By dint of spontaneity and a taste for public display and provocation, street art has become Street Art, infiltrating fashion, advertising, museums, salerooms and art collections.
Ephemeral artworks in bright colours and with bold graphic design have been taking over walls, wastelands and abandoned buildings for decades. The street has become an iconic space for underground art. In Marseille, a collective made up of a communication agency, a publisher and a gallerist recently took over a villa and its garden to give Street Art a more lasting home. Villa Alliv is a private cultural space devoted to the movement's various outputs. You can see it all by appointment or on preview nights. The experience immerses you in the worlds of artists internationally renowned for their performances. There are art books, sculptures, strange objects, installations and, naturally, wall paintings of ever-surprising authenticity and singularity. 21 boulevard de Tunis 13008 Marseille - Tél. Tito. 06 74 86 70 29
From wall art to canvas
Meanwhile Caroline Pozzo di Borgo and Stéphane Miquel, an art collector couple with a taste for the latest, have set up Street-Art Galerie, the first on-line gallery exclusively devoted to the movement. They recently put on a show at Marc Stammegna's gallery, featuring Kongo, Ferx and Noé Two, three leaders of the Street Art pack. This show should convince the undecided that this kind of art is now mainstream and marketable. It used to be produced under cover of night as a protest against the consumer society and private property. Residents objected strongly. But gradually, an erotic decoration on a shop blind, a naïve sign painted for a kebab stall or a humorous tag on an old wall began to look more like popular art or outsider craftsmanship. Artists worked to bring the movement recognition; in France, painters like Hervé Di Rosa associated it with the Figuration Libre movement. Street Art is now reputable art. www.streetartgalerie.com
By Gérard Martin
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice