Massy Art’lantis

Quai 36 invited three French and a number of international artists to take full ownership of three places in the midst of urban transformation, in the city of Massy (Essone, a department in the Parisian suburbs), in collaboration with Paris Sud Aménagement. These actions are a part of the larger ART’LANTIS project.

ART’LANTIS was born from the real estate project Atlantis in Massy with the ambition to facilitate the lines of communication with the residents during the urban transformation their neighborhood is currently undergoing. Urban artists were invited to relook highly frequented areas to give the Massy inhabitants a new visual landscape.

Alexandra Arango contributed to the “Opale” project, headed by VINCI Real Estate whose creations focused on the theme of changing neighborhoods, echoing the natural diversity and architectural ambition of the site. There you can find portraits, which could belong to adults or children, but also birds and vegetation. The Franco-Colombian’s work can still be seen rue Léon Migaux, across from the future Rosa Parks school.

Roadsworth, however, decided to address a different question: the functionalism of public spaces. He added his special touch by associating geometric forms and primary colors echoing the presence of the adjacent school.

“The work I created in Massy includes superimposed letters and numbers one on top of the other, whose proportions make it so that you can’t necessarily see what they represent. The piece is rather abstract. The idea is for the students and the inhabitants to slowly figure out the meaning of it, with passing. It is a set of disparate letters and numbers and is therefore up to the passerby to determine what to make of it.”

The work of the Quebecois artist, commissioned by the Colas Group and Paris Sud Aménagement can be seen rue Bougainville, also across from the future Rosa Parks school – something for future students to look forward to.

Artez is based in Belgrade, and is primarily known for associating photorealism and illustrations while incorporating a palette of bright colors into his work. For this project, he decided to include a jungle right in the heart of the city and included a person carrying a mirror as a way to make the passersby take notice and see their neighborhoods from a different standpoint.

The artist’s work has been included in Demathieu Bard’s “Reflection” project and can be seen from the Baudot Avenue.