Les Sauvages: Rebels, Painters, and the Birth of Street Art

In the early 1980s, Paris witnessed an unexpected artistic uprising. A new generation of painters, sculptors, and performers — fed by punk energy and impatience with institutions — took their art to the streets, turning walls, catacombs, and billboards into wild territories of expression. They weren’t following the path of American graffiti but inventing their own: raw, poetic, and subversive.

With Les Sauvages: L’Odyssée punk des pionniers du street art français, Olivier Granoux retraces this crucial yet overlooked moment in French art history. Through testimonies from key figures such as Jérôme Mesnager, Blek le Rat, Speedy Graphito, and Banlieue Banlieue, he pieces together the story of a movement that redefined public space and paved the way for what would later be known as street art.

For this talk at La Bellevilloise, Olivier Granoux will host Jean Faucheur, Ox, Trois Carrés, and Antonio Gallego for an open conversation around Les Sauvages — revisiting the spirit, context, and collective energy of those early “urban savages.”

📖 Les Sauvages — Talk with Olivier Granoux, Jean Faucheur, Ox, Trois Carrés & Antonio Gallego
🗓 Sunday, November 23, 2025 | 🕓 From 5:30 PM
📍 La Bellevilloise, 19-21 rue Boyer, Paris 20