They arrived on time and the presentation was brief: “METROme and Mr. Mud Apple »They met in front of Saint-Roch station in Montpellier (Hérault), under the scorching sun of this late summer. The instructions had been sent in advance: no questions about their private life, their first or last name, no photos where we could see their faces. “Rather, let us talk about our works.” They wrote when accepting the interview.
Under the name of Pomme de Boue, and behind a pair of sunglasses, hides a duo of Ukrainian street artists, a man and a woman, who have been living in Montpellier for two years. The Espace Saint-Ravy, a municipal space that supports Montpellier artists, is hosting, until 22 September, the exhibition “Broken Perspective”, which brings together ten of their works.
The couple arrived in Montpellier in June 2022, via Cologne, Germany, with only two backpacks. The artists fled Russia’s lightning invasion of kyiv, where they exhibited their works in a gallery in Podil, a trendy northern district of the Ukrainian capital. At the time, the French newspaper Mosaic Magazine (which has since ceased its activity) offers them the opportunity to come to an artist residency “to decorate the city”. Montpellier, which opened the MAUM (Montpellier Museum of Urban Arts) in 2022 and opened Parcelle473, a street art museum, in 2023, is offering a warm welcome to its new Ukrainian inhabitants.
open air gallery
The Pomme de Boue collective (a mischievous nod to the word “potato”) was born in kyiv in 2018, in a Ukraine in the midst of decommunization that was trying to decide whether to remove or reimagine the immense Soviet mosaics that hung on walls across the country. “We wanted to offer a new approach, a breath of fresh air.” recalls Mr. Pomme de Boue.
The duo then decided to create abstract mosaics. “that reflect the dynamics of urban life,” but also works in concrete and cardboard. Within four years, the duo made kyiv their open-air gallery. “We have hung around three hundred mosaics in Podil and in the city centre. Half of them have disappeared or been destroyed. explain mme Clay apple.
After the grey concrete buildings of kyiv, here you will find the orange and yellow facades of the Mediterranean. “In Montpellier we have two bicycles, two backpacks and some friends.” Mr Pomme de Boue says: As artists stroll through the city on 30 August, they are showing us their mosaics spread out across the city centre.
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