If you’re a fan of imaginative, quality street art installations, and have visited places like Orléans, Tours, Chartres, Montpellier, Lille or indeed Paris, you may have spotted some of the celebrated pixel art creations of MifaMosa, whose chosen angle is to draw inspiration from street names and illustrate them in a well-observed, amusing manner. Well, the first piece of good news is that there are seven MifaMosa pieces to be enjoyed in Bordeaux! And the second piece of good news is that MifaMosa even shared some inside information with the blog! Read on!
From what sketchy information is available, MifaMosa is from Orléans, and his street name illustrations idea began as a collective project conceived with his mum and sister with a view to bringing some much-needed joy and light relief to his ailing grandmother. That family philosophy is referred to in the name MifaMosa (for My Family/Mosaic), as well as in the three circular dots that form the artist’s signature, representing his mum, his sister and himself.
MifaMosa’s first sets of street name illustrations appeared in 2017 and since then the artist has branched out to other towns and cities throughout France, with the hope of ultimately being present in each département across the territory. Here in la Gironde, MifaMosa’s only visits to date were to Bordeaux in November 2022, followed by Libourne in August 2023 (six creations can be seen there).
For now though we’ll focus on the Bordeaux installations, which are to be found in three clusters: two in the Chartrons district to the north of Bordeaux, three in the city centre proper, and the remaining two are further south in the Saint-Michel/Capucins area.
Our trail starts out in the Chartrons district, on rue Rose and its long-stemmed, red rose. That artwork is positioned on the corner where the street connects with rue Pomme-d’Or, as illustrated nearby by a diminutive golden apple. Barely 50 metres separate the two pieces.
The second set begins at the end of one of the city’s tiniest, narrowest streets, the strictly pedestrian-only rue de la Vache, personified by the famous logo of La Vache Qui Rit cheese. On the original logo, the cow’s earrings are packs of cheese. Here, they have been replaced by a pair of MifaMosa’s trademark three-circle signatures!
Moving slightly west, on rue Sainte-Colombe, a dove complete with its saintly halo can be seen taking flight, and at the tip of rue du Loup, a wolf can be spotted howling in the general direction of Place Pey-Berland!
The final pair can be enjoyed first on rue des Vignes, where a bunch of grapes has sadly lost its three signature dots, and then on rue du Mouton with possibly my favourite of all, Shaun the Sheep mischievously peering out from the wall.
Reaching out to MifaMosa, I asked him what impressions of the city remained from that stay. He pointed out that he was not in Bordeaux for long “and it isn’t easy to describe the city in a few words without being familiar with it, but I’d say it struck me as being modern and high on gastronomy!”
Given the very exposed locations of one of two of the creations, I wondered how the installation process went: “Unfortunately there is nothing particularly exciting to report! When installing the pieces, everything went very smoothly, whether daytime or night-time. There were however a few positive interactions with passers-by.”
Finally, I wanted to know when next in town whether he would rather be greeted with the gift of a rose, a slice of Vache qui Rit cheese, or a cuddly Shaun the Sheep toy. His indecisive response: “I love presents, so I’ll have to come back to Bordeaux three times!”
MifaMosa, you will indeed be welcome back in Bordeaux whenever you want. We would for instance love to see what you would make of street names such as Rue des Gants, Rue du Mulet, Rue du Vélodrome, Rue des Lendemains, Impasse Bon Gré Mal Gré... The list goes on and the possibilities are endless! :-)
0 commentaires: