Vincent Lelièvre, urban artist

Above all, I am passionate about architecture and the urban universe. I have always liked to create, invent, imagine. So I connected my two centers of interest through the practice of drawing. There is also the idea of ​​escaping reality to immerse myself in my imagination. I started by building whole cities in which each house had its own story. But above all, I have always drawn out of need in the same way as eating and drinking.

A few years ago now I needed a turn in my life and new encounters. I discovered at the same time

Instagram! A real CV for creatives but also a real springboard that allows real visibility of your artistic approach. It is also a diary for me, I remember my first 10 subscribers then 100 then 1000.

In the end, all that doesn't matter much because it's the encounters and the sharing around my exhibitions that are essential to my artistic development today.

I think you have to draw true, for me it's a vital need for my personal development. I can often be blamed for producing too much, but for me it's the best anti-stress. Above all, I create for myself before exposing it to the gaze of others, nothing is really calculated. Above all, I want to share my universe with my enthusiasm. I am very attached to meetings and I am very emotional..

Today I know that many works are in the Lille metropolis. Each of them tells a few things through the drawing but beyond that, it is a meeting with its new owner.

Today I have small parts of me in the 4 corners of the world, on a farm in the middle of Australia, with collectors in Lebanon, the United States, Mexico...

For an artist it is an extraordinary feeling to know that our work is appreciated in different cultures. My greatest personal satisfaction is knowing that my drawings will continue to travel like bottles in the sea.

Yes, it's a city on a human scale, a generous city through the women and men who live there.

It is also a contract architecture! A cultural richness but also a crossroads a few steps from London, Brussels and Paris...

Finally, as always, it comes from a meeting and more particularly from an evening with friends. I pitched the idea and they told me to go for it. It's awesome ! I was afraid to jump into the unknown, I dreaded the idea of ​​being the conductor of a college project. We are today more than thirty to work on this exhibition. It's a long trip! I surround myself with friends and professionals, people who want to give this project a beautiful resonance. I discovered on this project extraordinary personalities, people with whom I hope to continue thereafter! I know that we must build together.

The idea of ​​the project is to work with 4 hands on a sheet. Jigé and Wayne Danza gave me the idea a bit too.. they told me that they would like to work together. So I had this idea of ​​letting their worlds be inscribed on the gable of one of my imaginary buildings.

And I wanted on this project to invite 10 artists from the metropolis to come and propose with their style a new piece. The idea is to suggest that everyone also adapt to my systematic logic of black and white.

For the book it is also above all the story of a meeting with Thibault Roy, we had already worked together on exhibitions or collaborations around his two Coron(ART)virus editions.

I really appreciate its dynamism, its magazine and its sensitivity to the arts in general. He offered me this book project in January and I immediately understood that it was the right person and the right time to produce this book.

Indeed through all of my series and my universe, we had enough material to make a beautiful book! We proposed to Lénaïck Kunze, architect, photographer and sometimes writer to put his words and tell the thread of my artistic work. We have known each other for more than 5 years and I like his view of my work. He understands me and the result and there, he is passionate, he has a crazy talent! It's important that images can be translated into words! The book is already a success! Thank you to the Issi Mag team for this collaboration and their involvement in this entire creation.

It's a journey, but above all a stage. I think it's complicated to synthesize my works because I produce very regularly. We worked by theme, trying to get an overview of my entire career with a few surprises, in particular a very nice series of photos by my friend Olivier Have, it's a question of making the link through the chapters because behind drawings there is a man...