fbpx


Route de la pinède, 20260 CALVI

Cyril Kongo

Born to a Vietnamese father and a French mother, Cyril Phan spent his early childhood in Vietnam until the fall of Saigon in 1975. As a teenager, he lived for several years in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, which inspired his artist name, Cyril Kongo1,2. In 1986, he began to make his mark in the Paris region with tags. In 1988, he joined the MAC crew, a group of Parisian graffiti artists with whom he painted monumental frescoes from 1989 to 2001 that were recognized internationally, particularly in the United States1,3, where he met the pillars of the New York discipline4. The director ATN devoted a documentary, Trumac, de Paris à South-Bronx5, to these imposing works (one of which is about 50 meters long and 8 meters high), in which he filmed the work of the graffiti artists on their walls from its genesis to its completion. Kongo also appears in the 2004 film by documentary filmmaker Marc-Aurèle Vecchione Writers, 20 ans de graffiti à Paris, 1983-20036. In 2002, with the MAC crew, Kongo launched Kosmopolite7,8, the first international graffiti festival in France, sponsored by the city of Bagnolet where he lives. In the summer of 2011, the festival is in its 10th edition. Having achieved its primary objective, to dissociate graffiti art from its connotation of vandalism, the Kosmopolite association has been working since 2011 to pass on its knowledge and the history of the movement by organizing free introductory workshops in urban arts, initially aimed at young people, and then also offered to adults9,10. Thanks to the workshop of Kosmopolite, Narvaland11, Cyril Kongo passes, according to his formula, "of the street to the workshop", (cf. page 30 of the work which is devoted to him1). His works are presented in galleries and exhibitions. Since 2008, he has been associated with major houses for the creation of luxury objects signed Kongo. At the beginning of 2020, an exhibition is entirely dedicated to him on the roof of the Grande Arche de la Défense12. Cyril Phan is also very present in various Asian metropolises: exhibitions in Shanghai, Taipei, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Hainan and Beijing; he is represented in Jakarta by D Gallerie where he regularly exhibits. Since 2019, a showroom in Singapore is dedicated to him; in September 2020, opening of the first Cyril Kongo gallery in Hanoi13. In 2021, he will exhibit his works in Montmorillon in the Salle des Grandmontains. Cyril Kongo was seduced by this site, in the heart of the city of the written word and the book trade, which offers a meeting between his works and this setting steeped in history and dedicated to the written word14.

Works available

More information about the artist