We had previously shared with you the installation photo’s from Sowat’s portion of the Les Bains Douches project in Paris now we share with you Katre’s contribution. An intense installation that creates a dramatic sense of tension by the use of the space and chaotic nature of the painting. It is amazing to see artists like Katre get these opportunities to work in their natural environment. The ephemeral element of the work also correlates to the actual abandoned areas most of these artists work in as this as most of graffiti’s work will be gone. Documentation is the only remembrance. Great work.
GF
Katre graffiti began in Paris in 1993 along with his studies of art. Intrigued by vacant lots and abandoned spaces, he spends his mastery of fine art in 2003 at the Molitor swimming pool in Paris. In 2005, he continued his research by signing the book “Out of Time” (ed Colorszoo) involving fifty artists operating in urban brownfield sites.
Passionate wasteland and abandoned spaces that immortalized by his photographs for over 10 years, the photography book “Out of Time” is the first book with many graffiti artists interventions in land waves and brownfields.
His passion led him to walk the roads in search of brownfields while continuing to paint the walls of Paris. In 2012 he released a second book, “Out of Time 2” (Pyramyd ed) promises to be a new benchmark in the French street art.
Travel and meeting him several collectives can integrate and participate regularly in festivals around the world (China, Chile, Australia, Spain, Italy …).
His paintings are representative of this world: impressions and photos of abandoned places lettering explosives. Recognition in the middle of graffiti offered an opportunity to participate in several group and solo exhibitions since the mid 2000s. He shows pictorial compositions ignite explosive pretend his photographs of abandoned places it first prints on canvas. His workshop is practical and the perfect connection with his two passions: exploring abandoned places and graffiti.
Pictures courtesy Galerie Magda Danysz Credit photo Stephane-Bisseuil
In June 2010, a court interdict sanctioning unauthorised building works almost spelt the end of the line for the most famous of all Parisian bath houses, despite nearly 130 years of history and multiple different incarnations.
In 2011, we, as longstanding landlords of the site, founded La Société des Bains, in order to rescue, renovate and preserve this icon of Parisian life.
Since then, renovation of Les Bains has been progressing daily, with absolute respect for the spirit of the place. Vincent Bastie is charged with the complete refurbishment of the building and Tristan Auer and Denis Montel/RDAI, the interior design. Architecturally speaking, these projects will be sensitive to the multiple layers of the history of the Bains Douches, preserving their legacy, while employing a redeeming spirit of innovation and eschewing any cloying nostalgia.
Les Bains will be born again in the summer of 2014, for another long life to come. Occupying the entirety of the building, it will be a hybrid venue – a private residence, a hotel, a club? – it will be a chic, inventive, transcultural, bohemian, historic, welcoming and elegant venue… Something novel.
But there will be a time of gestation before the tired, old building can undergo its wonderful metamorphosis: while awaiting its imminent transformation, the building now lies vacant for the first time in 128 years. In keeping with the artistic soul of the place, we have transformed this dead time into a fleeting, creative buzz. Les Bains will host an Artists’ Residency, and the whole building will be offered as a giant canvas for a plethora of urban artists commissioned by Magda Danysz.
A new generation of international talents will create an ephemeral artwork within and on the very walls which witnessed Proust and Basquiat, Joy Division, Warhol and Prince. A symbolic gesture to renew ties with a marvelous history and usher in a glorious future, a manifesto for proclaiming that the Bains Douches that we love so much, will survive… Long live Les Bains !
It’s the first page of LA SOCIETE DES BAINS and the return of the Bains Douches society.
Jean-Pierre Marois
