text Y-JEAN MUN-DELSALLE
Viewers get lost in L’Atlas’
work, unsure whether to look at
the positive or negative spaces,
as he tricks the eye by playing
with proportions of emptiness
and fullness, encrypting the
words contained within.
“Your gaze switches from
the white to the black, or from
one colour to another, and
you don’t know if you have to
read the empty or full spaces,”
he remarks. He has created
mazes where people have to
search for a way out, optical
illusions where the letters of
his name that have become
his trademark gradually
materialise, and imprints of
manhole covers disguised as
carved wax seals. Then there’s
the giant ground compass he
created for the plaza of the
Centre Pompidou in Paris,
and a monumental mural
he created on the facade of
a 35m-tall building in Paris
where his geometric logo
appears from afar. Another of
his works is a 1km-long, letter-
filled wall along the motorway
in Marseille. His nomadic-
canvases series sees him using
his Rolleiflex to take black-
and-white photos of his works,
placing them in the streets
while wandering around the
city, as if to map out the sites
he has visited. In the future,
he dreams of collaborating
with architects to produce
permanent three-dimensional
structures, or even a museum
in the shape of his logo, so as
to be remembered.
L’Atlas describes how his
work has evolved over the
past 25 years: “It’s different
and the same because I
continue to write my name,
even if it’s more abstract,
kinetic or minimal. My
challenge is to evolve and not
be the same, yet not depart
from the spirit of graffiti,
because it’s why I’m here now.
My canvases should speak
to teenagers doing graffiti in
the street and also to older
collectors who like abstract or
kinetic paintings. This comes
from my desire to not be put
in just one box.”
9
- L’Atlas uses a
blend of several
techniques, such
as lettering and
stencilling, in his
creations.
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