Exposition Paris à l’arraché. Jacques Villeglé et l’art urbain au Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris

Musée Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Jacques Villeglé (27 March 1926, Quimper – 6 June 2022, Paris), the musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris presents the exhibition « Paris à l'arraché. Jacques Villeglé et l'art urbain ». A major artist of the French scene, Jacques Villeglé developed a singular approach characterized by the taking of posters from urban space. Through these fragments torn from the walls of Paris, he transforms the ephemeral traces of the city into a unique visual language, at once poetic and documentary. His prolific body of work invites us to discover the history of the city through lacerated posters or graphic signs that he recomposes. It also allows us to explore his connections with the multiple expressions of contemporary urban art. The exhibition is organized as a journey through groupings structured by the vision of Jacques Villeglé, drawn from his own writings. His works are set alongside photographs, sound archives, music, film excerpts, interviews and testimonies, among which numerous previously unpublished documents. The exhibition focuses on his practice, situated at the crossroads of poetry and urban archaeology. For him, Paris is an open-air studio, where every wall conceals a work in the making. Villeglé's wanderings invite us to cross four neighborhoods where he particularly took his materials, from the porte Maillot to Saint-Germain-des-Prés, passing through the Montparnasse district and finally the Marais. The exhibition also reveals the historical dimension of Villeglé's work, which captures true snapshots of the urban space of a given era. These posters evoke the political context, struggles and mobilizations, local or national elections: the streets of Paris reflect a society shaken by multiple upheavals. Jacques Villeglé, Rue de l'Échaudé, 31 mai 1961. Lacerated posters mounted on canvas. Paris, Fonds de dotation Villeglé; Credits: © Fonds de dotation Villeglé / Adagp, Paris, 2026 / Photo: Fabienne Villeglé Harry Shunk and János Kender, Jacques Villeglé, Montparnasse, Paris, 14 février 1961. Photograph. Collection of the Centre Pompidou-MNAM / CCI-Bibliothèque Kandinsky; Credits: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Fonds Shunk et Kender / Adagp, Paris, 2026 Jacques Villeglé, Boulevard de Belleville, 10 mai 1995. Lacerated posters mounted on canvas. Paris, Fonds de dotation Villeglé; Credits: © Fonds de dotation Villeglé / Adagp, Paris, 2026 / Photo: François Poivret JACQUES VILLEGLE, Rue de Rennes, avril 1987; Credits: Courtesy Galerie GP & N Vallois, Paris

Source: Paris Open Data ↗