INTERVIEW
C215, whose real name is Christian Guémy, is a street artist who is known in particular for his portraits of Simone Veil on Parisian mailboxes. Since 2014, he has worked in prisons as an artist and volunteer. While the Réau prison center in Seine-et-Marne has been loaned, among other things, six works by Picasso for an exhibition organized by and for prisoners, Christian Guémy tells Europe 1 about his role as as an artist working in prison.
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An approach he calls "artistic and civic". "I come to the prisons to meet the prisoners and the staff, and I suggest that they paint works of art," explains Christian Guémy. Works adapted to a context, "in form and in meaning to the prison world", specifies the artist. He recalls that he is not a facilitator or teacher, but comes to offer art so that everyone, from warders to prisoners, including medical staff and lawyers, are confronted in the same way with works.
"Get away, relax"
The meaning of his approach? "Let the works become a heritage for all, let them stay while we pass", responds C215. "I work in common places, especially in family reception rooms. A work of art is an extremely peaceful, positive way for everyone to get away from it all and relax. Prions are places of containment with a lot of tension, not just for prisoners: for everyone ", continues Christian Guémy. "The idea is that the works allow them to live together," he continues.
"I am not a magistrate"
"We are in a society that likes to judge wrongly and through. I am not a magistrate, I am an artist and I come to offer works to human beings", maintains C215. "The advantage is that the work sends everyone back to their emotion. Whether you are a supervisor or a prisoner, you have the same heart, the same emotions. That's what interests me: remember what they have in common, which allows them to live together in what is above all a place of life ", continues Christian Guémy.
"The approach is also to bring something positive from my profession, which consists in making choices, in planning, in establishing projects. And that, that speaks to them about them, and their capacity to make choices , and to imagine what could be their vision, their anticipation, and how they could rebuild themselves ", ensures C215, convinced of the positive effects that art can have in prison.
A committed artist
The artist, in his prison experience, is linked to the singer Barbara, who had given several concerts at Fresnes prison. The reception of the singer was such that she had left her piano there. "It touched me a lot, which is why I painted his portrait above his piano," explains Christian Guémy. "I also painted the portrait of Robert Badinter in Fresnes," says C215, who paid tribute to the Minister of Justice who had defended the plan to abolish the death penalty in 1981.