Ernest Pignon-Ernest French, b. 1942

Ernest Pignon-Ernest is considered by all as the pioneer of urban art. As early as 1966, he intervened outdoors to affix his artistic gesture on the Albion plateau in the Vaucluse in response to the installation of the French nuclear strike. Since then, he has intervened in streets all over the world, sometimes pasting original drawings, sometimes silkscreens, sometimes digital prints, with a design that art critics have compared to Ingres' grace. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's career has been marked by emotionally charged projects that are part of our collective memory. In particular, he has paid tribute to personalities from the arts and literature such as Rimbaud in Paris (1978-79), Caravaggio in Naples (1988) and more recently Pasolini in Italy. Ernest Pignon-Ernest devotes months of research, reading and location scouting to his subjects. In fact, he tries to grasp the essence of the place in order to think about his installations; its inclusion in the urban fabric, its aesthetic expression, its symbolic appropriateness, its place in the memory of the inhabitants as well as its patrimonial history. Far from the easy aestheticism of today's street art, Ernest Pignon-Ernest displays a rare ethic and commitment. His works in situ often have a political resonance; from the Paris Commune (1971) and his denunciation of the events of Charonne in 1961, to his view of immigrants in Avignon and expropriated people in Paris, or his commitment to the right to abortion in 1975 and his anti-apartheid struggle in Soweto in 2002.

In 2012, Galerie Chenus Longhi (formerly Galerie Openspace) was lucky enough to see its first space inaugurated with a retrospective exhibition of Ernest Pignon-Ernest. Four years later, the gallery moved to a new space and put on a new exhibition with Ernest Pignon-Ernest dedicated to his project on Pasolini, on the 40th anniversary of his death.