Ernest Pignon-Ernest

ERNEST PIGNON-ERNEST (Nice, 1942) is a Fluxus and Situationist artist, and one of the first French street artists. After art school, he was influenced by cubism. Later, as a Fluxus member, he turned to experimenting with materials, art forms and media.

“Places are my essential materials. I try to understand, to grasp everything that can be seen there – space, light, colours – and at the same time everything that cannot or can no longer be seen: history, buried memories. This is what I use to elaborate my images, which are thus born out of the places where I set them. (…) The aim of this insertion is both to make the place into a ‘visual space‘ and to work on its memories, to reveal, disrupt and heighten its symbolism. (…) I do not make works in a given situation, I try to make works with situations.”

This is most noticeable in the cycle of Naples. His artworks are always politically and socially charged, since he places poverty, racism, illnesses and immigrants’ problems at the forefront of his art practice.

Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Napoli, 1997, grafika, 60 kroz 60, kombinovana tehnika, 90 x 61,5 cm