Res Publica Intermodal
In the shadows of Europe’s freight networks, a new travel culture has taken shape. Res Publica Intermodal looks at the world of freight-train riders — where graffiti, mobility, and improvised communities converge along the rails. Part documentation, part artistic investigation, the project maps a hidden geography defined by movement, risk, and the shared rituals of those who live between trains and territories.
From Archives to Shelves
Le Grand Jeu bookshop was not born from a retail project, but from excess. Too many books, too many duplicates, and a simple realization: circulation could finance research, encounters, and a space where underground cultures would gradually find a home.
Books Before the Bookshop
Before Le Grand Jeu became a bookshop, books were not objects of fetishization — they were tools for building understanding, access, and shared cultural knowledge.
Too Visible, Poorly Told
Before becoming a bookshop, a journal, or a long-term editorial project, Le Grand Jeu also emerged from exhibitions—but not as an end in themselves. This text retraces how curating urban art exhibitions became a way to test narratives, expose methodological limits, and eventually reveal the need for a structure capable of holding research over time.
ZIFU: Writing Across West Africa
Graffiti as a way of life, Abidjan as a playground, West Africa as an open-air lab. In this long-form interview, Zifu looks back at two decades of painting across the region — from early throw-ups to cross-country missions where police, borders and broken rollers shape each night differently. A panoramic look at one of the continent’s most prolific writers.
Post Vandalism: The Art of Breaking to Rebuild
Interview by Andrea Ceresa with artist and archivist Stephen Burke, exploring how Post Vandalism turns cracks, ruins and street instincts into a new visual language.
Graffiti Beyond Borders: A Conversation with Pablo Allison
From Baghdad, photographer Pablo Allison documents Iraq’s unseen walls—where tags, slogans, and murals echo decades of conflict and youth resistance. A conversation with Christian Omodeo for Le Grand Jeu.
Culture as Origin, Sneakers as Archive
Growing up between Guadeloupe and mainland France, Herbby reflects on how culture, identity, and everyday objects shape personal narratives. In this conversation, he traces the origins of his project Culture & Diversity and explores how sneakers—far from being simple fashion items—can function as archives of memory, belonging, and transmission across generations.
Napal: From Streets to Canvas
One painting. One year. One turning point. In 1990, Napal leaves the street behind — at least for a moment — and puts graffiti on canvas. Behind this seemingly quiet gesture lies a story of speed, risk, travel, and a first encounter with hip-hop culture in Australia that would shape everything that followed.
The City With No Walls
Malé covers less than six square kilometres—overcrowded, closely monitored, shaped by real-estate pressure. An unlikely setting for graffiti. Through the work of Toxi, this article explores what it means to paint where space is scarce and the city leaves almost no room for itself.
Art & Place Conference Saarbrücke
In 2025, Le Grand Jeu has taken part in the Art & Place Conference, an international forum dedicated to critical perspectives on urban art and public space. On this occasion, we shared our experience at the crossroads of independent publishing, archiving, and street culture, highlighting the role of printed matter in documenting and circulating alternative histories.
Moniker Art Fair New York
For its New York edition, Moniker Art Fair placed publishing at the heart of the event. In May 2018, Le Grand Jeu curated the fair’s bookstore, turning it into a space for research and exchange around street and urban cultures.
Diagonals
Diagonals captures a turning point in L’Atlas’ practice. Produced in collaboration with Le Grand Jeu, this limited artist’s book explores a new formal language built on diagonals, where calligraphy, urban markings, and printmaking converge.
Moniker Art Fair London
At Moniker Art Fair, books became part of the conversation. For the fair’s 10th edition in London, Le Grand Jeu joined an international platform where street art, publishing, and critical perspectives met—affirming the book as a key tool for documenting and transmitting urban cultures.
White Street Market
In 2018, Le Grand Jeu has been part of White Street Market. From Ricky Powell’s photography to pop-up bookstores and talks, Milan became a temporary hub for street culture, publishing, and encounters.