A few years back, a contingent of the MBFF team (the youngest member and myself) headed off on 🎨 a voyage of art exploration and discovery . . . to the newly painted multi-storey 🚙 car park in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains: 🎨 2KM3.
This art project really is a masterpiece: an alternative museum of street art, a FREE museum, a museum open every day of the year! Parking one’s car has never been so fun!
MBFF’s visit
We went with a 🚲 draisienne (push bike). There was 🎨 art, and there were some steep descents (and ascents on the return journey) for the little one! What a marvellous destination to bike! We loved it so much that we decided to bring back the rest of the family at the weekend, with a trottinette (scooter) to add to the intrigue and fun!
[ note: MBFF explored the car park when the paint was drying, and so there were no cars! You cannot visit in this footloose and fancy-free way anymore, as it is a functioning car park. But it is still immense fun to explore the car park in your car! ]
2KM3‘s conception
The 🎨 protagonists in the conception of this unique art project were:
- the mayor of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, Jean-Marc Peillex;
- Hugues Chevalier, President of the Kill Art Factory;
- and artist Frédéric Battle (Zoer);
interesting fact: the name 🎨 2KM3 is the abbreviation of the measurement of wall space and ceiling given to each artist (2000m3).
The artists
🎨 2KM3 was an ambitious project as the artists involved took only 17 days to complete their work! 🎨 Twelve French and international street artists were involved, and they covered all eleven floors of the car park (each working with 450 m² of walls and 500 m² of ceiling), and the façade, and each using their own unique style:
- Roids (UK);
- Felipe Pantone (Argentina);
- Zoer (France);
- Velvet;
- Sten & Lex (Italy);
- Swiz (France);
- Etienne de Fleurieu (France);
- SatOne (Venezuela);
- Jaw (France);
- Sobekcis (Serbia);
- Elian Chali (Argentina);
2KM3 – Acte II (2018 update)
Some of the original 2KM3 artists got busy again in 2018 – this time modernising the northern facade of La Poste in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, 💦 the Saint-Gervais swimming pool and 🚡 the Bettex and Mont d’Arbois télécabines stations;
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains – an alpine art hub
Saint-Gervais-les-Bains is now well and truly on the cutting edge of contemporary art, as in addition to the 2KM3 project, there are:
- the 🖼 temporary exhibitions in the Pile Pont exhibition space (one of the pillars of the viaduct);
- the 🖼 Salle Géo Dorival (temporary exhibitions) in the centre of town;
- the 🖼 open-air museum in the Parc Thermal in Le Fayet,
- the artists in residence at the 🏰 Maison Forte de Hautetour;
For more information about 2KM3, see FB page.
3 thoughts on “2KM3 – when a car park becomes ARTWORK! (Saint-Gervais)”