[ad_1]
French graffiti artists Ella and Pitr have painted the largest street art work in Europe on the roof of a Paris convention center. Covering 2.5 hectares, the image of an old woman cut by the ring road that surrounds the French capital can only be seen entirely from the sky.
For all those who are on the roof of the convention center of the Porte de Versailles, southwest of Paris, the work is in the form of red, white and gray fields, with occasional black lines .
It is only from above that we can see how it looks like an image of an old woman observing traffic on the Peripherique, the congested ring road that surrounds the French capital.
"Her eyes are half closed because she is very bored by everything that's happening quickly around her," says Ella.
"We wanted to find something that contrasts a lot with the geographical location," which, as she points out, is teeming with traffic and pedestrians.
"It's like she's at home looking out the window, a little bored with cars and everything that's happening in town," says Pitr. "It's a contrast between his lifestyle and the rest of society."
The tandem had access to the roof thanks to an arrangement between city officials and Art en Ville, a group promoting urban art in public places.
"Ella + Pitr make a place in the city for the characters we tend to forget, like this old woman," says Olivier Landes, curator and founder of the group.
"Their characters are not fashionable, but they are people everyone knows: old people, neighbors, family members."
A lot of painting
Ella + Pitr has created other large-scale works in France, Portugal, Chile, Canada and elsewhere since their meeting in Saint-Etienne in 2007.
The new work covers an area equivalent to four football fields. He breaks the record of artists, with a mural in Norway in 2015.
Using diluted acrylic paints loaded with aerosol cans, the artists painted the mural for eight days in June. This includes the time spent waiting for the rain to dry.
They do not disclose how much material they used, but Landes says it involved "a lot of painting, it's safe".
Artists used drones
And just as aerial images are needed to see the work in full, the artists also used drones to create it.
"The artists referred to aerial photographs of the roof and oriented their work around technical points, such as aerators," says Landes.
Even on the roof of a nearby car park offering the best viewpoint within walking distance, it is not easy to discern the image.
"We rely on the Internet and media to broadcast the aerial image, which will be viewed virtually, on a screen, like all works of urban art," says Landes.
Street art commercial
The choice to create a large-scale work in an isolated place was also a conscious decision to remain discreet.
"Nowadays, you can find so many murals, paintings, on very large walls full of colors," says Pitr. "For us, it is more interesting to stay on the roof so that no one can see it. And if you really want to see it, then you have to look for it. "
As such, the work also criticizes the commercial aspects of street art, which has created a thriving market for exhibitions and gallery sales.
"In the beginning, street art was supposed to contrast with advertising and it started to look the same," says Ella. "It's full of color and sometimes the theme does not talk about anything like advertising."
The artwork itself will exist until 2022, when the hall will be demolished as part of a renovation project to prepare the complex for the 2024 Olympics. .
Source link
