Unbridled energy
Interview with Clément Louise, A BPCE Sports basketball player and employee of BPCE IT Solutions, and Jules Dedet, better known as L’Atlas, urban artist.
Tuesday midday means basketball!
Everyone who knows me understands that it’s an essential moment for my physical and psychological wellbeing. We’re lucky to work just a few minutes from this basketball court, renovated thanks to funding from the Caisse d’Epargne and designed by the street artist L’Atlas, whose instantly recognizable style gives us a lot of energy. You can find the same energy in the neighborhood whose transformation, year after year, I’ve witnessed at first hand. New buildings have come up, and disused warehouses have been converted into a university, ‘third places’ or social venues, co-working spaces, etc. The neighborhood has been considerably rejuvenated and now, to my mind, is like a kind of a business incubator, a laboratory where pride of place is given to innovation. In fact, I can’t think of any other neighborhood in Paris that has changed quite as much!
A BPCE Sports basketball player and employee of BPCE IT Solutions
When the City Hall of the 13th arrondissement and the Caisse d’Epargne invited me to renovate the 3×3 basketball court on Boulevard Vincent Auriol, I imme-diatly accepted.
To revamp the court’s graphic identity, I chose the colors red, black and gray as a tribute to Michael Jordan’s team, the Chicago Bulls, a team I supported as a fan when I was younger. I wanted to create a kind of bubble in which the players would feel comfortable, a court that would simultaneously be a place open to the public and a place of greater intimacy. To complete my work, I had to deal with many constraints: painting on the ground, using sufficiently durable paints, but also including the court’s different markings in my visual work. It wasn’t easy… but that’s also what makes it interesting!
Better known as L’Atlas, urban artist
