Today is Valentine's day and I present you an art project I'm in love with!
The "Flying Houses" are a surrealistic and poetic vision of old Paris, inspired by Jules Verne, Albert Robida, Moebius, Hayao Miyazaki, William Klein, Wim Wenders, Federico Fellini, Serge Gainsbourg, Martin Scorsese, Marcel Carné, Jean Cocteau and more. These buildings are also inspired by poor and cosmopolitan neighborhood of the French capital where lives Laurent Chéhère. The author isolates these buildings of their urban context and releases them from the anonymity of the street to tell the life, the dreams and the hopes of these inhabitants. The images are photomontage of hundred of elements like roof, windows, gutter, fireplace, characters, antennas, graffiti and sky, captured and assembled afterward like a puzzle. In gallery, the images are shown in large format and let the curious observer to discover details and hiden references of these accurate reconstructions by proposing a double reading, one by far and one closely. The artist uses this distance to propose a different point of view and alert against preconceived ideas and prejudices. All the ingredients are there, the comedy, the drama, the poetry, the darkness, the onirism, the laughter and the tears... everything becomes entangled. The author gives some keys, but these flying houses remain open to the interpretation, it’s finally the people who will make his own way.
Happy Valentine's Day!