Seb Toussaint portrait 2 (2023-11-24) by Aswad BlackRmn-Grand Palais
Who is Seb Toussaint ?
Seb Toussaint is a Franco-British artist born in Caen in 1988. He began creating tifos, tarpaulins and gadgets as a teenager, for his hometown soccer supporters' club. At the same time, he began graffitiing in the streets of his region.
Share The Word Project
For the past 10 years, he has been running a muralism project called "Share The Word Project", which takes place in slums and refugee camps around the world. The idea came to him during a round-the-world bicycle trip he took in 2011 and 2012 with 2 childhood friends.
Giving voice
In this entirely self-financed project, the artist spends a month in a marginalized community, in shantytowns, favelas, refugee camps... and asks the inhabitants to paint a word of their choice on their walls.
Seb Toussaint "Paz" (Paix) (2016) by Seb ToussaintRmn-Grand Palais
Paz, Colombia, 2016
The resulting frescoes are then used to tell the stories of these anonymous people and their neighborhoods.
Seb Toussaint "Madre" (Maman) (2023) by Seb ToussaintRmn-Grand Palais
Madre, Venezuela, 2023
In Venezuela, Dulce, 55, chose the word "MADRE" as a tribute to her mother, who had died 2 months earlier. For her, it evokes the transmission of family values and has a universal dimension: "We all have or have had a mother".
250 words painted around the world
To date, Seb Toussaint has worked in 18 countries: Kenya, Indonesia, Nepal, Colombia, Egypt, Philippines, Ethiopia, France, Brazil, India, Iraq, Italy, Niger, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Palestine, Venezuela, Kyrgyzstan and Mauritania.
Seb Toussaint's graphic vocabulary, whether on wall, canvas or in his installations, juxtaposes colorful motifs inspired by the architecture, urbanism, fauna, flora or even heraldry of the environment in which he works.
Interview with artist Seb Toussaint, conducted by class 12 of the Fabrique Numérique, as part of the Histoires d'art à Gonesse program. The Rmn-Grand Palais is working with 5 artists and local residents to create a contemporary art trail through the town.
Discover artist Bilel Allem. HERE!
© Seb Toussaint, 2016 - 2023
Éditions RMN-Grand Palais- Département des Publics et du Numérique
