In Paris, the umbrella dresses the streets. The collective “Le Mouvement” created by Romano, Riks and Tiez chose to reach out to the refugees of the Emaüs Center in the Chapel in the 18th. The idea: to give joy, hope and colors to neighborhoods ... but also create a link between people. This is how the “Umbrellas across Paris” project was born. Based on photos, collages and meetings ... Works bring together people who do not know each other. Emanates from these achievements a message of openness and militant solidarity for a more diverse society.
As part of his “Umbrella Sky Project” project, the Portuguese artist Patricia Cunha suspends 800 colored umbrellas a few meters from the Madeleine. This umbrella sky attracts and amazes many passers -by, tourists and curious. The umbrella becomes a star of modern art. The Portuguese artist drew his inspiration from the film Mary Poppins, a film in which the umbrella, the only means of transport of the famous nanny, then occupies a central place! The concept: attracting the eye into places sometimes unknown to the public and disseminate colorful joy, “color life”. This concept then developed in many cities such as Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, Carcassonne, Arles, Toulouse, Béziers, and even Tokyo, Seoul, or Pensacola in the United States.
Recognized for his audacity, the Greek artist Zongolopoulos was largely inspired by the umbrella. Indeed, the choice of materials to which he uses for the creation of his works is not any more original. In the middle of plexiglass, locks, springs, pipes, we discover umbrellas! It is particularly the use of the umbrella in the sculptures of Zongolopoulos that characterizes the artist.
"On a certain side, our life is linked to the umbrella in different situations, such as when you have a date in love or wait for a friend ... It always appears as a means of defense against nature ''. Zongolopoulos' famous “Umbrellas” sculpture, created in 1991, has even become a meeting place in Thessaloniki in Greece.
The painting is surely where we find the umbrella the most, and without apparent borders. Here are some examples:
The umbrella is a great success among the surrealists. We find him in the famous painting of Magritte in 1959: “The Hégel holidays”.
In this painting, the Belgian surreal painter confronts contradictory objects: he associates the umbrella which pushes the water and the glass of water which contains the water!
“Beautiful as the fortuitous meeting on a dissection table of a sewing machine and a broken umbrella.” This famous quote from Lautréamont which has neither tail nor head was illustrated by Agnès Varda, photographer, visual artist and film director, in an atypical triptych!
The umbrella is invited in different sound works and performance. Thus he transforms into a sound diffuser in the sound sound work of the Digital Samovar collective, he becomes an object of architecture with the artist Bernhard Leitner.
We also find the umbrella in the opera, dance, song. Let us quote Brassens with his song “A little corner of umbrella”. The umbrella remains a source of ideas in many areas. He inspires so much that China has created the umbrella museum: culture, history, works around the umbrella ...
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