Tag by Lek

Third Floor / Wall/ Aerosols / 2006

“My relationship with my tag is a fairly curious one. There have been times when the need to sign my paintings has vanished – and other when it reappeared. It all depends on the moment. If I’m going through an experimental period, either I don’t really want people to know a particular work is one of mine or I want to claim it for my own. At other times, I might not sign a work because it’s a good representation of me and I don’t see the need to emphasise the fact that I’m the one behind it. That would be like signing my name twice. And then there are times, like here, when I want to find a very specific signature that goes with the rest of the painting.”

Lek

Lek first started working in graffiti at the end of the 80s. An innovator and pioneer in the discipline known as urbex, which involves seeking out suitable abandoned locations, he developed an abstract, architectural aesthetic that soon won him the recognition of his peers. 2010 saw him dedicating over a year to his most ambitious project, Le Mausolée – an unauthorised artistic residency in an abandoned supermarket in North Paris. He went on to co-organise the first-ever collective graffiti exhibition in the Palais de Tokyo, while also participating in countless other projects such as the Tour Paris 13. Lek was one of the first graffiti artists to work in the buildings in Pantin.

Other works in the buidling