Sunday I went to see an exhibit called “Né dans la rue” (“Born in the Streets” if you prefer) on the origins and concept of graffiti. The exhibition was put on by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain” in the 14th Arrondissement and is definitely one of the best exhibits I have seen in a while.
Some might question if graffiti belongs in a gallery, if its art at all or just vandalism. I wont try to answer this here, just point out that the curators behind the exhibit did a very good job in portraying just these issues. Instead of nicely portraying the pieces in a glass frame with a small “please don’t touch” next to it- they really took the entire museum into use. Entire walls of this usually modernistic glass house were tagged down in different styles. On the outside French graffiti artists were constantly redeveloping and spraying new pieces. The exhibit itself contained a good balance between telling the history of graffiti, its connection with the New York underground culture as well as where graffiti is today. My favourite was a room showing different documentaries and music period from the pioneering days of graffiti- old school hip hop is just so damn funky. Like this one- check it out
Ahhh….all this scratching is making me itch!
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