Lyon, a Tattooed City an Interactive Qualifying Project Report
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Lyon, A Tattooed City An Interactive Qualifying Project Report By Hélèna Cohen Danielle Felten With faculty advisors Fabienne Miller and Peter Hansen 6/28/2019 Submitted to the Faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science This report represents the work of WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review. For more information about the projects program at WPI, please see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program Abstract This project observed wall murals, or murs peints, in Lyon, France, with a focus on murals that have a significance to Lyon’s history. A mural could be historically significant for a variety of reasons, whether due to size, location, composition, or subject. In surveys, residents of Lyon identify murals with the city’s patrimoine, or heritage. Research, tours, and interviews examined the legal and financial context for wall murals. The importance of murals throughout Lyon give its people a sense of pride, and they view wall murals as more than just street art. ii Executive Summary Culture, defined by Google as “the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively, a refined understanding or appreciation of culture, customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group, and the attitudes and behavior characteristic of a particular social group” can be interpreted in many ways (Dictionary, n. d). This definition Ph t Th Cit f L C dit could be seen as very vague, so understanding a new culture can be hard to determine what exactly should be categorized. Additionally, the opinion of what can be defined as culture is fluid and changing within the mind of each individual (Les Murs Pients, n. d). For this interactive qualifying project, the team looked at the culture of Lyon and how wall murals specifically fit within it. The city of Lyon, France is known for its many specialties and traditions. Although it is known mainly for its excellence in gastronomy, in recent years Lyon has proven to be an up and coming place for the arts as well. With its many performances and its vast amount of art museums, Lyon attracts new tourists and potential artists every day. One thing Lyon is becoming increasingly known for is its exceptional street art (Editors, 2011). Among the streets is a large variety of types of street art whether it be performing arts or visual art, there is always something to see every day. For the purposes of this interactive qualifying project, the team decided to focus its efforts specifically on the historical murals of the city. The main goal of this interactive qualifying project was to find, access, and study the wall murals found within the city of Lyon. To understand how these murals were created, the team needed to acknowledge why they were originally created and by who. After investigating, CitéCréation, a company invested in the production of murals, has helped create hundreds of murals in Lyon and Worldwide starting a new movement around the world. This company, iii specifically, sets aside six to nine months to create a piece of art making sure that everything is properly made to the expectation of their mission (CitéCréation, n. d) To achieve this they take precautions with the design, color scheme, and in making sure the finished product does not seem out of place within the neighborhood. As a result, they have established themselves as accomplished city contributors in their mission to add pride and beauty to each district that comes to Lyon. (CitéCréation, n. d).Even though many people consider art as an expression of free will. However, there are still some who believe that wall art is the defacing of a building, but this could stem from the fact that each culture is different from one another in terms of murals. In fact, Lyon‘s murals are protected from the public in fear they might get painted over or destroyed because they value them with such high dignity. In addition, there are also many laws pertaining to the rights of wall painting within France, but there is very little information given when differentiating between the types of street art within the city. Over the last forty years, there has been a long history of street art throughout the history of France, but the question of its legality was never really considered until recently. In more recent times, Lyon’s citizens have become more accepting to street art and sometimes even going as far as to commission murals on the side of their homes or office buildings. Presently, the people of Lyon also view wall murals as an important part of their culture and current students, both young and older, are becoming more and more interested in the subject matter Over the last forty years, the story of Lyon unfolds within its murals, captivating anyone who passes by. Thus, these murals have brought contrast and color to the city and will continue to do so. When determining the scope of this project, the murals chosen were to identify the historical context of Lyon’s history. This stems from a significant amount of background research and the knowledge that the team would not physically have been able to observe each and every mural in the time provided. Instead, the team decided to focus their efforts instead on how the murals represent Lyon’s history and will try to map these historical murals in order for them to be easier to find in the future. A lot of data needed to be acquired in order to successfully collect the data to accomplish objective one. The team completed archival research (printed and online) and participated in many tours of the painted walls. The team examined online websites as well as printed books at the Bibliotheque Municipale de Lyon. After research, the team traveled to different parts of the city to view that murals in person where they noted characteristics about each mural. Coincidently, the team saw more murals than they anticipated during their time in Lyon, as any murals with rather close to each other. To visit the murals, the team went on two guided tours and a dozen or so self-guided tours, gathering a vast collection of knowledge about the murals, their history, comparable data from initial research. The team took notes as to who they were painted by, what they depicted, and took down their GPS coordinates. While on a guided tour, iv the team arrived prepared with specific questions for the tour guides and took note of their responses. To complete the second objective, the team created a database of the historical wall murals within Lyon. The database was used to categorize the murals based on physical and historical representation. Some of these categories the team decided on include: time period, historical figures, and historical significance. After viewing the murals for themselves and assessing any and all available resources on the specific mural, the team made an informed decision as to which category the mural would be placed under. The third objective was to analyze the data gathered by the team in order to understand the significance of wall murals to Lyon. The team decided to record interviews done on tours and take notes. The team also utilized some vital information from another group’s survey onsite this interactive qualifying project. The LABEX-IMU team sent out a survey which aimed to acquire insight on what the people of Lyon believe represents patrimoine in Lyon using a hashtag analysis system. The LABEX- IMU goal for the hashtag analysis was to gain insight on who uses the hashtags and why for their specific posts to social media. In terms of our project, we only concerned ourselves with the specific question that their survey asked on wall murals. Our team then decided that a mural could be historically significant for a multitude of reasons. Whether it be the first abstract mural in Lyon or famous due to its size, complexity, and/or importance to the city. When considering some of murals the team saw on their tours, self-guided or guided, they decided that some did not relate well enough to the historical subject they had previously chosen to focus on and decided to omit them from the database entirely. Aside from those murals, the team investigated the history that each mural as well as asking the tour guides for a professional opinion. When speaking to the tour guides, the results of the professional opinion seem to vary as some tour guides seemed to lack in experience or background knowledge on the murals themselves. Once gather the information was completed, the team began to analyze the data to link the murals with its significance to Lyon. The team also included the results to their joint survey with the LABEX-IMU team which surveyed groups of people they had previously identified through social media platforms and institutions that indicated patrimoine in Lyon using hashtag analysis. After the survey was sent to hundreds of people, the results came in. From the survey, twenty-nine total citizens response within v the duration of the time on site. Upon receiving the data, the team calculated that twenty-three out of twenty-nine survey-takers indicated that they felt wall murals should be considered part of the patrimoine in Lyon. This was a relatively high amount of positive responses, in such a short amount of time.