Currently, more and more artists draw attention to basketball courts, turning them into giant murals. Last year, we wrote about Sicilian mural artist Gue who transformed a local basketball court in Alessandria into a colorful piece of art. There are many other interesting projects of the last years. In Belgium, for example, the artist Katrien Vanderlinden painted a beautiful mural on a basketball court ground inspired by children’s building blocks. With the support from Nike, Ill-Studio and French fashion brand Pigalle redesigned a basketball court in Paris, painting colorful gradients on its ground and adjacent walls.
One of such projects titled Wireframe has been realized by French artist Cyril Lancelin of the town and concrete studio. However, the Lancelin’s work is different – the key element of the design is not a court’s ground. The artist focused on the fence, surrounding the court with a sculptural wall in addition to the usual wire mesh. “The design begins on the boundaries of the field and ends on the ground,” explains Lancelin.
The wall consisted of playful pink tori and squares can also be used as urban furniture for the spectators and as a playground, offering targets and baskets for balls. “When Producer Jérémie Nassir of Trajectoire, Art x Basket, asked me to think about a basketball art installation, I imagined the court as an immersive installation where the spectator plays as much as the player,” says Lancelin.
Different areas of the court are defined by different colors. The spectator zone is painted in pink, while the area for players features blue as the main color. The random repetition of squares and circles is repeated on the ground design of the court, forming a grid where each shape marks a location like in a board game.
Wireframe is designed in two versions. In the permanent version, the tori and squares of the fence are made from a thin wooden structure wrapped in a foam of various density depending on the element’s location and covered with protective fabrics, which is usually used in the protection of poles at sports venues. In the roaming version, some elements are inflatable, because they are against existing fences and for a short-term event.
SITE OF THE PROJECT: Itinerant installation
YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2019
DESIGN: Cyril Lancelin / town and concrete
PRODUCER: Jérémie Nassir / Trajectoire Art x Basket