Tag Archives: ‘1984’ ‘lca’ ‘raw’

Insider View: Thias Part 8

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Un vestige du mercantilisme tremble sous le périf’. Il grelotte, ouvert aux quatre vents, loin des lustres du commerce. Il n’appâte plus le client…

Brûlé à vif, il abrite ceux qui se terrent. Les exclus s’y cachent, sans papier, sans pays, sans véritable lit. Mais de là aussi, ils en sont exclus…
L’abandon d’un immense tombeau vide ! Un sanctuaire bientôt. Le mausolée d’une culture qu’on enterre et qu’on célèbre, qu’on bénit et qu’on dépasse. Une offrande picturale au temps des grottes modernes.
Part 8 : APOTRE LEK MONSIEUR.QUI SIAO SOWAT DEM189 SAMBR SMO FLEO BRUSK SWIZ
mausolee.net

Mausolee: Lek x Sowat (Paris)

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Source: Arrested Motion

 

Imagine an abandoned four storey supermarket in the North of Paris occupied by squatters, then deserted again. On August 12, 2010, French graffiti artists Lek and Sowat discovered the place much to their delight. For a year, in the greatest of secrets, both artists continuously wandered in this 430,000 sq ft monument to paint murals and organize an illegal artistic residency. They invited forty French graffiti artists to collaborate, from the first to the last generation of the graffiti movement. Together they built a Mausolee, a temple dedicated to their disappearing underground culture, slowly being replaced by street art and its global pop aesthetics. Due to the nature of the place, very few people have seen it in person.

On 12 April Lek and Sowat will share their experience through an installation and video. See pics and more info  after the jump.

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Graffitis en libre service

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Source: Mix en Bouche

Ils sont deux, Lek et Sowat, à avoir squatté un supermarché abandonné pour laisser libre cours à leur imagination. Ils y ont invité beaucoup d’autres artistes. Le résultat est une exposition, un livre et un film en stop motion qui retrace cette épopée. Il fallait absolument zoomer sur le phénomène.

Sowat, ami de notre graphiste maison Tabas s’est soumis au jeu des questions réponses afin de nous en apprendre plus sur leur démarche créative, leurs goûts (musicaux et culinaires) et leurs projets…

 

1) Comment cette aventure a t elle débuté?

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Paris Opening: Mausolee with Lek x Sowat by Butterfly

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While we were fiishing the last details of the Mausoleum ephemeral show, Butterfly paid us a surprise visit from London to cover our opening…

Mausolee - The show

On August 12, 2010,  French graffiti artists Lek and Sowat found an abandoned supermarket of 430,000sq. ft  in the north of Paris. For a year, in the greatest of secrets they invited forty French graffiti artists to collaborate and create an illegal graffiti Mausoleum.

As the monument  is not accessible for safety reasons, Lek and Sowat  recreated a few murals and installations in an abandoned apartment to share their experience with the public .

Mausolee - The show     Mausolee - The show

Mausolee - The show

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Insider View: Thias – 6 Puits de Lumière

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Source: Thias

Tout est noir, opaque et sans fin. Pourtant si près, la ville s’éloigne. Son bruit s’est disloqué. Seuls quelques éclats ricochent et se joignent au silence…
Une étincelle se met à briller. Un repère dans une nuit horizontale. Posée comme un tableau, la tâche minuscule s’agrandit, et une autre apparaît… Deux puits de lumière dorment sous la ville.
Part 6 : LEK SOWAT

Insider View: Street Art Paris

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Mausolee Paris exhibition presented by Sowat and Lek of the Da Mental Vaporz crew

In August 2010 Sowat & Lek , two artists from France’s Da Mental Vaporz crew organised 40 French artists, from the first to the last generation of the graffiti movement, to paint out the inside of an abandoned 430,000 sq ft Casino supermarket in the North of Paris, near to the Parc de Villette. For a year, a continuous illegal artistic residency took place, which was documented through film and by collecting the detritus that was found around the huge formerly squatted complex.

Lek & Sowat tell us that what remains is “a temple dedicated to a disappearing underground culture, slowly being replaced by street art and its global pop aesthetics”.

The artists who took part in this awesome project, which reminds us of The Underbelly Project and Ghostvillage Project – also certainly worth taking time to discover – include the following:

Apotre, Bims, Blo, Bom.k, Boyane, Brusk, Butterfly, Clickclacker, Dem189, Domone, Fleo, Gilbert1, Gris1, Hobz, Honda, Jayone, Jaw, J.P, Kan, Katre, Keboy, Lek, Manyak, Monsieur Qui, O’Clock, Omick, Onde, Outside, Paum/Sarin, Rems, Res, Romi, R. Skyronka, Sambre, Seth, Shook, Siao, Skio, Smo, Sowat, Spei, Swiz, Tcheko, Thias, Wxyz

An installation inspired by and made using materials from the site of the “Mausoleum” is now open to view by the public, and the accompanying book, can be bought online, here.

The project is essentially the brainchild of artist Sowat. He was assisted by Lek, and the video was edited by Kan.

Mausolee Paris exhibition presented by Sowat and Lek of the Da Mental Vaporz crew

Picture found at the North Paris site and framed as part of the exhibition

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Mausolée: das Buch

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source: hood1

Auf Allcity.fr entdeckte ich einen Artikel zu Leks & Sowat’s Buch Mausolée: le livre.

Die französischen Writer Lek und Sowat entdeckten im August 2010 einen verlassenen Supermarkt nebst dazugehörigem Parkhaus im Pariser Norden. Auf einer Fläche von unfassbaren 40.000 m², die sich über mehrere, teilweise unbeleuchtete unterirdische Etagen erstecken, fanden die beiden Künstler ungeahnte Massen an Flächen. In den riesigen Hallen schliefen, wohnten und lebten hunderte Obdachlose, bis die Polizei die Flächen räumte.

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Insider View: Thias – Part 5

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Source: Thias

Un vestige du mercantilisme tremble sous le périf’. Il grelotte, ouvert aux quatre vents, loin des lustres du commerce. Il n’appâte plus le client…
Brûlé à vif, il abrite ceux qui se terrent. Les exclus s’y cachent, sans papier, sans pays, sans véritable lit. Mais de là aussi, ils en sont exclus…
L’abandon d’un immense tombeau vide ! Un sanctuaire bientôt. Le mausolée d’une culture qu’on enterre et qu’on célèbre, qu’on bénit et qu’on dépasse. Une offrande picturale au temps des grottes modernes.
Part 5 : LEK SPEI SOWAT KATRE RES J.P BLO GILBERT1 SWIZ FLEO O’CLOCK

 

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Mausolée: A Residence artistique in Paris

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Source: My life on a bike

Last weekend an astonishing project called “Mausolée” was presented  by the French artists Sowat and Lek. In 2010 they found one abandoned supermarket ( 40.000 m2 in 4 floors) in the north of Paris, which was also, for a long time, the residence for homeless. The  abandoned building  was invaded and made an artistic residence by Lek and Sowat.

They invited 40 French graffiti artist and photographers, old and new school, to work with them for a day or a week. For a year, in a great secret they created the mausoleum. In the destroyed building with a lot of dirt,  abandoned  pieces of cars and personal objects from the homeless that  use to live there, the artists found a paradise for graffiti art: white walls.

Amazing and huge abstract and figurative graffiti was painted during the residence, putting the roots of the street art  in deep connections with its means of existence: sub-culture.

To present us this incredible project “Mausolée” the artists made a movie and a beautiful book (Mausolée – edited by Alternatives). Both were showed in a great installation, inspired by the artist residence and also with some objects that they captured from the abandoned supermarket. The exhibition took place in a 200m2 site under-construction residential building last weekend. Congratulations Sowat and Lek!

Mausolée | La residencia underground del graffiti francés

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Source: 

El 12 de agosto de 2010, Lek y Sowat encontraron un supermercado abandonado al norte de París, siendo este un spot de 40000 m² para pintar murales  y organizar una residencia artística ilegal, por lo que decidieron invitar a grafiteros franceses a colaborar durante un año, entre los que se encuentran: Apotre, Bims, Blo, Bom.k, Boyane, Brusk, Deap, Dem189, Fléo, Gris1, Hobz, Honda, Jayone, Jaws, Kan, Katre, Lek, Monsieur Qui, O’clock, Onde, Outside, Rems, Romi, Sambre, Seth, Siao, Skio, Smo, Sowat, Spei, Swiz, Tcheko y muchos más, siendo un total de cuarenta y seis writers. Juntos construyeron un mausoleo, un templo dedicado a la cultura underground que está tendiendo a desaparecer, siendo reemplazada lentamente por el street art y la estética del pop mundial.

Mausolée | La residencia underground del graffiti francés Mausolée | La residencia underground del graffiti francés

A love letter to Graffiti by Sowat & Lek

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Source: Street Art Central

“For nearly a year, we secretly went painting there, creating abstract
art amongst the remains and fragments of lives the squatters were
forced to leave behind. Independently, without any type of funding or
sponsorship. We then asked 40 French Graffiti Artists, from the first
to the last generation of our movement, to discreetly join us in
creating ‘in situ’ murals and installations, some sort of weird and
poetic illegal ‘Mausoleum’ dedicated to Graffiti.”

Sowat..

https://mausolee.net/book/

Graffuturism

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source:Graffuturism

Mausolee Lek Sowat and Friends Video

We had first caught wind of the Mausolee project last summer while we were in France. Sowat had mentioned a monumental undertaking that he and Lek had been working on. We apologize for the late response on sharing this with you. There isn’t a bigger or intricate project I know about to date that is this large in scale and depth. What is more important to us is the projects mission statement, which we stand behind 100%. Lek and Sowat have been two of our favorite featured artists for some time. We feel both artists are helping define the next generation of graffiti, and where our culture might be headed. Progressive and raw, abstract in nature their work encapsulates the essence of what graffiti is about. It is great to see that through all the commercialization that is taking place in our art form that there are still artists who work for the art. Graffiti’s power lies in projects like these. Sometimes graffiti is best witnessed in cold dark corners of forgotten landscapes. We have always supported artists in galleries and museums, but it is also great to see real projects and installations taking place in natural environments such as this. In our eyes this project is unparalleled in its scope and importance in a time when our artform is in the limelight. This truly can be called a graffiti museum, one that can never be truly recreated indoors. That being said congratulations Lek, Sowat and all the artists that took their own paint and time to bring this to formation. I would share more pictures but we feel its better to watch the video and visit the site. We are truly in awe of this project and cant wait to see what comes next from these artists.

GF

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Insider View: ALËXONE

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Source: blogaouane.net
Translated version here

IMG_8375IMG_8439

Superbe Ouvrage… qui raconte et documente, ce qui a le très juste titre « Résidence artistique sauvage »

Un ancien supermarché à Paris intramuros au bord du periph qui fût vidé de ces réserves puis de ses squateurs. le tout recouvert par la poussière du temps. et surtout vierge de toute peintures… Lek et Sowat en trouve une entrée et commence par y peindre… s’en suit une histoire de découverte et de peinture du lieux… petit à petit en y invitant des artistes tout en gardant le lieu secret, la résidence prends forme…
En gros un livre indispensable qui transpire, suffoque d’émotions et de peintures. Bien loin des livres sur les canons du graff’ et du street art sans âmes qui polluent les rayons des librairies ces dernières années. ce n’est pas non plus juste une compilation de peintres et peintures … mais une véritable aventure!

pour en savoir plus le site

IMG_8441

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