission, oppression, unfreedom, confinement and imprisonment. Cages are Cages, whether they were build with steel or from the fabric of the mind. We cannot be free outside the Cage unless we are able to experience the freedom within it. The freedom is inside us. Freedom within a Cage. I have a dream. A dream that freedom is not just an idea or a word. Only; I am not sure what it is… Not yet.”

By applying the comic book trope of the masked figure, Sandra Chevrier conceals the identity of her subjects, rendering them as simultaneously heroic, yet restricted.
Obscured by scenes of hostility and struggle, they peer from the canvas, challenging the viewer to look beyond their own preconceived notions of femininity. Often the artist applies scenes of heroic downfall to her collages – images that display the vulnerability of their super-powered subjects and remind us of their limitations. Sandra Chevrier’s intention is to make clear the often impossibly high standards that society holds women to.

Sandra Chevrier
Les Cages: We can’t be tamed
Until 1 July 2018

StolenSpace Gallery
London

Shows, Street, streets

La Rochelle: Graff on Tour(s) with Lek & Sowat

June 18, 2018 butterfly 2 Comments

The Towers of La Rochelle, managed by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN), are currently presenting Graff on Tour(s) until 25 June 2018 with a focus on historical graffiti as well as artistic interventions by contemporary artists ( see our first preview here. Following a month residency, internationally renowned graffiti duo Lek & Sowat were given total freedom to create contemporary artistic installations in the Saint Nicolas Tower and the city of La Rochelle.

After having archived and documented graffiti on the national monuments as traces of history and archeology for decades, and referenced graffiti on thirty historical monuments, the CMN is dedicating its 2018 cultural season on historical graffiti with a series of exhibitions and events called “Sur les murs, histoire(s) de graffiti“ on nine of its national monuments curated by Laure Pressac .

Wandering in La Rochelle, a few signs announce an atypical invasion.
Local buses adorn abstract geometric and dynamic shapes…

Bus Yelo La Rochelle, Lek & Sowat ©Théo Larmaillard/CMN

Looking up we noticed that the French flag on the Saint Nicolas Tower has been replaced by a pirate flag floating high with graffuturism and calligraffiti letters. There is no doubt: Lek and Sowat have taken over La Rochelle.

Known for their interventions both in abandoned places such as Mausolee ( see here) or institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo ( more here), Lek and Sowat were particularly interested by the historical monument of the Saint Nicolas Tower due to its architecture, context and history.

Some quick historic facts: during the 14th century La Rochelle was a centre of maritime trade and the Towers were controlling entry to the port by the many trading ship. From the 16th to 18th centuries, the Saint Nicolas Tower and the Chaine Tower were also used as prisons for Huguenots (French protestants) and foreign sailors, followed by military prisoners from the 19th century. Over 600 graffiti have been recorded, engraved in the walls of the Rochelle Towers, as testimony of imprisoned sailors during the various wars.

Lek & Sowat were inspired and intrigued by the story of the junction between the Saint Nicolas Tower and the Chaine Tower, mentioned in an old historical book of La Rochelle, added to the calculations of the architect Juste Lisch whose illustrations concurred with the possible existence of an arch between the two towers.

Illustration by Juste Lisch (1864)

Based on this historical and utopian idea, they have imagined a graffuturist gateway with the help of their friend David ‘Tcheko’ La Tulipe.

Lek & Tcheko

In the continuity of their work done at the Pavillon du Carre Beaudoin , both artists pursue their quest to push the boundaries of graffiti and contemporary art, this time by creating a multisensorial and immersive installation inside the Saint Nicolas Tower.

They wanted to recreate the feelings of fear and unknown so present when doing urbex (urban exploration), not knowing what you might find, but being excited as the same time.
Visitors descend the Saint Nicolas Tower’s stairs in total darkness until their feet touch the floor of the lower ground space. Then the adrenaline kicks in: Boom !

It’s an explosion of lighting effects and shadows, revealing a three dimensional metallic bridge with geometric shapes, reminiscent of the abstract geometric shapes found in Lek & Sowat graffiti paintings.

Vibration sensors connected to a set of nine lights trigger an infinite combination of light variations which evolve through the stamps of visitors. All the surfaces from the floor to ceiling are transformed and the shadows appearing from the metallic structure create characters and shapes on the walls of the Tower.

The immersive installation creates a new dynamic dialogue between the viewer and the historical tower, a vibrant and interactive display for all ages, where the viewer is also an active participant in the creation of the installation.

Shy visitors start an impromptu dynamic dance to activate additional lighting and discover more fractal shadows and projections, characters and shapes. The interaction is fun, liberating and addictive.

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View the full set of pics here

The arched shape of the ground floor combined with the artistic installation also reminds us of a cathedral and its colourful stained glass windows with the graffuturist metallic structure recreating the stained glass windows outlines, giving a sacred aura to the historical space.

With their installation Lek and Sowat successfully take graffiti and contemporary art to another dimension, while giving a second life to the historical monument.

Simply magical.

In addition to their installation, Lek & Sowat are releasing a special limited edition Tote Bag to support the protection of the French cultural heritage, available in CMN’s gift shops.

Stay tuned as we continue our visit of the CMN Cultural season across the summer
“Sur les Murs, Histoire(s) de Graffiti”.

Graffs on Tour(s)
Until 25 June
Saint Nicolas Tower
Lantern Tower
La Rochelle