L’Atlas

“Jules Dedet, better known as “L’Atlas”, is a French street artist born in 1978. L’Atlas, a fastidious artist always looking for a certain purity of both form and colour choice, uses his life and his art to express the Asian philosophy of duality as a source of complementarity. His almost hypnotic works reveal a dichotomy between black and white. Turning his back on academic study and a conformist life, he abandoned his art history studies to devote himself fully to his love of writing. He decided to travel to Morocco, then Egypt, to learn the art of Arabic calligraphy from the great masters and teachers. When he returned to Paris, he transposed ancient Arab techniques using contemporary materials such as adhesive tape and spray on canvases and posters. He then created a unique, universal signature inspired by the labyrinth, which is still a recurrent motif in his work. These compasses and labyrinths, made of gaffer tape (white adhesive tape used on film sets) and applied to the floor, encourage viewers to reflect. In every one of his works, it is always possible to make out a word, concealed to a greater or lesser degree; this is one of the inherent characteristics of the urban art style to which he belongs. His works have been exhibited in a number of museums and institutions, including the Centre George Pompidou, the Palais de Tokyo and the Grand Palais.”*

* Artsper