INVADER SPACE STATION |

The French artist Invader is taking over an entire building in central Paris and transforming it into a space station: the INVADER SPACE STATION. It’s a strategic location, 11 rue Béranger (75003) in the former offices of the newspaper ‘Libération’. Back in 2011 Invader created a giant mural on its rooftop, visible from satellite.

Curated by Fabrice Bousteau, editorial director of Beaux Arts Magazine, this massive exhibition of 3500 m² spans accross the last four floors of the nine storey building.

Upon entering the INVADER SPACE STATION, we are immersed with a SPACE BATTLE, a large scale installation made of road dividers you might see on construction sites. The artist invites the viewer to look again at our surroundings during our everyday ‘s life. Invader mentions : ‘Somewhere between ready-made, arte povera and installation, I’ve used them here to recreate the army of pixelated aliens as seen on the opening screen of the game Space Invaders’. Full with lighting effects and sound !

INVASION OF PARIS

Since 1998 the artist has been leveraging the city of Paris as his playground. A gigantic map displays all 1500 mosaics installed in the streets of Paris with their exact location, as well as close up pictures of each individual ones in chrononological order, showcasing the artist’s prolific nature across 25 years.

We have the opportunity to view from a telescope the latest mosaic in Paris, named PA1500 which has just been revealed at the Centre Pompidou, Museum of Contemporary Art.

FLASHINVADERS APP

A screen displays a real-time stream of all the successful flashes on the FLASH INVADER app. Long before the app Pokemon Go, INVADER set up the FlashInvaders app in 2014. To participate, players just need to ‘flash’ (photograph) the mosaics in the streets throughout the world. Based on the photo and the player’s position, when the information is validated, the app adds the piece to their collection and the player gains some points and progress through the global ranking of players. Gathering 350,000 players and almost 23 million validated flashes, there is indeniably a strong community.

INVADING THE WORLD

The illegal mosaic invasion has taken on a planetary dimension from the start and INVADER travelled extensively to surprising locations to spread its mosaics around the world. Featured in a chronological order, a selection of pictures offers the viewer a glimpse of the international scope and insane risk taking and energy deployed during 25 years, to place mosaics in various cities internationally as well as reaching deep sea levels and outer space in the ISS station.

VIDEOS AND PROJECTION ROOM

Through his through his various missions, INVADER has also captured hundreds of thousands of photographs, as well as many hours of footage INVADER SPACE STATION shares some gems from the artist’s own archive on video loops as well as a large projection room with different screening programmes through the weeks.

ARTWORKS

In parallel to INVADER’s street illegal practice, the artist has also been producing artworks .

A section is dedicated to a retrospective of all INVADER’s works on paper, from screenprints, etchings to lithographs.

Since 2005, the artists has been incorporating Rubik’s cubes to create figurative sculptures and paintings called ‘Rubikcubism’, transforming a playful object into an artistic medium.

For the first time we discover that INVADER is also a big collector of Kinder Surprise figures, and is looking to use them in his practice as artistic material.

PARTICIPATE

Stickers are a big part of the INVADER community. From automated sticker machines, where visitors can buy and swap their collector items, to a massive participative wall where anyone can stick it. So bring your stickers and be part of the INVADER SPACE STATION !