Since its emergence on the silver surface of New York City’s subway system in the 1970s, graffiti has pulsated at the speed of the train cars, in the grime of soot, in the sweat of illegality and its swiftness, in the jerky movements of the acrobat’s body and the rails that open new escape routes.

A constantly evolving artistic scene, a fringe of graffiti artists pursues a “systems” passion, which consists of living pictorial adventures through the world’s railway networks. A figure in the new Parisian school, artist Théo Clerc was arrested and imprisoned in Baku (Azerbaijan) for painting a subway train on March 31, 2024. A French national, he was sentenced on September 12, 2024, to a three-year prison term, following three months of pre-trial detention under troubling conditions, while his two friends and accomplices from New Zealand and Australia were released and fined for the same action. Widely covered by the media, the case is now drawing the attention of the press (who call it a “diplomatic hostage-taking”), the French Foreign Ministry (which condemns a “blatantly arbitrary and discriminatory treatment”), and civil society (an online petition has already gathered over 30,000 signatures in support).

The Palais de Tokyo invites his friends Julien Calemard and Thami Nabil to create a mural to remind the public that artists do not belong in prison. Enthusiasts of underground drawings, Crumb-era comics, Japanese prints, and children’s illustrations by Claude Ponti, the duo crafted a mural inspired by the heritage of protest posters, video game graphics, and so-called “lowbrow” art. The structure of the drawing is build by the foundations of an imaginary house. Associating symbolic vignettes, they summon colors, imagery, ideas, and memories to protect Théo Clerc from afar. Depicted in three phases—from amusement to judgment—Théo Clerc is intersected by an imaginary subway, a fusion of dreamlike metros from around the world, the source of his current troubles. Above their heads are halos, reminding us that graffiti is a game as innocent as it is playful, a friendship, a collective bond, full of chance, misfortune, and freedom that sometimes leads to imprisonment.

→ Petition : « FREE THÉO CLERC: A CALL FOR JUSTICE AND CLEMENCY »

→ Instagram : @collectif_free_theo