A scene from the film “Les Bronzés sont du ski” in the heart of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), like a nod after the disappearance of Michel Blanc. The Toulouse artist Joël Martial, aka Lannonce_dans_la_rue on social networks, installed his character the Super-Baigneuse on October 6, on the wall of the American Cosmograph cinema, in rue Montardy, opposite Jean-Claude Dusse, stuck on its chairlift, a scene from the film that has become legendary. The Super-Bather, wearing her bathing cap and her black mask, presents a bubble singing at the top of her lungs the refrain passed down to posterity “When will I see you again, wonderful country”!
“He was an actor that I really liked, so I worked quickly on this installation to pay tribute to him and reflect on current events,” says Joël Martial, 49 years old. I prepare everything at home: the posters that I paint, the collage and here the wire and wood to reconstruct the chairlift. I installed the first part of the work on Saturday evening and the rest on Sunday afternoon. My concept consists of installing a work in a place that has meaning, so for Michel Blanc, it could only be an independent cinema.”
Sempé too
In August 2022, the Toulouse artist paid tribute to the designer Sempé and his little Nicolas, sitting on a stone, crying and comforted by Super-Baigneuse. An installation created in Grande-rue Saint-Nicolas.
An industrial work manager during the day, Joël Martial wants above all to have fun with his poetic installations, committed to humanist values, by staging his Super-Baigneuse, often on current themes. At the start of the school year, he notably installed a poster under the Jumeaux bridges on a screaming cushion, to reflect on the appointment of the new government. Super-Baigneuse therefore calls for people to vote for her in 2027.
“It’s a way of killing everyday life: sometimes my installations highlight the architectural particularities of Toulouse with the trick of never degrading the support,” explains Joël Martial. I always try to blend into the context and for the work to have an interest in the place or the history of the neighborhood.”
