The M.U.R Bastille – A new showcase for urban art in Paris

In 2021, urban art will have a new place in the heart of the city. Following in the footsteps of the M.U.R. Oberkampf, Modulable, Urbain et Réactif, the M.U.R. Bastille offers a new space to this art of today. Each quarter, an artist will be given carte blanche to create a work of art, awakening the sensibility of the city dweller and reactivating his imagination.

For the past twenty years, urban art has flourished on the walls of the city to speak to us about our current situation and our humanity. Apostrophied by a graffiti, brightened up by a sticker, moved by a painting, the passers-by discover each day more, an art which is contemporary to them. Crossed by the stakes of our society, the artists, in turn, alert or amuse, but also amaze by their works, intimate or monumental, with political, humorous or poetic purpose.

This citizen initiative wishes to promote urban art and maintain the life of a district anchored in history but also in current events! Remaining famous in the history of France and revolutions, the Bastille is still and always, an effervescent district where artistic creativity is manifested by its many craftsmen and talented merchants. Urban art, popular by essence, finds its natural place there.

To begin in delicacy and poetry, this “modular, urban and reactive” program, where four artists will follow one another each year, it is the artist Madame who will create a work on Valentine’s Day, the feast of profane and spiritual love.

The concept: One Wall – One Print

“Of stone and paper”, each invited artist will make a lithograph of his M.U.R. to ink his work in a numbered and enhanced print in order to keep a lasting souvenir of his ephemeral work. The lithographs will be made in Michael Woolworth’s art print shop, at the entrance to the rue de la Roquette.

The first artist to intervene on the M.U.R.: Madame

Elected by L’Œil as one of the 50 artists of the XXIst century, Madame is a collagist who handles images as well as language. Her poetic and spiritual works are displayed on the walls of the city and tell the story of our human relationships in their most intimate but also most universal aspects. Between maxims and warnings, the little sentences that punctuate his works have the value of oracles. Always benevolent, often mischievous, they enchant her assemblages of images and constitute the very articulation. The works of Madame offer repartees to our lives.