Tag Archives: Hugo Vitrani

Paris: ESCIF ‘Open Borders’ at Palais de Tokyo

May 1, 2018 butterfly 1 Comment

From May 4th, Palais de Tokyo in Paris will pay tribute to the history and legacy of the May 1968 events with a intervention by Escif, where he reproduced some of the famous writings from that period of student revolts. His creation completes the project, which was started in 2015 by Greek artist Stelios Faitakis, who realized two murals dedicated to the legacy of the situationist movement and civil unrest of May 1968. This intervention is part of the 10th installment of the LASCO Project (covered) curated by Hugo Vitrani, the Urban Art programme of Palais de Tokyo launched in 2012 which features artworks by over sixty international artists throughout its building.

Escif states: “I’m looking for the limit, how to paint a mural that is not a mural (…) The wall is a limit, a tool of power with which we plan, control and manipulate the space of cities. Graffiti abuses of walls by ridiculing them, by transgressing their original function. A painted wall is then no longer a limit but a transversal channel.”

Overlooking the iconic Eiffel Tower, the Spanish artist’s mural features trompe-l’oeil elements like country flags, doors, fire escapes, and wild vegetation throughout the back walls of the Palais de Tokyo, while tags and slogans lacerate the walls.

The written texts are inspired by the graffiti drawn clandestinely in the toilets of the institution which have been archived by the artist, as well as writings that accompanied the student revolts of May 68.

The general composition of the painting is a nod to the board game ‘Snakes and Ladders’ and plunges the player into a journey between vice and virtue. This is a perfect vehicle for Escif to question the part of situationism and politics plays in the art of writing on walls.

View the full set of pics here

ESCIF – Open Borders
From 4 May 2018
Lasco Project
Palais de Tokyo
Paris

Books, Films, Paris

Release: Underground Does not Exist Anymore

December 4, 2016 butterfly

underground-doesnot-exist-anymore

Fresh from their return from their one year artistic residency at Villa Medici, Lek & Sowat present their latest book ‘Underground Does not Exist Anymore‘ together with curator Hugo Vitrani. The book retraces the events between December 2012 and June 2014, where the two artists supported by curator Hugo Vitrani invaded the Palais de Tokyo through various official interventions, secret or ephemeral .

What started out as a mural on a peripheral space of the institution then evolved into an ambitious long-term project. We look back at the project in more details, as we’ve been keeping the secret for a very long time…

John Giorno x Lek X Sowat - Palais de Tokyo

After a first collaboration with the American artist John Giorno ( see more here) Lek and Sowat were invited a second time to the Palais de Tokyo in December 2012 to paint on the walls of an emergency exit overlooking the technical premises of the museum. Rather than acting as a duo on the agreed space, the artists invited a dozen of graffiti artists including Dem189, Sambre, Wxyz, Katre, L’Outsider, Swiz, Rizot, Legz, Seth to join them and created an immersive installation by painting from the floor to the ceiling and began an urban exploration of the building.

Palais de Tokyo - Paris Lasco Project - Palais de Tokyo

In October 2013 with the complicity of the president of the Palais de Tokyo, Jean de Loisy, new spaces were made available and the project now titled ‘Lasco’ in tribute to the prehistorical cave paintings, the first wall paintings. Curator Hugo Vitrani with Lek and Sowat decided to pay tribute to French graffiti writers with individual dedicated spaces featuring Azyle, Bom.K, dran, Monsieur Qui, ….

In parallel to the authorized areas, Lek and Sowat as well as invited artists like dran, Alëxone, Kan, Blo, Evol, Cleon Peterson would also discreetly wander corridors, push doors, paint unofficially and create hidden or ephemeral installations, illustrating the evanescent nature of graffiti and its ability to penetrate everywhere.

Lasco Project - Palais de Tokyo

The results can be seen within the video ‘Invisible Vandalism’.

Traces Directs / Direct Outlines

The book also features all the artists ephemeral interventions on a blackboard ( see our coverage here) from Philippe Baudelocque, Wxyz, Alëxone, Smo, L’Outsider, Sowat, Babs, Skki, Jay one, Tcheko, Apôtre, Kan, Seb174, Sambre, Nassyo, Popay (pictured below), Spé, Fléo, Lek, Dem189, Swiz to Jacques Villeglé.

Popay

The short feature film Traces Directs is now part of the permanent collections of the Centre George Pompidou.

La Trappe

Pushing their exploration of the building further and further, Lek and Sowat discovered a hatch leading to the ventilation lines underneath the Palais de Tokyo.

This is the epilogue of their artistic journey. Lek and Sowat adorned the narrowed and out of reach spaces with graffiti and with curator Hugo Vitrani invited legendary Mode2 and Futura to paint using ochre, black and white colours, reminiscent of the sacred prehistorical paintings in the Lascaux caves. Large graffiti letters by Mode2 form the sentence ‘Underground doesn’t exist anymore’.

Lasco Project - Palais de Tokyo

View the full set of pics here

Due to the nature of the space and for security reasons, the Palais de Tokyo has now closed the access to the hatch permanently. While these paintings will never be accessible to the public, they have been documented in the following video.

Underground Does not Exist Anymore by Lek &Sowat and Hugo Vitrani
ISBN: 978-2-91-917217-81-8
340 pages – Format 17 x 24 cm
Editions Manuella
€ 30 Available here

In parallel Le Palais de Tokyo just released a special issue Palais Magazine #24 focussing on the urban interventions together with artist interviews from Andre, Azyle, dran, Craig Costello, Futura, Mode2 to Os Gemeos.

udea-palais-de-tokyo

Palais Magazine # 24
ISBN: 978-2-84711-071-5
216 pages – Format 22.5 x 28.5 cm
€ 15 Available here

Paris, Shows

Paris: Lasco #3 – Palais de Tokyo

June 18, 2014 butterfly 1 Comment

For the third instalment of the Lasco Project ( covered here) curator Hugo Vitrani invited seven internationally renowned graffiti artists to infiltrate the Palais de Tokyo‘s cavernous basement level for the first time.

LA based illustrator Cleon Peterson created a large black and white mural depicting urban violence and social tension with policemen and crack addicts.

Parisian graffiti artists Horfé and Ken Sortais intervention is inspired by the underground Japanese manga “Violence Jack,” created in 1973 by Go Nagai, in which heroes, resistance fighters, victims and survivors-turned-executioners in a post-apocalyptic, violent urban setting.

Stencils of Berlin based artist Evol transform the inner walls of the Palais de Tokyo into miniature buildings with balconies, windows and satellite dishes as a pointed comment on the failure of an architectural and political utopia.

Arrested by the police’s anti-graffiti task force in 2012, Parisian artist Cokney, who was tried and was fined over 200,000 euro for his illegal paintings on trains and subway cars, decided to combine paintings with the estimates, complaints and reports generated during his trial.

Portugese artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, used destruction as a creative force to chisel an anonymous portrait into walls, like for his signature “Scratching the Surface” series.

On a wall visible to the public, NY graffiti legend Futura 2000 created a minimalist version of his usual style with a composition of stripes and stencilled dots.

Last but not least, on the underground tunnels not accessible to the public, is an inter-generational dialog between Futura, Mode 2, Lek & Sowat called “Underground does not exist anymore”.

View the full set of pics here

Palais de Tokyo
Lasco #3
13 Avenue Du Président Wilson, Paris 75016

Paris, Shows

Paris: Lasco project at Palais de Tokyo

November 18, 2013 butterfly 2 Comments

Opening in Paris on 21 Nov is the second instaltment of the ongoing project “Les Entrailles” at Palais de Tokyo, this time called “Lasco”.
Lek and Sowat and curator Hugo Vitrani have brought together 50 artists from different generations and field of practice to invade the secondary spaces of Palais de Tokyo not initially intended to accommodate exhibitions and closed to the public. Within this raw space and minimalist lighting, every artist has contributed with their skills and gesture to produce a collective work overlapping styles and techniques using spray paint, paintbrush, pencil, chalk, and other salvaged materials found on site.

“Lasco” session
With: ALËXONE, PHILIPPE BAUDELOCQUE, DRAN, HOCTEZ, JAY ONE, KAN, LEGZ , SILVIO MAGAGLIO, NASSYO, O’CLOCK, SEBASTIEN PRESCHOUX, ROTI, SKKI, and special guests like LARRY CLARK, MARTHA COOPER

View the full set of pics here

Les Entrailles – First session
With : ALËXONE, AZYLE, BABS, BOM.K, COKNEY, DEM189, DRAN, HONDA, HORFÉ, KATRE, LEK, OUTSIDER, RIZOTE, SAMBRE, SETH, SOWAT, SWIZ, VELVET, WXYZ, ZOER And also : ALZO, BADHYPNOZ, BRUSK, BORE, BORIS, CYRIAK, DEMON, DRAS, EMOY, GOMER, GRIS1, HOBZ, INÉ, JAW, KAN, KÉBOY, KENO, KENCE, LEGZ, MEKO, MR. QUI, NEXT, NIBOR, OGRE, ONDE, PEAMS, RUSTY, SAEYO, SINDÉ, SIRIUS, SMOE, SODA, TCHEKO, TEURK,WO, XABY