The big names in street art impress

It also shares its attributes: spectacularity and immersion. A major show led by Roger Gastman, graffiti historian and curator straight from the United States and, for the French section, by Sarah Andelman, co-founder of the concept store Colette, the exhibition is already a well-established undertaking: Paris is its 5th stopover after Los Angeles (2018), New York (2019), London and Shanghai (2023). At first glance, it continues a long line of Parisian exhibitions devoted to urban art, from “Nés dans la rue” at the Fondation Cartier (2009) to “Capital(e)” at the Hôtel de Ville (2022). But from the same ingredients – historical depth, a documentary side, studio works and a hint of in situ interventions – it exceeds them in its scale. In “Beyond the Streets”, everything is hyperbolic. Starting with the list of artists: the exhibition displays around a hundred names, including a good proportion of world legends (Shepard Fairey, Invader, Vhils, Barry McGee, Todd James, the Beastie Boys, Futura, Pantone, and even Damien Hirst who perhaps acts as a substitute for Banksy here?), key figures of urban art and Parisian graffiti (Gérard Zlotykamien, Mode 2, Bando, Zevs, André, Lokiss, Fuzi…), photographers (Brassaï, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Gordon Matta-Clark, Sophie Bramly, Maï Lucas…), and even more confidential artists, but held in high esteem by connoisseurs (Julien Marmar, JC Earl…). This prestigious Areopagus is easily measured on the scale of the Grande Halle de la Villette thanks to a scenography inspired by the “Street market” exhibition (Jeffrey Deitch projects, 2000), which already wondered how to exhibit street art outside the street. From the moment we enter, “Beyond the Streets” dazzles us with a profusion of fake shops, painted signs, subways saturated with graffiti… This immersion in the colorful space of the city alternates with the very “white cube” presentation of a good proportion of studio works. It must be said that the exhibition is not only intended to restore the vitality of the urban scene: beneath its museum exterior, it turns out to be a formidable cash machine, where almost everything is for sale, from most of the works to the objects carefully arranged in the shop.