Introduction to Street Art

As part of a unit on the arts, students in the Honors Language and Culture program spent Tuesday afternoon with two local graffiti artists. They walked through streets of Rennes where graffiti of different styles can be found, and they learned along the way about street art techniques and the history of street art in Rennes. Fascinated by this art form, students also asked many insightful questions during the walking tour. 

Our guides explained that Rennes was the first city in France to allow graffiti artists to practice their art legally in selected public spaces. Today, thirty walls in Rennes are dedicated to street art! The guided tour ended with a walk along the Wall of Fame, a 200-meter-long wall that is painted every other year by international artists as part of an urban art event that started in 2013. 

Phase two of this cultural activity was for students to design and paint their own graffiti. They first had to decide what to write on the wall, and they agreed on “Wesh, comment dit-on…?”. “Wesh” is an informal greeting with an interrogative connotation that students learned from their host families or teachers in their first week. The rest of the question is a phrase they use most days when they want to know how to say a specific word in French. 

Working in pairs, students filled each of the letters outlined by our guides, using different colors and adding their individual touch (e.g. hearts, smurfs, flames, or a dripping effect). The result of this collaborative effort was phenomenal! Participation in this activity not only contributed to a fun afternoon but also led to a better understanding of and a new appreciation for street art. Students are now looking forward to the next cultural activity, as they learned today that the Fine Arts Museum, which they will visit tomorrow, has a special exhibit about the history of graffiti.