PROFILES

In 2001 Moya designed the cover
of the 100th issue of COTE Magazine, 100 little figures like himself amidst an explosion of bright colours. Since then, what new horizons, real and virtual, have been opened up by this artist by turns classical and baroque, narcissistic and generous, conceptual and fascinated by popular culture such as circuses and carnivals. His Nice home-cum-studio houses an array of disparate reminders of his fields of exploration, from miniature ceramic sculptures to huge acrylic paintings. Here, the letters of his name with which he has played since the early 1980s; there, his little Moya, an alter ego, part self-portrait, part Pinocchio, dreamt up in 1996, in the company of an entire bestiary. A profusion of materials illustrating the approach joyously announced by the former Villa Arson student who used to pose naked for art classes: the artist should live in their oeuvre, the creator become creature. “I’ve been doing a lot of live painting too since 2000; I use a black background so I can work very fast since I only have to add the light colours,“ enthuses this born performer. But there’s one place where Moya has everything nice and tidy: in his Moyaland, a 260,000m² virtual world over which he reigns supreme, with car, tramway, helicopter, plane and boat, reached online through Second Life. Since 2007, Moya Janus (his double) has been giving visitors guided tours of it. “I do vernissages of ongoing exhibitions there and then keep the best. I always had the idea of creating a civilisation with several eras,“ explains the Troyes-born Niçois-by-adoption whose oeuvre is presently the subject of a huge intro-retrospective exhibition at Galerie Lympia from 19 December to 4 March. A chance to explore the mind of Moya, icon of gay nightlife with his cute little sheep Dolly, and subject of an extremely serious catalogue raisonné covering 40 years of creating.

Par Tanja Stojanov

Photo Jean-Michel Sordello