Ernest Pignon-Ernest, honored artist of the 2020 FIFDH

Does Ernest Pignon-Ernest, pioneer of street art and precursor to Banksy and JR need an introduction? With a unique blend of resistance and poetry, he has covered the walls of big cities with his ephemeral images since 1966, with a predilection for poets (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rimbaud, Mahmoud Darwich, Jean Genet), martyrs (the Paris Commune, demonstrators against the Algerian War, detainees), and the forgotten (migrants and people in precarity). From Soweto to Paris, Naples to Ramallah, Nice to Rome, the walls recall his drawings.

Investing in places and capturing the atmosphere, he grasps “all that is seen at once: space, light, colors and, simultaneously, everything that cannot be seen or is no longer seen: history, buried memories”. For 50 years, his work has been exhibited in the largest international museums.

In partnership with the Municipality of Meyrin, Ernest Pignon-Ernest will carry out an artistic residency from January to March at the FIFDH, in collaboration with the Haitian writer Lyonel Trouillot.