In parallel to his current show ‘Hello My Game is’ at Musee en Herbe (covered) , French artist Space Invader is back to the streets of Paris with a new large mosaic featuring a self portrait in action, masked and running away with a ladder after putting up a framed invader in a starry night. For all Flash Invader addicts it is PA_1266.
View the full set of pics here
Hello my game is… will run until 3rd September at Musee en Herbe, 23 rue de l’Arbre-Sec, 75001 Paris.
Invader takes over Le Musée en Herbe in Paris for an exhibition entitled Hello, My Game Is… with over 100 new works on show.
It’s the first exhibition of Invader in Paris since 2011 (see our coverage of the 1000 exhibition) . The title refers to the name stickers, popular in the graffiti scene, with a twist on the name emphasizing the playfulness of the work as Hello, My Game Is… seeks to engage with the inner children within us all.
Invader explains – ‘I have myself often drawn inspiration from the world of childhood. Besides, who other than an adult with a child’s soul could devote his life to invading the world with video game characters? Also, this exhibition is very close to my heart because children represent the future. Education and dialogue with children are the key to a good future for humanity and tomorrow’s world.’
Upon entering the museum, children and fans alike can collect stickers from the vending machines and swap any doubles.
Since the creation of the Flash Invader app many years ago, which involves hunting down his street pieces across the world, the level of engagement with his work has been deepened with 13,000 registered users to date. For all Flash Invader fans eager to top up their score, the most recent mosaic has been placed inside the museum.
The first room references both video games such as Pac-Man and Q*bert and characters from children’s animation including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Miyazaki’s Ponyo that have inspired Invader’s work. People from all ages are invited to try and play the infamous arcade games.
A large-scale interactive map of the world is showing the 67 cities which have been invaded over the course of the last 20 years as well as lifesize ‘alias’ mosaics that have been installed across the world, from London CCTV flower (covered), Toulouse Pink inavsion (covered) to the one in the ISS station.
The Rubik Cubism room is a nod to the 80’s Rubik’s Cubes game. Rubik Cubism pieces on display include Disney characters as well as Peter Pan, who previously appeared in PA_1085. This particular work is made from 1,320 Rubik’s Cubes making it his largest such piece to date.
A magnet wall allows children, both young and old, to create and remake their own 8-bit inspired creations. The last room presents works on paper as well as a series of masks used during Invader’s streets interventions and a glimpse of the artist’s studio.
A 40-page book containing games and stickers published by Casterman also accompany the exhibition.
View the full set of pics here
Hello my game is… will run from Monday to Sunday (10am to 7pm; 9pm on Thursdays) until January 2018 at 23 rue de l’Arbre-Sec, 75001 Paris.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
Palais Magazine # 24
ISBN: 978-2-84711-071-5
216 pages – Format 22.5 x 28.5 cm
€ 15 Available here
From September 2015 to August 2016, French artists Lek & Sowat were the first Graffiti writers to become artists-in-residence at the prestigious Academy of France in Rome, the Villa Médicis. A mark of recognition for this atypical duo whose path has led them from the urban wastelands of the Mausolée project (covered here) to the underground ventilation shafts of the Palais de Tokyo (see more here).
We caught up with Sowat in his Parisian studio before he left for his residency and share some behind the scenes pictures.
Sowat thoroughly balances geometry, abstraction and alchemy, playing with the variety of reactions allowed by mixing china ink with chemical substances.
The vibrant colours provide a highly emotional impact to the works. Carefully chosen colour combinations of Blood and Light, Blue and Steel, Purple and Gold, Coal and Fire, evoke a universe, references, an invitation to dream, and seek to revive the ancient alchemical myth of transformation.
During his 12 months residency, Sowat shared Ingres’ former studio with Lek, and created a new series of work that will be exhibited for his solo show ‘Tempus Fugit‘ at the Galerie Le Feuvre in Paris on 17 November 2016.
Thirty- nine large-sized works, scrupulously composed and staged in the gardens of the Villa explore his research into calligraphy, lines and movement, drawing as much inspiration from the engraved marble slabs of the Roman Codex as from Cholo Writing, the Latino gangs’ art from the Los Angeles of his youth, thus creating a tension between the primitive aspect of his work and the stone and plaster of antique statues.
Photos credit: Paris by Butterfly Art News, Rome courtesy of Sowat and Yulia Galycheva
Sowat – Tempus Fugit
Opening 17 Nov from 6 PM
17 Nov – 17 Dec 2016
Galerie Le Feuvre
164 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris
Over 600 artworks critiquing the corporate takeover of the COP21 climate talks were installed in advertising spaces across Paris this weekend -ahead of the United Nations summit beginning Monday 30 November.
Amidst the French state of emergency banning all public gatherings following the terrorist attacks on 13 November in Paris, the ‘Brandalism‘ project has worked with Parisians to insert unauthorised artworks across the city that aim to highlight the links between advertising, consumerism, fossil fuel dependency and climate change.
The artworks were placed in advertising spaces owned by JC Decaux -one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising firms and an official sponsor to the COP21 climate talks.Other prominent corporate sponsors of the climate talks such as AirFrance, GDF Suez (Engie) and Dow Chemicals are parodied in the posters -whilst heads of state such as Francois Hollande, David Cameron, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Shinzo Abi also feature.
The artworks were created by over 80 renowned artists from 19 countries across the world including Jimmy Cauty, Banksy-collaborator Paul Insect,Escif and Kennard Phillips – many of whom featured at Banksy’s Dismaland exhibition in England this summer (see our coverage here), as well as Aida, Arnaud Liard, AlexOne, Barnbrook, David De La Mano, Fra BiancoShock, Hobz,John Felkner, Ron English, Jon Burgerman, Noel Douglas, Lapiz, Mobstr to name a few.
Joe Elan from Brandalism said, “By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution – when actually they are part of the problem.”
Elan continued, “We are taking their spaces back because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism. Because the advertising industry force feeds our desires for products created from fossil fuels, they are intimately connected to causing climate change. As is the case with the Climate talks and their corporate sponsored events, outdoor advertising ensures that those with the most amount of money are able to ensure that their voices get heard above all else.” The art works were installed on ‘Black Friday‘ or ‘Vendredi Noir’; the most hectic and competitive shopping day of the year.
Other posters called on people to take to the streets as part of the”Climate Games” – the world’s largest disobedient adventure game as well as protesting the “Solutions 21” conference – a large corporate exposition being held at the Grand Palais during the climate talks .
Bill Posters from Brandalism said “Following the tragic events on 13th November in Paris, the government has chosen to ban the big civil society mobilisations – but big business events can continue. The multinationals responsible for climate change can keep green washing their destructive business models, but the communities directly impacted by them are silenced. It’s now more important than ever to call out their lies and speak truth to power. We call on people to take to the streets during the COP21 to confront the fossil fuel industry. We cannot leave the climate talks in the hands of politicians and corporate lobbyists who created this mess in the first place.”
View the full gallery here
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