Digital Art Month is an interactive festival of digital art that’s being held in Europe for the first time. Count us in! Come and be amazed – it’s incredibly simple: adhesive QR codes have been placed on street furniture, especially on Vélib’ pay stations! You just have to scan them to activate the Augmented Reality filters.
To celebrate this excellent initiative, during the month of June, Vélib’ is partnering with Beaux-Arts Magazine and CADAF (Crypto And Digital Art Fair) to offer you the chance to enjoy an augmented reality journey in the vicinity of la Villette. Remember, this is a temporary event – you have until June 30th 2021 to discover the thirteen artists showcased here! Here is a sneak preview of the first works you’ll come across in the course of this excitingly vibrant jaunt…
Starting point: Station Botzaris – Parc des Buttes Chaumont
Finishing point: Station Laumière – Petit
Journey time: 2 hours
Laura Shepherd, dancing colours
We begin this interactive trip with artist Laura Shepherd, a designer and multidisciplinary artist who currently resides in London. Her works have drawn more and more on augmented reality and virtual reality experiences – an aesthetic based on Art Nouveau and the psychedelic sixties. Here you’ll find Rich Brown – maybe you’ll have the chance to have a dance with this crazy character…or at the very least, admire his moves!
Vélib’ station: station n°19024 – Botzaris – Parc des Buttes Chaumont – 28/30 rue Botzaris 75019 Paris
Follow the artist on Instagram
Erik Winkowski, the game of chance
US artist Eric Winkowski sees videos as a kind of collage. However, his works have all the spontaneity and vitality of paintings. He has worked with Prada, Gucci, Hermès and the New York Times.
Here, it’s his work “Lucky” that’s in the spotlight. Look up and you’ll see giant dice swirling around you – a very concrete way of reflecting upon luck and our perception of luck. All that’s left to do is enjoy putting them beside you, squeezing them so as to enlarge them or make them smaller. What really is luck when it comes down to it? You have three hours to answer.
Vélib’ station: station n°19025 – Botzaris – Crimée – Opposite 80 rue Botzaris 75019 Paris
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Ansh Kumar, the fickleness of feelings
After having found Tabitha Swanson’s work (a man strolling through the city, Velib’ station 19031 Manin-Crimée), head to 1-3 rue du Pré Saint-Gervais to admire Fly High.
This work is created by Ansh Kumar, a motion designer based in India, whose art focuses on the simultaneous interaction between art and space. Fly High promotes the concept of psychedelic escapism by showing us human-like figures floating and swelling in the air, taking us to another dimension. Why do these figures change so much? Well, like our feelings and our physical bodies, everything changes and nothing can be predicted…
Vélib’ station: station n°35010 Hoche – Jean Lolive – 1-3 rue du Pré Saint-Gervais, 93500 Pantin
Follow the artist on Instagram
Has this quick sneak preview whetted your appetite? The works of other artists (Cibelle Bastos Cavalli, Katrina Losla and Carole Chainon) will appear through the QR codes found at multiple Vélib’ stations, before this journey ends with a parade of cats at the Laumière – Petit station!
Open your eyes and look again, artists Shanelle Athlan, Pier Nicola d’Amico, Botina and Andy Picci have hidden some surprises for you along the route of this temporary itinerary.
All that’s needed now is a way to go and make the most of them – your Vélibs await!
Discover the full range of works:
- Laura Shepherd – Rich Brown
Vélib’ Station n°19024 – Botzaris – Parcs des Buttes Chaumont – 28/30 rue Botzaris 75019 Paris
Rich Brown is an NFT work of art, part of the Hic Et Nunc: Flower Power in One Word collection. Flower-headed avatars help change cityscapes and possess a contagious kind of energy. They celebrate, literally, flower power.
- Erik Winkowski – Lucky
Vélib’ Station n°19025 – Botzaris – Crimée – 80 rue Botzaris 75019 Paris
Erik Winkowski reflects upon chance and our perception of luck. Position the dice around you and have fun as you enlarge and shrink them!
- Recycle Group – N.O.N.E 001
Vélib’ Station n°19031 – Manin Crimée – 8 rue Manin 75019 Paris
Recycle Group has created a virtual reality structure comprising a gallery of artist Tabitha Swanson’s work. Keep it in the palm of your hand or else visit it.
- Pier Nicola D’Amico / Vers Le Bas
Le panier d’à côté grocery – 3 bis Rue Petit, 75019 Paris
The street is split asunder revealing the catacombs beneath. You may notice an apparition that’s reminiscent of the works of Salvador Dali and Surrealism, an art movement that originated in our much-loved capital city. Augmented reality, by inserting fantastical images, the products of teeming imaginations, into our world, represents the final triumph of Surrealism.
- Ansh Kumar – Fly High
Vélib’ Station n°35010 – Hoche – Jean Lolive – 1/3 rue du Pré Saint-Gervais 93500 Pantin
Ansh Kumar tries to make connections between the digital and physical worlds through vibrantly-coloured, psychedelic creatures. These figures are generative, multiplying by themselves – reflecting the unpredictable nature of feelings.
- Cibelle Bastos Cavilli – Attune
Vélib’ Station n°35014 – Charles de Gaulle – Jean Lolive – 139 avenue Jean Lolive 93500 Pantin
Cibelle Bastos Cavalli grapples with how the ways in which we think about identity, performance, visual communication and the promotion of models of behaviour have been changing in the digital era.
- Blagodev Dimitroc – If you can dream it you can do it
Vélib’ Station n°35005 -Quai de l’Aisne – Général Leclerc – 41 avenue du Général Leclerc 93500 Pantin
Blagovest Dimitrov reminds us that every moment that passes brings us nearer to our dreams through his collection ‘Motivation is around us’ composed of typographical designs in augmented reality.
- Martin Lukas Ostachowski – Conforming Clouds
Vélib’ Station n°35004 – Place du Président Salvador Allende – avenue de la Gare 93500 Pantin
In ‘Conforming Clouds’, Martin Lukas Ostachowski pays tribute to the digital artists who continue to garner recognition for their works and digital media through traditional art.
- Katrina Losia – Peach Bubble Gum
Vélib’ Station n°19044 – Grands Moulins de Pantin – rue de la Clôture 93500 Pantin
Katrina Losia is a multidisciplinary artist from Auckland who blends the physical and the digital. Peach Bubble Gum is an augmented reality representation of US chewing gum in fizzy drink flavours.
- Michelle Brown – Bee Flower Power
Vélib’ Station n°19009 – Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie – rue de la Clôture 93500 Pantin
Michelle Brown brings out the beauty of bees in the natural world through an interactive face sculpture. It’s a reminder of the critical importance of looking after bees in order to protect the long-term health of the environment.
- Mona Birkas – Pearl
Vélib’ Station n°19130 – Place Paul Delouvrier 75019 Paris
This work of art alludes to the twin facets of technology and the internet. On one hand, they make life easier, are the source of much joy, can be used to communicate artistic content, are egalitarian, dazzling, clear and transparent. On the other hand, they give rise to certain issues and anxieties and create vulnerabilities. They are like dictators, voyeurs or dangerous con artists who sometimes exploit our naivety.
- Carole Chainon – Whirlwind Of Colors
Vélib’ Station n°19128 – Quai de l’Oise – Aisne – 17 quai de l’Oise 75019 Paris
Carole Chainon has created a hypnotically relaxing experience based on enjoying colours and the effect they have on our behaviour.
- Smooth Cubical by Botina
Kanaga Records record shop – 30 rue de l’Ourcq, 75019 Paris
Get dancing with this character who’s possessed of an incredible amount of truly contagious energy. They turn the world around them into a stage. The artist’s 3D body is made up of cubes which appear and disappear to the beat of the music.
- Leticia Almeida – Solar Indusium
Vélib’ Station n°19004, 4 quai de la Loire 75019 Paris
Leticia Almeida presents Solar Indusium, a utopian work of art inspired by speculative design. It touches on our desire to intervene in natural processes and how we have to be sure to take responsibility for the changes we have brought about.
- Andy Picci – Love yourself
Square Marcel Mouloudji – 10 Rue Pierre Reverdy, 75019 Paris
The advice to “Love Yourself” seems obvious. It’s an expression that encourages those who lack self-confidence to acquire it. This advice signals a decline in individualism and self-centredness, giving way to a new trend towards greater empathy.
- Mitsuko Ono – Cat Parade
Vélib’ Station n°19013, 1 rue Petit 75019 Paris
For her work ‘Cat Parade’, Mitsuko Ono drew inspiration from a scene in the film ‘The Cat Returns’ produced by Studio Ghibli. She collects Gashapon vending machine capsule toys which get her creative juices flowing.
- Four Bouncy Portals by Shanelle Athlan
Désirée tea room – 96 rue de Meaux, 75019 Paris
Place the spheres on a flat surface. Each one has its own special power. Activate the one you want by touching it. They will enable you to see life through rose-tinted spectacles, to grow a little bit of California, to whisk you off to the sea or to a highly-promising future.
