Joël, known as “Laffiche_dans_la_rue” on Instagram, creates bespoke illustrations and scatters them around the urban spaces of the Pink City…
LéZ’Arts interviewed him to find out more.
Tribute to SEMPÉ (1932-2022), Super-Baigneuse n°16, Grande Rue Saint Nicolas, Toulouse (St Cyprien) France;
80 cm x 40 cm, acrylic on paper
My name is Joël, I’m 47 and I display or hang my paintings under the pseudonym laffiche_dans_la_rue. I’m passionate about drawing and am self-taught. I have another job (site foreman) and I’m the father of three teenagers. Since the first confinement, I’ve enjoyed “embellishing public spaces” by sticking up custom posters.
I’m quite curious, I like to know how a work has been created.
I like to know how a structure can hold up, what ingenuity the artist has found to hang it up. So I’m more attracted to contemporary art.
I don’t always understand why a particular work appeals to me, but that doesn’t bother me.
Then there are comics, the art of comics!
With just a few strokes of the pencil, how can these creators, illustrators, colourists, layout artists, scriptwriters – often all at the same time – transport us into their world in just two dimensions?
It’s great art!
In fact, it’s this type of drawing that got me started. Containment was the nail in the coffin! I produced a short comic of 15 panels. It took me over a year!
- From this first collage of personalised posters, I wanted to go further and tell a story. I decided to impose a constraint on myself: find the location and then the story. Several criteria determine the choice of these locations.
Firstly, my posters had to be seen, the support had to be suitable for paper collage or it had to be able to be arranged for this. And finally, my installation must not damage or distort the wall on which I’m pasting too much.
Once I’ve found this place, my search begins:
– Name of the street,
– History of the area,
– Symbolic place nearby,
– Environment (aquatic, warm, hostile, seedy, glamorous, etc.),
– Wall colour (I even had a can of paint made to match the concrete colour of the Ponts Jumeaux in Toulouse! - Then my imagination bubbles over, and I head off to the media library, leafing through all the comics sections, a trip to the art sections, an exhibition here and there…
In short, I’m obsessed, and that’s all I can think about until the spark strikes! Three or four images that illustrate the path I want to take my viewer on. I want the passer-by to be surprised!
Super-Baigneuse n*12, acrylic on wood 1,40m x0,80m, Guilhemery bridge, near Port St Sauveur (opposite Sécurité sociale) Toulouse, France
“an encounter” with “Le brochet” by @sandrotartiste (Super-Baigneuse is facing his work with his kind approval, hoping not to distort it too much).
- There’s no particular message. But I do try to keep up with the times, and ecology, feminism and anti-racism cannot be excluded from everything I do.
” Rising waters”, acrylic on paper, approx. 2 m x 1m10 x 0.70m, 2 rue de la fonderie, Quartier Les Carmes, Toulouse, France
- Firstly, I need to take the measurements. If I want my paper to fit perfectly around a window or a movement, I need to know the exact position of the elements on the wall.
Collage means that I can spend hours painting my poster, but since I’m choosing busy places, I wouldn’t be able to do it on the spot in complete freedom.
Super-Baigneuse n*10 “les 33 tours de St Sernin”, Acrylic painting on paper 2m x1m, May 2022.
Homage to Jacques Arlet (poet doctor) and Julian (musician and dreamer in love with St Sernin).
Rue Périgord, St Sernin district, Toulouse, France.
- There are lots of stages: finding the place, researching the story and the illustrations, making them (acrylic paint on paper or wood), gluing them and gluing them again and again. It’s hard to say how many hours! I’d say 6 or 7 hours for the simplest ones and 20 to 30 hours for the most colourful and elaborate.
“Le masque de Super-Baigneuse”, Super-Baigneuse watches over the town! Wrought iron, cotton fabric, acrylic paint.
Place des puits clos, Toulouse, France.
- Where the maximum number of passers-by are likely to appreciate my work. For example, under the Ponts Jumeaux, there are all the Sunday walkers, evening runners and workers who come and go on a daily basis. Another example, near the Musée des Abattoirs, rue Marthe Varsi, three large-format posters, flashing colours, an intriguing story. I’m getting closer to the dynamism of the St Cyprien district.
Super-Baigneuse n*25, acrylic paint on paper 110x80cm
Rue Dieu (Bonnefoy district), Toulouse, France.
Super-Baigneuse sans tête n*22, Exhibition “Bouquet Final” (16 Feb to 13 May 2023), Galerie 3.1, Place des puits clos, Toulouse, France
Fibreglass manequin, fabric shirt, electric cable.