Bringing street art out of the shadows
Paris museum offers recognition for new wave of artists amidst city’s deep cultural and artistic connections
PARIS— Think of Paris and you think of the Eiffel Tower and museums. Lots of them. The city’s cultural spaces are regarded as the world’s best, whether it’s the Centre Pompidou or the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Europe’s largest science museum.
This autumn saw the opening of a very different type of museum.
At Art 42, there are no antique-filled cabinets or dusty relics. Paris’s newest museum is dedicated to street art and is tucked inside École 42, a computer academy set up by telecoms mogul Xavier Niel.
The museum opens its doors just twice a week: on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and École 42’s students are the guides. Inside, there are 150 works by 50 artists, including luminaries such as Banksy.
Street-art fan Nicolas Laugero Lasserre owns the pieces. He is keen to promote the genre by allowing the public to enjoy his private collection.
One of the most photographed items is a gleaming white bust of Louis XIV. It’s the type of thing you might see on a guided tour of the bygone king’s former home, the nearby Palace of Versailles. But a computer monitor replaces the top of his head, the words “loading . . . ” etched into the material.
“The artist, Rero, is playing with the borders between history, the digital world and the real world,” explains Art 42’s Philippine Bardi de Fourtou. “It encourages the spectator to consider the limits of technology. But it’s a humorous piece — art must be funny sometimes, too.”
The references to technology seem especially apt, given the museum’s setting is a computer school.
There’s certainly a paradox in the notion of street art being displayed in an enclosed, dedicated space, but many of the artists featured simply see this as recognition.
“It’s like rock ’n’ roll,” says Christian Guémy, whose work is displayed at Art 42. “You’re alternative until you get recognition.”
And there’s no denying that street art is becoming mainstream in Paris.
In the chic Saint-Germain-desPrés neighbourhood, Galerie Ange Basso sells work by Paris’s top street artists.
My favourite item is one of France’s bright yellow mailboxes, although a colourful cartoon by Parisian graffiti artist Zenoy covers its sunshine hues.
This particular piece of art will set you back $6,607 (Canadian).
Another of Zenoy’s pieces fill the gallery’s front window: a display map of the city’s metro system, the protective glass covered with Zenoy’s colourful lettering and a spray canwielding Bart Simpson.
Also for sale are the comic bookstyle illustrations by Guillaume Tissier, whose pieces hint at a disdain for mass media and capitalism: one piece is called The Taliban Strike Back while another is titled The Big Mac.
Then there are works by French graffiti artist Blek le Rat. Born in 1952, he studied fine art at Paris’s prestigious École des Beaux-Arts and came to be regarded as the father of stencil-based graffiti.
Banksy is just one of many artists who cite Blek le Rat as their inspiration.
Belleville, to the north, is famous for its more traditional displays of street art. It’s a gritty, less polished neighbourhood.
Rue de Belleville is the main artery and we prepare for our exploration with a caffeine fix at Cream, where tea is served in chunky stoneware mugs, accompanied by slices of freshly baked cake, and enjoyed at long communal tables.
This neighbourhood’s biggest treasures, however, lie in the narrow lanes that branch out from Rue de Belleville.
One particularly elaborate piece depicts the cover of a Tintin book, while on another street, I discover the robot-like illustrations of U.K.based street artist The Krah.
Further along there’s a stunning image of Germaine Tillion, the French ethnologist and resistance fighter who spent time in Germany’s Ravensbruck concentration campduring the Second World War, and I also spot a spray-painted message about Paris’s 2015 climate change conference.
The French capital’s street art seems more considered and more intellectual than the street art in other cities.
Perhaps this is hardly surprising when pioneers such as Blek le Rat learned their craft at places like the École des Beaux-Arts.
“We’ve got several notable artists pushing the envelope in terms of style, and this is partly due to the shadow cast by Paris’s deep links with cultural heritage and the high arts,” says street artist Sickboy, whose work can also be found in Belleville.
“Creative minds have migrated to this part of Paris, which is one of the few remaining cities where illegal graffiti forms such a big part of the visual landscape.” U.K.-based writer Tamara Hinson was hosted by the Paris Tourist Office, which didn’t review or approve this story.