The public loo series. #01

This is part of a new project in which I report about public toilets around the world. Public toilets tell a lot about human being. Surprisingly enough this is not a key issue in the Lonely Planet travel guides. Report #01 At Rygge airport in Norway: essential design and irreproachable cleanliness.

It's not only making bicycle lines, it's keeping them ridable

I was in Copenhagen a short time ago, here is just one small exemple of the incredible steps the city of Copenhagen has taken to promote sustainable developement and the use of bicycles over the last 40 years. Cycling lanes are taken care of just as roads are, that includes salting in case of snow.
On Copenhagenize.com I have found another exemple of what has been done for cyclists: "David kroodsma arrived in Copenhagen to blog for The Huffington Post. It is his his first reportage from Copenhagen, where he assembled his bike at Kastrup Airport and rode it into the city to his hotel. Looking like a kid in a candy store with a platinum credit card"

Travelling on a shoestring

It has been a while since I last wrote a post on my blog and I know this is not the right way to handle a blog! Since my trip to Spain I basically did not stop travelling and ended up at the extraordinary Cité Radieuse of Le Corbusier in Marseille for a while (the pool on the roof, on the picture) trying to store as much mediterranean light as I could to survive the alpine winter to come! I did not partecipate to any art festival or contest but worked on some nice private projects. I had for instance three site-specific paintings exibited for a year at Casa Olea, an architecture-and-design-award-winning holiday residence in Italy.

Don Quixote

I am going to Spain for a residency program in Alcalá de Henares, a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. The town is well known for its university and also because the author Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcalá de Henares. Hasta Luego!

Shingle22j, the catalogue.

Just a quick note to say thank you to the staff at Shingle22j and more particularly to Professore Andrea Mingiacchi for that great event. The 102 pages catalogue will be great way to record my participation with "En cas de guerre briser la glace".

In case of war break glass...

"En cas de guerre briser la glace" this is the title of the artwork I have created for the Biennale d'arte contemporanea of Anzio/Nettuno (Rome) next January. Here is a picture of it.

Biennale di Anzio e Nettuno 2009

I am currently working on the installation I will be showing at the Bienniale of Contemporary art of Anzio and Nettuno (Rome - Italy) from january 22 2009. In order to get into the spirit of this artistic event, one needs to start from quite a distant time, precisely from 22 January 1944. On that date, the Allies landed at Anzio with operation Shingle. Shingle22J Biennial of Contemporary art of Anzio and Nettuno, is born out of the necessity to give life to a new series of landings, landings of friendship among the peoples, of love for beauty, of inter-cultural debates and of freedom of expression. Even for this second edition the theme dealt with will be war, seen from the point of view of one who is against war, and as such, all the artists want to make “War on War”.

Bugz in the attic

Because I like to listen to all sorts of musics, I mostly work listening to FIP, a very eclectic radio. And when I feel like surfing on the net looking for music here is the kind of thing I look for.

Zooart 2008

My one week residency from the 17th to the 22nd of July 2008 in Cuneo for the Zooart event was a great experience. Zooart puts together about 10 artworks at once in the public garden Fresia, downtown Cuneo, and is open every nights from 9pm to midnight, from Thursday to Sunday, three weeks in a raw in July. In my case the event was kept open two more days because Cuneo was hosting a stage + a rest day of the Tour de France cycling race. I really loved the town of Cuneo and its relaxing atmosphere. I got a chance to ride my cannondale through the “parco fluviale”, a green area with cycle lines that run for 25 km along fields and rivers all around the town.

Zooart gave me the opportunity to meet some very interesting people, Michela, Paolo and Domenico from the Zooart organization, and also artists friends Gaspard, Patrice, Giacomo and Oliver. When it comes to my project Wifi, I was very happy with the result. It was the first time I was showing it so I was a bit nervous but then I got very satisfied after the first visitors had go through. This project aims at exploring how the new technologies influence and change - by making everybody reachable anytime anywhere - the relations between people.
The phones on the crosses were ringing at each call, and their blue lights were transforming the area in a very strange “cimitery”. I had given the phone numbers to some friends who couldn’t travel to Cuneo but were given a chance to partecipate to the event this way. I want to thank all the friends who did call so many time (an average of 200 calls per evening!) and also Andrea, Stefi and Gigi who supplied me with the 15 phones.
The official site Zooart 2008 here. More photos on my blog zooblog.

Beach volley? no, land art...

From the 15th to the 20th of June I am organizing "Sculptures de sable" on the beach of Pampelonne - Ramatuelle - in France under the label espacesculturelsephemeres.org.

Septem Artes Liberales

My project "The school of Chartres" was held from the 11th to the 23rd of May 2008 in Bellano, lake Como. More info, in italian, on the official blog of the event "La scuola di Chartres"

La biennale des lions

Here is the project I submitted to the Biennale des Lions 2008. Unfortunately my "Le lion en lambeaux" was not selected. Well, I'll try again in two years time!

mixed technique on canvas 100 x 70 cm

A short visit to the Lamborghini car factory at Sant'Agata Bolognese. A big thank you for the invitation especially to head of Lamborghini exterior design Filippo Perini.

back at the office, a 360° view of my working space today

time for a break

I am missing skiing so I have decided to take the first plane to new-zealand. I will be back in september. aloha

mixed technique on canvas 120 x 80 cm.

1964, April 19th Malcom X meets with Muhammad Ali.

L'ondanomala

Preparing the exhibition "L'ondanomala" (the weard wave) together with Dutch artist S. Keppel Hesselink at "Lo spazio c'è" in Lierna, Italy, from the 1st to the 21st of July.

today is an ecs day

the ecs movement I have created, where ecs stands for "ephemeral cultural space", is intended to take art out of its normal habitat. so today I hitch-hiked around lake Como with a 80x80 cm painting of mine featuring the Liberty tower. it took me six lifts and four hours to travel around the lake from varenna to menaggio where I took the ferry accross the lake back to varenna.

I like, I link.

continuous improvement process:
Jka
radio:
Fip
humanitarian aid:
Msf
Emmaus
music:
Mojave band
Abdal Malik
Batlik
places to stay:
Marseille
Tokyo
recycle:
Creative re-use center Perth
sustainable businesses:
Surf on wood
Work your way around the world:
Wwoof

mixed technique on wood 26 x 26 cm

Quick bio

I was born in Lyon – France – in 1967. I leave Lyon at the age of 14 to attend the national school of wood & timber in the Jura area. In 1987, in order to satisfy my passion for windsurfing I move to Hyères on the south coast of France. There I meet globe-trotter André Brugiroux who transmits me his virus. Working my way around the world I reach New Zeland in 1993. After a couple of months working in a bar in Auckland, I join the Wilderland, a community in the Coromandel peninsula. There, the residents experience various forms of art and grow their own food, exclusively organic. I return to Europe in 1996 and work as a consultant in corporate strategies, continuing to travel intensely. My artistic journey was born for the same need I have always had all along my life: to share my emotions.