When exoticism stamps the urban world
How to make alive what was no longer? Gérard Laux (born in 1953), with his artist name Mosko, has been trying to solve this problem since the end of the 1980s by putting his bestiary stencils on the walls of the city.
Thus, Mosko’s ambition is to make the bright colors of the desire to escape lost by some of us. Having first covered the walls of its underprivileged neighborhood (the Moskowa in the 18th arrondissement of Paris), this poetic jungle invades little by little insalubrious quarters, old or abandoned. His artistic practice acquires a social role, while pushing us to think beyond the plastic.
The adventure was collective for many years under the signature “Mosko et associés” before becoming Mosko again in early 2015.
Desiring to find a colorful response contrasting with some of the sad aspects of the city, the theme of the jungle seems obvious to the artist by its polychrome, its wide variety of fur and the sweetness of the journey it represents.
It is therefore a soothing theme that Mosko offers us here, which goes beyond all divisions, of all ages and all cultures, by inciting us to touch the soul of his models within an imaginary urban zoo.
The artist undertakes a “spontaneous and militant” approach to street art, but it is from the first exhibition and the publication of the book “Peindre la girafe” in 2004 that his street animals are transposed into gallery animals: painted on wood, palisades and other recovery media, girafes, zebras and felines give us access to a different reality.
He is now known to be an obvious source of inspiration for bestiary in urban art, and for other renowned artists. It also consolidates its efforts thanks to the approval of the institutions.
