Art Residency – Gare du Nord

In 2015, Quai 36 transformed Gare du Nord into a legitimate artist residency, housing 22 French and international artists. The aim of Quai 36 was to bring art to the center of people’s lives by making it more accessible to a larger population. More than 750,000 commuters pass through what is the largest station in Europe a day. In ten days, Gare du Nord welcomes the same number of visitors the Louvre museum sees in a year.

For this unprecedented project of international scale, inaugurated in June 2015 by the then Minister of Culture, Fleur Pellerin, the objective was to offer a space completely detached from its initial function as a station and allow visitors to experience a genuinely novel space of creation. The thought process behind this operation was to be able to allow travelers a daily moment of poetry in an unexpected place. During 55 days, artists, known for their contributions to the world of urban art, occupied the station fully immersing in the organ so vital to the city to pay homage to the one thousand and one faces that characterize Gare du Nord. Several paintings, frescoes, stencils and collages can still be seen today, inside as well as outside the station, and particularly along the platform 36.

Thanks to this residency, other walls were made available in an attempt to welcome more creativity. Denizens were invited to Quai 36 to vote for their favorite artist, who would then have a wall made available for their work. Artists Alexandra Arango, Yolart and Bebar, also joined the Art Residency adventure.

Resident Artists: Alexandra Arango, Artiste Ouvrier, Baske, Bebar, Btoy, Dourone, Fafi, Gregos, Jana & JS, Jérôme Mesnager, Kool Koor, Koralie, Levalet, Louis Masai, Nikodem, Phil Ramuz, Pioc Ppc, Solylaisse, Sp 38, Supakitch, Univers_43, Yolart.