artist/ Ernest Pignon-Ernest

France

Born in 1942, Ernest Pignon-Ernest is one of the pioneers of urban art in France. Sensitive to injustice, he has a committed approach and conveys a political, social and poetic message.
His desire to awaken collective memories is reflected in powerful images that are sometimes disturbing for the viewer, who finds himself confronted with a truth that he sometimes refuses to see. In 1975, for example, he produced a collage illustrating the reality of illegal abortions while the bill was being debated in the National Assembly, in order to denounce its detractors.

His charcoal and black stone drawings of life-size silhouettes are then worked over with erasers, giving a particular depth to the shadows. He then pastes his fragile paper onto the walls, blending in with the urban architecture and adding a human presence to the street.

With his ‘in situ’ installations, Ernest Pignon Ernest aims to reveal the reality of places and underline the symbolic charge of space, inviting passers-by to question the past and the history of cities.