Recap: SOWAT x LEK x JOHN GIORNO at Palais de Tokyo, Paris

American poet John Giorno was invited in Paris to take over four of the freshly renovated  Palais de Tokyo‘s walls. A major figure of New York’s underground scene in the 60’s and of the Beat generation, Giorno seized the occasion to confront two of his poem pairings ‘Just say no to family values’ and ‘A hurricane in a drop of cum’ to the work of Lek and Sowat, two french artists he discovered through their project   ‘Mausolée’

Lek (French Kiss, LCA, GNS, RAW, 1984) and Sowat (Da Mental Vaporz) covered two walls with their graffitis, on top John Giorno’s self adhesive vinyl letters, before pealing them off, thus revealing the american artist’s poems. As a prank, the graffiti artists then discreetly stashed the poem’s letters negatives to wheat paste them with the help of  Dem189, on the river bank’s grey walls, on the other side of the Seine, opposite the Palais de Tokyo.

Photo: Hugo Vitrani and Thias