Wall Street Art Festival completed this year’s annual edition September 2nd-6th. This year’s iteration of the event took place in Moissy-Cramayel, a small town located in Grand Paris Sud (GPS), France. The festival’s website explains that it “has welcomed street artists from all over the world since 2015,” to the region. It intends to “embellish the facades, [create] beauty [and] color, [and] promote exchanges between artists and residents.” Parisian gallery owner Gautier Jourdain provides artistic direction to the event.
The International New Town Insititute, an organization which devotes itself to studying Europe’s ‘new towns,’ explains that GPS “is an urban agglomeration created in 2016 by the merging of 24 municipalities some of which are New Towns founded in the years 1970s of the last century.”
The organization continues to state, “These cities have responded to the challenge of welcoming tens of thousands of inhabitants from different places in the world by providing housing, transport and jobs. Nowadays, the population is extremely diverse in terms of ethnic origins and religious denominations. In the context of mass unemployment, coupled with the attacks in Paris, France is currently experiencing a disturbing identity crisis. The finger is often pointed at the melting pot of the suburbs; the migrants and their descendants are increasingly accused of causing the evils in French society.”
As “the fifth most populated area in the Île-de-France region and one of the driving forces behind population growth,” in that region, “Grand Paris Sud is the culmination of an ambitious project for the territory, of a desire to outweigh next to grand Paris, to increase the territory’s attractiveness, to create and support large-scale projects and to be involved regularly. Since its creation in January 2016, many decisions have ensured the creation of a message, an identity born from consensus and a team devoted to the project and to the public interest. This collective effort has encouraged innovative and ambitious public policies.”
Wall Street Art Festival seems to be an especially beautiful manifestation of this goal.
For his contribution to the event, Brazilian artist L7Matrix provided this particular town, which has an intimate population of 17,500 inhabitants, with their first urban art fresco. A statement regarding his mural, titled “La Bergeronnette Colorée,” cites that “the city is located in the middle of nature, which is why L7Matrix’s work was perfect for this place.” In the face of the area’s division and transition, its desire to overcome tension, the artist focused on one thing all people share: our home on planet Earth, and the natural environment to be found here.
The statement continues, “The Brazilian artist has made a magnificent bird as only he can make them. Of course, he did not paint a hummingbird like the ones he loved when he was a child in his country. He chose a bird from the region: the Bergeronnette (wagtail). The wagtail is a small bird whose plumage is always grey, black and white. Faithful to his work, L7Matrix has added many bright colors.”
L7 painted this bird, which occupies the entire pristinely white facade of a residential building, in his stunning photorealistic style, blended with whimsical splashes of color. His mural is dynamic; one can practically hear the ‘whoosh’ of this bird swooping down. The bird’s expression seems cheerful, excited even, a perfect compliment to the confetti colors that spring from his wings and the foliage surrounding. “La Bergeronnette Colorée” is a move towards instilling a sense of lightness in a changing town, reminding its inhabitants, both old and new, that the place they share should be celebrated. It is a beautiful embodiment of the festival’s aims, and a lovely gift from the artist to his hosts.
L7Matrix: website | twitter | instagram
Wall Street Art Festival: Website | Facebook | Instagram
