Ivan SIGG

Born in 1960 in Casablanca, Morocco
Lives and works in Paris, France

Painter, glass engraver, poet and novelist, Ivan Sigg, known simply as “Ivan”, is one of the founders of the underground movement of the “la peinture touffue” (dense painting) and “la littérature incendaire” (incendiary literature). He was a member of the group of painters known as Banlieue-Banlieue from 1984 to 1989. From its inception, the group participated in numerous protests located primarily in the outlying areas of major urban centres. He is also associated with Free Figuration and the nascent graf ti movement. His involvement is one of the reasons for Banlieue-Banlieue’s participation in 1985 in the rst gathering of the urban art and graf ti movement in Bondy (Île-de-France) that included in particular Miss Tic, Blek Le Rat, Futura 2000…

Rock music was a clear in uence on the beginnings of the group, which can be seen in its work with concerts and performance painting, as were the posters and graphics from the May 1968 movement as well as the paintings of the Mexican muralists that traversed the history of art.Also in 1985, the group was asked by Marco Ferreri to create a series of frescos for his lm, “I Love You”. A year later, the group worked in cinema again by painting frescos in the metro for certain scenes in the lm “Les Frères Pétard”. In 1989, after returning from a tour through the United States, the group decided to disband.

Since 1985 Ivan has held exhibitions in France and aboard: frescos, canvas paintings, monotype or bas-relief prints with sandblasted glass. He also did artwork design for Le Monde newspaper from 1995 to 2007.