A collaborative fresco created in their playground by Aimé-Césaire elementary school students and the artist Monsieur Poulet was inaugurated on Thursday, June 27. The students presented the project, explaining that it came “from an observation, since the school opened in September 2021: the elementary school playground, surrounded by a high fence, was devoid of vegetation, greenery, color.”
Au 1is floor, some parents had compared it to “a prison yard”. The teaching team and students who deplored the absence of vegetation made proposals including the installation of planters and decorations.
But, as the school’s director Marion Gadenne points out, these ideas were not implemented “so as not to modify the structure of the building.”
The project therefore consisted of extending nature onto the walls of the elementary school with a fresco entitled: “The elevator to the treetops,” an extension of the vegetation of the kindergarten and the patio. This initiative around nature and urban art was also supported by the cultural mediation of the City.
A sketch painted by the students
Various partners funded the project: the Daac (Academic Delegation for Cultural Action), the City’s cultural department, the parents’ association and the school cooperative. Mr. Poulet conducted workshops with the students: he presented his practice, asked the students for drawings, gave advice, etc.
From the drawings, the artist designed a digital sketch, then an underlay was made by the technical services. Monsieur Poulet created a spray-painted sketch that the schoolchildren painted with a brush. At the same time, each level worked on nature and urban arts and their work was exhibited.
A visit to the metropolis’s neighborhoods, in search of frescoes, could be organized, as well as work on sustainable development. As culture assistant Nadine Dulucq indicated, the fresco highlights the school where “even if we have the impression that we lack trees, we were able to bring in nature. Culture is exported to the city’s buildings.”
