Corentin Canesson is dizzy. A fear of emptiness that does not prevent him from being perched every day on scaffolding. It's been a week since this painter and his assistant Noémie Boulon drew a fresco – 14 meters by 2 meters – on the outside wall of the car park of the station of Houilles-Carrières-sur-Seine (Yvelines). The inauguration will take place on Thursday, June 8.
Composed of 28 squares of one meter by one meter, the work will represent a series of contorted birds. For the moment, it is impossible for the artist to describe the future squares, still empty. It is only the brush in hand, several meters high, that he begins to imagine his drawing.
In 2019, the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAT) launched a call for applications. He is looking for 15 artists to design temporary street art for cities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants. Coal is one of them. The selection committee, composed of different actors of the city – mayor, deputy to culture, art center of the graineterie – is unanimous: the work will be that of Corentin Canesson.
Houilles, Wednesday 24 May. At the station, the fresco by Corentin Canesson is visible from the platform and the bus station.
"One of my inspirations is Jean-Jacques Audubon, an American naturalist," shares the artist. An unexpected model, which has identified and represented wild birds. "I really like to draw from different references," explains Corentin Canesson, a guitarist in his spare time. I sometimes write down song titles on my works. Often, it's the music I listen to while I'm painting."
Subsidized at 80% by the CNAP, the project left little room for doubts at the town hall of Houilles. "This follows the direction of the city," explains the assistant to culture, Catherine Dubois-Loya. We want the art center to be seen outside its walls." What could be better than a fresco visible from the platform of the RER A station, the most important line in Europe.
"It's going to bring the station to life," say several passers-by waiting at the bus stop. "Even for people in a hurry like me, who don't look carefully, it feels good," confirms Suzanne, from Paris. For locals, this novelty is all the more exciting. "Coal is dull," says Inès.
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However, will the work still be there in two years? A question to which neither the town hall nor the artist have an answer. An agreement was reached with the SNCF, owner of the building, to ensure the maintenance of the fresco for at least one year. Whatever happens to the future of the original, the different squares will be reproduced as posters in different cities of France.