Discovering street art in the Champagne district of Laon! (part 1)

BEBAR was born in 1993. And why this name? As he himself says, he had a beard from a very young age, given his Franco-Spanish origins. It was at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then at the Parsons School in New York that he learned the academic techniques that would combine with his taste for street art. He expresses himself in various forms, including illustration, sculpture and tattooing, and exhibits his work in art galleries and on the streets of the cities that inspire him (whether Paris, New York, Rio or Havana). His inspiration comes from the world of cartoons, and he offers a colourful universe, as seen here with these two works on rue des Filles and rue Edouard-Branly. He wanted to create an abstract, aquatic, ovoid and colourful fresco... free for everyone to interpret as they see fit.

Based and working in Guangzhou (China), SATR specialises in animal representations of felines, wolves, birds and rabbits, using brushes and spray cans on walls as well as ink on canvas and paper. Entering the world of street art in 2013, it is through lively brushstrokes and precise control of the can that SATR indulges in the art of philosophising via these powerful animals. She generally uses four colours in her representations: grey, red, white and black. Her pared-down style, with its veil-like feel, brings a dynamic to the movement of her subjects. Here, SATR shows a caracal meditating with its eyes closed, a call for calm despite the turbulence of the outside world...

Born in Paris on 24 October 1972, he is a French painter, illustrator and writer. He graduated from ENSAD (Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs) in 2000. He has created a series of documentaries called ‘Les Nouveaux explorateurs’, broadcast and produced by Canal +, in which he invites viewers to discover a country through the prism of its urban arts. On the creative side, he likes to work on childhood, and uses his characters to convey universal messages. He likes to juggle the innocent image of childhood while placing his characters in difficult social, political and geographical contexts. contexts.

Iemza lives and works in Reims, France, and draws his inspiration from B-movie series and science-fiction films, as well as from the large-scale concrete buildings in the suburbs, with their minimalist rigour and avant-garde construction. In this fresco, he drew inspiration from the cathedrals of Laon and Reims, two neighbouring towns - 45 km apart - to form a single monument.

The contracting authority is the Diocese of Soissons. The project manager was the architect and town planner André Croizé (Paris), the same person who designed the ZUP. Construction of the Relais paroissial Notre-Dame du Sauvoir, including the church, took a year, from December 1967 to 22 December 1968. It was blessed by Bishop Bannwarth of Soissons on 12 January 1969. From the outside, the monument is striking in its urban setting. Inverted, the size relationship between the church and the surrounding settlement breaks with the centuries-old tradition of the church and its bell tower dominating the settlement area. Here, the church seems disproportionately small in the midst of the blocks of flats. Humility is the dominant feature of this church, inviting Christians to pray and come together in the heart of this brand new district. However, its sloping and pointed lines add a touch of originality and liveliness in the midst of buildings that alternate horizontally and vertically without dynamism. The church and the neighbourhood are of opposite design, but harmonise and complement each other to a certain extent. There are no openings in the walls. The light is evenly diffused inside by the pyramids, which act as ‘light boxes’. The church's terraces were designed to accommodate topsoil and grass. In addition to its aesthetic and landscaping qualities, the weight of this terrace was also intended to reinforce the stability of the entire building. However, two major problems soon arose: no access was provided for maintaining and mowing the lawn; water retention led to serious problems of dampness and seepage into the concrete slab covering the building. The slab had been poured twice, with a 3-week interruption due to strikes in the middle of May 68, making the structure more sensitive to damp. Masonry and waterproofing work was carried out in March and April 1981: the earth was removed and replaced with gravel; the waterproofing of the terrace was reviewed. The interior paintings of the church were redone in October 1981, and the exterior paintings in 2007. Dimensions : > Length = 34 m; Width = 23 m; > Height = 4.20 m (14m at the level of the largest pyramid)

Originally from Tunisia, he uses Arabic calligraphy in these frescoes, trying to take it out of its original use so that people look at the work and don't try to read it. He uses paint, which he dilutes with varying degrees of water, and draws pieces of lettering that seem to ‘flow’, giving a paradoxical impression of elevation.

Douglas Hoekzema, aka HOXXOH, is an artist-researcher based in Miami. He creates paintings that are part mechanical, part scientific frenzy, using logarithmic spirals to evoke the passage of time and draw universal parallels between control and chaos. Also known for his murals and spray-painted works, HOXXOH often refers to the spiritual, natural and instinctive attraction that generates harmony...

He is a French painter, born in 1961, at the crossroads between free figuration and the French Street art scene of the 1980s. He is regarded as a pioneering artist, recognised as one of the pioneers of the Street Art movement in France. He uses stencils to create colourful works. Here, the model is none other than Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, reinterpreted in a pixelated, naive way with flowers, a cat and a smiley face. The pixelated aspect is there to call attention to the addictions to new technologies and thus evoke the evolution of the world...

Sêma Lao is a self-taught painter of Chinese-German origin, born in 1987. She lives in Corrèze, after having lived and painted in Limoges for many years. Sêma Lao began painting at a very young age. Over the years, her path has been punctuated by wonderful discoveries and encounters that have enabled her to express herself fully and develop her style. She experimented with various techniques (oil, acrylic, dry and oil pastel) before switching to spray paint in 2011 when she met graffiti artist DershOne (aka Goals). Since then, walls have become her favourite playground, and she's been stepping up her projects and encounters, in France and abroad, between canvases and walls. In 2012, the famous urban artist C215 (Christian Guémy) asked her to come and paint on the walls of Vitry-sur-Seine, marking the start of her career as a street artist muralist. His work generally depicts portraits, faces (especially children's) with sincere, spontaneous expressions that the artist tries to convey through a palette of saturated colours and controlled drips.

Mahn Kloix was born in Paris in 1980, and moved to Marseille 10 years ago. He goes out to meet people in struggle - whether in France, the United States, Turkey or Tunisia - and also accompanies the demands of zadists or the Femen movement. . Since September 2021, he has set his sights on the representation of hands in his very first solo exhibition, ‘Jeux de mains’...

Originally from France, Zabou has been living in London since 2011, when she completed a master's degree in visual arts. Her speciality: realistic portraits, large black and white portraits surrounded by bright colours for which she only uses spray paint. She has 237 painted walls to her name, many of them in London. This one is of a woman lying on the grass, a very relaxing image...