Street Art Immersion in Abbeville: discover the most beautiful ephemeral Street Art & graffiti spot in France for a long time!

Street art in Abbeville is not a tradition and the town does not display graffiti or other tags. This small town located at the gateway to the Bay of the Somme is rather peaceful; one passes through to visit this magnificent bay or to reach the Picardy or Opal coast. Peaceful then, until one day in 2018 when Yann Colignon, owner of a huge SkatePark and passionate about Urban Art, rolls up his sleeves and proposes to transform a HLM destined for demolition into an ephemeral creation space devoted to Street Art!

 

 

With a dossier put together in a hurry with the help of Street Artists, he managed to convince a multitude of partners and to motivate more than 80 artists! A feat for Yann Colignon who bitterly regretted not having been able to visit the mythical Tour Paris 13 which had made so much noise in 2014. After many ups and downs, an opening postponed because of the Covid, a demolition postponed whose cost falls to the Landlord; Transition Espace Ephémère has thus opened its doors on May 19th for our immense pleasure and will remain open until August 29th! As you can see, it is with great joy that I will try to share with you some of the atmosphere of this incredibly magical place.

 

Rather wise exteriors respecting the original building

 

Unlike many ephemeral places dedicated to street art and graffiti in France, the main facade is organised like an open-air gallery. No tags, no graffiti, just beautiful works of art all in height with the artists’ signatures in very stylish relief!

 

 

Nothing you see on the outside hints at the incredible immersion that awaits you inside.

 

Stairwells fit for the Bronx!

You enter this ephemeral space as if you were entering your own home! You are given a precious sesame and you open the door! And then the surprise begins; the least we can say is that the artists have let loose in the three stairwells… A festival of tags, graffiti of all kinds, blazes, sketched characters, and small works welcome you. They will make you lose your head. And it goes without saying that the stairwells are only an appetizer to whet your appetite for the rest.

My eye was caught by Pimax’s Nourf, Mr Gratitude and his wide smile, Scaf‘s Hip-Hop characters, MG La Bomba‘s signature or Nasty‘s Blaze!

 

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24 head-turning flats: from graffiti to contemporary art installations; Abbeville’s Transition Ephémère space is the most successful alternative space in a very long time!

 

It’s all in the title! The mass is said! In fact, what this place offers you is a total immersion in another space-time. The stairs are really only a small taste of what you can discover! The first artists on site, such as MG La Bomba, started painting when the inhabitants were still present. The artists followed one another, returned to the site to refine their works, which gives a very high quality overall result with incredible works. Many of them flirt with the contemporary art installations that can be seen in galleries or even at the FIAC; that’s saying something!

 

 

This place offers a new, evolving experience, an intelligent approach which, through graffiti, leads you to discover all the styles that today’s urban art can offer. I can’t show you the works of the 80 artists who have passed through these walls, but I’ll try to give you a taste of this universe which, in the end, only asks to be visited.

Starting with this complete work by the French graffiti artist ZOYER to talk about the Espace Transition Ephémère in Abbeville seemed like an obvious choice. His ultra-worked lettering, his appropriation of the space, his way of breaking perspectives represent well what can wait for you in this incredible place dedicated to Street Art in Abbeville!

 

 

I don’t know if I should introduce SCAF, the king of anamorphosis and 3D in France. His works, often inspired by the animal world, are striking and he likes to play with them by staging himself with great humour. Without being chauvinistic, I think he is THE reference in the world of trompe l’oeil and finding his work in Abbeville gives you a glimpse of the level of this Street Art spot!

 

 

The other king of trompe l’oeil, less known but just as striking, is MG La Bomba. He could be a film set designer, so much so that he creates his own universes, his landscapes are sometimes reminiscent of the end of the world or of dreamlike worlds and his 3D lettering is spontaneous. As I had the chance to see him work, I can tell you that he is a real enthusiast who takes great pleasure in creating and who will continue to surprise us for several decades to come!

 

 

In another style and after passing through small rooms and corridors full of surprises, we don’t enter Dante‘s hell but his counter, where we recognize his characters with drooping and empty eyes. I know that at this moment you are thinking that Street Art in Abbeville is a bit dark. But you should know that the rest of the visit will hold many surprises for you.

 

 

Each flat, each room has its own universe! This is how Street Art in Abbeville is organised; we go from a dark, even gloomy space to a fresh, light, even childlike universe without understanding what is happening to us. What can we say in front of this piece by Juan Spray, who created the tales of SprayLove Island or Dizzy the character of Dize156 with his heart-shaped balloons? Nothing, just fall back into childhood!

 

 

 

The changes of scenery are surprising, as are the changes of medium, from a watered-down work done with spray paint to a high-flying photographic work in Black & White. Photographer Softtwix’s E-Doll project is striking in this more than abundant space; her project on women challenges, questions and sometimes disturbs; as is certainly the case with this work, which is offered to us in a blindly austere room.

 

 

At this stage of the article, you must be wondering where the main thread is? Well, there is only one editorial line per artist, that he gives the best of himself and offers us his universe without imposed theme. As you can see, making written transitions for such an eclectic place is not at all easy. So I decided to let you discover : the very graphic artists XKUZ & Skio1, Pimax‘s very museum-like staging of his charismatic Nourf, the face of a former inhabitant of the building painted by Swed, the four-handed work of the very well known Bault & Popay de Ayguavives, PsyckozeNoLimit‘s jungle, very jungle and not very urban, or JonOne‘s blue Skatepark in a flat in which I felt very comfortable, without forgetting Astro‘s impressive installation which makes you dizzy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get a mega dose of Street Art in Abbeville before it’s too late!

 

If you think you’ve seen everything with these few photos, you’re wrong! Even the little live video I’ve added at the end of the article will only give you a few more keys to tame this extraordinary space. I’ve left out a lot of talented artists and I’m not even talking about the bathrooms, which are really amazing! Hurry to the site to get your precious sesame. It’s free and you pay according to your desire at the end!

If you have finally decided to immerse yourself in Street Art in Abbeville, make a note in your diary that a few kilometres away the majestic frescoes of Boulogne-sur-mer are patiently waiting for you! Another ephemeral spot this summer is a must-see: Spot 13 in the heart of Paris, destined to disappear like the one in Abbeville at the end of the summer.

I hope you enjoyed this discovery, don’t hesitate to share it, it always makes me so happy!

I’ll see you soon for a new exceptional Live on my Facebook page. This summer I have some big surprises in very unexpected places far from Paris 😉

See you soon for new Street Art adventures

Séverine