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Tramapatte (Le)

Le Tramapatte is a drawing on a streetcar in Brussels by Luc Schuiten and François Schuiten.

During the fourth edition of the Festival ARTONOV, which will take place from the 9th through the 14th of October 2018, collaboration will ensue between the association ARTONOV, the STIB and the Schuiten brothers (François – cartoonist and Luc – utopian architect) 1).

Luc and François Schuiten, both of whom are programmed during the Festival ARTONOV, will team up to create a graphic design on a streetcar which the STIB will put in circulation for 13 months until the 5th edition of the Festival ARTONOV 2).

The streetcar will alternate between the lines 92, 93, 94 and 25 and will pass by the places that the Festival ARTONOV will occupy for performances (Hotel Hannon, Hotel Max Hallet, Lempertz Gallery, Maison Langbehn, etc) 3).

The streetcar, one of the major symbols of mobility during the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods, now becomes a work of art dedicated to the urban space 4).

The original design by François Schuiten 5)

The inhabitants of Brussels become spectators and actors of this artistic work through the graphics and windows on the streetcar. The Schuiten brothers hope that it becomes an integral part of the urban landscape and that it stirs up an emotion to its viewer who watches it appear, disappear and shape the landscape as it passes 6).

This project aims to animate public spaces and introduce art in an urban area. The everyday experience of using a streetcar in order to get from one place to another will become an exceptional occasion due to this projects’ originality 7).

It is also involved in the European Year of Heritage and the year “Horta Inside Out” in Brussels (2018), as well as on the 150th anniversary of the tram (2019). The Festival ARTONOV will take the opportunity to involve the Tram Museum in its activities during the 5th edition in 2019 8).

François Schuiten working on the design 9)

This project captures the philosophy of the Festival ARTONOV which proposes a program for a diverse audience from the experienced (professional), the uninformed (curious) to the informed with little experience (amateur). The intention is not to lower the artistic level but rather implies a revolution of the content itself through the choice of place, the mode of presentation, the demonstration and the tools used 10).

The drawing on the TRAMAPATTE is a support for movement originating from a decomposition approach in kinetic phases so as to add an animation to the representation of its displacement. Both sides of the streetcar are bathed in different daytime and evening colours, surprising the audience with these contrasts. In the sky, luminescent fluorescent stars will light up as soon as night falls 11).

Using the same drawing, Luc and François Schuiten have split the two sides of the streetcar (left and right) to interpret the drawing in their own personal and unique way 12).

One half of the streetcar ends in an organic structure designed to become a biomechanical joint. The meeting is in the middle and each half continues the drawing of the other to mitigate the differences and make the work homogeneous 13).

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