The works of the French “street artist” Julien Malland, known as Seth, are presented for the first time at the Musée en herbe in Paris, a museum dedicated to children. We find there his taste for play, his immersive decorations, his travels and his children full of humor that characterize his art.
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What’s better than the budding museum, a place of cultural awakening for young people, to exhibit the colorful children drawn by Seth? At 50, the Parisian street artist is known for bringing color and a little innocence back to walls around the world.
The first time in 2003, following a dismissal, he left to travel the planet, calm things down where chaos reigns. In Rio first, in the heart of a favela. Amid burning cars and heavy gunfire, he draws hilarious and smiling characters, poetic witnesses to the absurdity of our societies, according to the artist.
Commitment
But behind this naivety sometimes hide real messages. In February 2022, Russia had just invaded Ukraine. On a wall of the Butte-aux-Cailles, in Paris, it represents a young girl without a face. Pink dress, wreath of flowers on her head, she waves a Ukrainian flag and walks on tanks. His fresco had gone viral.
And it is this mixture, between commitment and contemplative art, that the Parisian exhibition offers. Sculptures, games of light, innovative installations, and new works that recall Seth’s travels to the four corners of the planet. From Mexico to Senegal via Madagascar and South Africa. But always with his irresistible obsession to see the world from a child’s perspective and to make them smile.
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