Christelle Montus

Fascinated since childhood by the myth of the Paris Subway, Christelle Montus has over the years collected its tickets. Through the years, the colors have changed, most recently from yellow to green and then from purple to white.

 

Diving into the Metro, with its entrances, its corridors, the platforms, the transfers, is to immerse oneself in a subterranean world full of striking sensations and images. Residual memories forever capture the smells, sounds and tastes. Enter the station, feel the blast of air entering the platform, inhale the smell of the brakes, hear the automatically slamming doors, feel the congestion entering the train, run for the connections, and finally breathe the air of Paris leaving the station – what an initiation to life in Paris! Literature and film have already immortalized the Paris Subway – Raymond Queneau (Zazie dans le métro), Joseph Kessel (Le bataillon du ciel), René Clair (Porte des lilas), François Truffaut (Le dernier Métro), Luc Besson (Subway)… But what about the plastic arts? In her artistic journey, in addition to her oils on canvas,

 

Christelle Montus has imagined the creation of a work made up of collages on wood of Paris subway tickets. On black painted one square meter panels, using the tickets she has created abstract figures, allegorically associated with particular stations. Each panel bears an evocative name: Concorde, Louvre, Etoile, Nation, Bastille… Going through an exhibition of this work is to penetrate into the heart of Paris, from the early mornings under a drenching drizzle to the noisy evenings with the dazzling city lights. It’s an entire day of the Parisian daily grind! “Métro, boulot, dodo”.