Mural: Bléré
It was thanks to an initiative by Juliette Lecoq of the Chenonceaux Bléré Val de Cher tourist office that street art made its appearance in the town. "I live in Tours and I had seen several works by Gil KD (Gil Cadet). I was looking for a graffiti artist for the Painters' Day on August 6th, which takes place in the two towns of Bléré and La Croix-en-Touraine. I contacted her, but she wasn't available that day. However, after talking with her, the idea of bringing street art here was born," explains Juliette, delighted to see her idea come to fruition after obtaining the agreement of the two municipalities, which were kind enough to support her project. (Nouvelle République - July 2017)
Mural against violence against women
On Friday, March 8, 2024, moments before the official unveiling of her mural on the walls of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Tours, the artist Gil KD, deeply moved, stepped back slightly. "I am incredibly touched because I just noticed some mothers from the Women's Center in the audience, who came with their children. It's so powerful! These women, initially reserved in our collaborative work, have managed to forge bonds and support one another. With this project, I understood that this was exactly where I wanted to go artistically: to convey messages of freedom, happiness, and hope."
The program she is talking about was launched by the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Tours (JCET) in 2022 and is part of a call for projects launched by the City, with a view to raising awareness and combating sexual and gender-based violence.
Art as a means of resilience
This is a collaborative work, called " Art = Equity ", created by Gil KD in collaboration with patients from the Maison des femmes du CHRU Bretonneau, young people from the Pluriel(le)s social center and the Tours youth council.
(New Republic - March 2024)
EGALES Project: Tours-Port-Bouët
Driven by a shared political will, the cities of Tours and Port-Bouët (Ivory Coast) have committed to jointly implementing initiatives to promote gender equality and combat gender-based and sexual violence, within the framework of the cooperation project "EQUALS: Gender Equality, Local Education and Awareness-Raising Actions." At the request of the Tours Junior Chamber of Commerce and its Art = Equity project, street artist Gil KD collaborated on creating murals in Tours and Port-Bouët as part of the EQUALS project. In 2022, two murals were created in Tours in partnership with Gil KD, the Maison des Femmes (Women's Center), the Centre Social Plurielles (Plurielles Social Center), and the Youth Council. These murals will be installed on the façade of the Étoile Bleue building in Tours starting March 8, 2024. At the end of 2023, a sister mural was created by the artist Do Rock Anagbo in Port-Bouët with women survivors of gender-based violence, with the support of a local Junior Chamber of Commerce, JCI Abdjan Soleil. In November 2023, Gil KD traveled to Port-Bouët to create street art murals with women from the community in three symbolic public locations: a health center, a community center, and the Port-Bouët market. (City of Tours - March 2024)
Today is workshop day... I didn't have the courage to tidy up, but I promise I'll do it a little later...