When street art transforms an old building in Vannes

A maze of hallways, reinvented by the artist from Nantes, Wide, aka Edwin Donnart.
Along the port of Vannes in Brittany, a former administrative building of 150 offices has been transformed into a place of creation and exhibition: the project is called Dédale (Maze). Immerse yourself in this labyrinth of ephemeral art before its destruction next year.

Labyrinth of offices

3,000 m² (32291ft²) of 150 rooms spread over four levels—this is the space left vacant since the departure of the Departmental Directorate of Equipment (DDE) services. The space is an ideal setting to give free rein to local, national and international artists.

Labyrinth of offices

3,000 m² (32291ft²) of 150 rooms spread over four levels—this is the space left vacant since the departure of the Departmental Directorate of Equipment (DDE) services. The space is an ideal setting to give free rein to local, national and international artists.

Feminine looks

Located in Redon in Brittany, the artist Jef comes regularly to Vannes to paint on the surrounding walls of wastelands. He brought the walls of Dédale to life in the form of faces with realistic features and insisting glance, inviting visitors to enter his universe. His signature style? Female portraits done in explosive colors.

The flight of the pigeons

Steve and Dorota Coy from the Hygienic Dress League (HDL) duo installed pigeons in an electric pink room. Those white birds that we tend to want to chase out off the sidewalk, take back power here—it's the visitors who need to squeeze along the wall to observe the birds. Created of aluminium from three-dimensional images, these pigeons are banded and numbered.

Monochrome

Ready to go to nightclub during the day? Artist Soem had fun mixing saturated blue hues and blue light to recreate the atmosphere of a nightclub, an inspiration he drew from the codes of the early graffiti artists and contemporary art of the 1960s. Born in Concarneau and now based in Nantes, Soem is a disciple of monochrome.

At the top

Brittany artist Heol spent three days on the roof of Dédale to paint a huge lobster using real tools—for example, wrenches and screw nut for claws."I wanted a marine animal reminiscent of the seaside, for Vannes, and an orange animal for the connection with the DDE,” he says. At the end of the roof, a giant squid is about to devour the lobster because "there is always a bigger predator than oneself". Heol is used to large formats: for 20 years he dressed walls, buildings, sports halls, water castles in Brittany and elsewhere.

At the top

Brittany artist Heol spent three days on the roof of Dédale to paint a huge lobster using real tools—for example, wrenches and screw nut for claws."I wanted a marine animal reminiscent of the seaside, for Vannes, and an orange animal for the connection with the DDE,” he says. At the end of the roof, a giant squid is about to devour the lobster because "there is always a bigger predator than oneself". Heol is used to large formats: for 20 years he dressed walls, buildings, sports halls, water castles in Brittany and elsewhere.

Bubble of poetry

Painting with beer, linseed oil or lime, artist Stéphanie Ferandez employs ancestral techniques and a rare know-how from her instruction at the Avignon School—enabling her to magnify the architecture of any era. In Dédale, she chose a place of passage to paint her "Immersion féminine." Flowers, water, fish—all symbols that invite softness and contrast with the generally masculine side of street art.

From floor to ceiling

This artist who trained on authorized walls is now enjoying the pleasure of less accessible walls, finding a particularly rich playground in Dédale, in her hometown. Here, Lazuli is working to make us lose our bearings. "My wish is that we no longer realize where the floor and the ceiling are. I want to break the square of the room", explains the young artist. Mission accomplished!

From floor to ceiling

This artist who trained on authorized walls is now enjoying the pleasure of less accessible walls, finding a particularly rich playground in Dédale, in her hometown. Here, Lazuli is working to make us lose our bearings. "My wish is that we no longer realize where the floor and the ceiling are. I want to break the square of the room", explains the young artist. Mission accomplished!

The former offices of the DDE where Dédale has settled lie on the water’s edge, on the left bank of the port of Vannes, in the Morbihan in Brittany. The association "L'Art Prend La Rue," at the origin of the project, also created a cultural café, where visitors can take in the view of the port from the terrace before discovering the works of the artists. These works are transitory since the demolition of the wasteland is already scheduled in 2020 to give way to a new urban project, also promising to transform the left bank of the city. Two good reasons to schedule a trip to Vannes!