On a vu, on a aimé « Beyond the Streets », l’expo qui nous plonge dans le street art

La Grande Halle de la Villette

Push open the door and travel from the 1980s to the present day to discover the history of street art from Paris to New York. At La Villette, graffiti, frescoes, tags and sculptures spread across 3,600 square meters and tell the story of how a criminalized act became an influential artistic language. What's it about? Rooted in the lasting cultural impact of graffiti and street art, « Beyond the Streets » is not a simple exhibition, but a true living platform. The retrospective retraces how this underground movement redefined cities, language, fashion, music and activism on a global scale. From tagged subway cars to museum walls and international stages, the exhibition examines how these artists, who once worked without authorization, transformed visual culture with unprecedented scope. Editorial opinion Who would have thought that Paris would one day exhibit entire walls of vintage spray paint cans or display small tagged subway cars? That's the subject of this formidable exhibition, to see before the end of August at La Villette (19e). « Beyond the Streets » is not limited to the works. It also tells the story of those who built this culture: graffiti pioneers, subway tunnel explorers, somewhat ethnological photographers, savvy collectors. All of them participate in honoring the past, in reviving an art that is inherently ephemeral, much of which has long disappeared from the walls. What saved it? Their creative force. Each tag, each graffiti, each mosaic, each sculpture, each photograph tells how street art, a vernacular form of contemporary art, managed to express a certain reality: occupying public space by showing its transformation. Broken televisions, plastic toys, concert posters or subway cars, everything is a laboratory for creation, everything is conducive to making the ordinary extraordinary. About a hundred artists participate in this project with major archives, as if to remind us that the other strength of street art lies in the near-total commitment it demands. Like Obey and his posters subverting the codes of propaganda, Bando who managed to bring graffiti to the forefront in Paris by laying its foundations, or Maï Lucas with her photographs of unknown young people, such as the group Assassin or Mc Solaar. But the star of « Beyond the streets » is vinyl. It's thanks to vinyl that the development of hip-hop culture was able to happen. Aside from the crumbling walls of certain neighborhoods, where else could we have seen tags and graffiti? A huge part of the retrospective therefore pays tribute to record covers, a beautiful way of showing how underground culture circulated before social media... and to make us want to look up a little more often while walking down the street. Khadija M. Under the curation of Roger Gastman, internationally renowned graffiti historian and designer of « Beyond the Streets », the exhibition places graffiti back at the heart of a historical and contemporary perspective, honoring its ephemeral character while consecrating its cultural legacy. A concept store orchestrated by the legendary founder of Colette, Sarah Andelman, is also offered.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗