• 1. What’s your background... did you actually study art or was it all learning by doing ?
I did my studies at the Superior National School of Applied Arts and Profession of Arts
called : Olivier de Serres, in Paris. Those two years of studies were not really good memories,
and without denigrating that school, I was not in my own realm, it was too much methodical,
with speeches about the « creation process », references such as « Le Publicitor » (4th edition),
a publication on the advertising methods and techniques that makes you hate the profession.
In parallel of my studies, I started with a friend to spend all my nights to work
on research sketchbooks. The atmosphere was « dark&trash » : graphical violence
with some glues for wallpapers, cut-out magazines, chewed papers and cutter
on Sonic Youth and Joy Division music.

• 2. What does Event10 stand for ? What’s the meaning behind the name ?
Event10’s name comes from the collective Avengement (CDR label, music of un-copyright)
created by Damien Poncet (My Jazzy Child artist) and Julien Rohel (Clapping Music label)
in the late 1999. Each CDs (99 copies/ limited edition) were done one by one, by hands.
Each "actions" (album, concert, installations, performances...) were classified with numbers,
for ex: Event1: My Jazzy Child album, Event11: performance at the Batofar.
We were involved at that time in the Graphic Design Section of the label. We’ve chosen
the number 10, not for the classification, but for its graphical presence... for its omnipresence
in the urban horizon. It was really important for us that our signature was not just a simple
identification of graphic designers.
Since several years, E10 stood out from the collective Evenement,
to enlarge its activity fields in relation with the music, contemporary art, fashion and so on…
Today, Event10 and Tsunami-Addiction are in total symbiosis.

• 3. I have to admit, that I can’t really put into words what you’re doing, how to describe your work...
and I was hoping that you could help me out with that ?
My work is intuitive and indirect, artisanal and experimental…
tortured and minimal, sober and trash… contradictory, destructive, ill, maniac and grouchy.
I’m trying to break with the style effect, the perishable.

• 4. When I think of Event10, I think of black/white images,
I think about an (almost) monochrome world... what’s the reason for your affinity to b/w ?
Indeed, it’s a question that a lot of people asked me. For me the color is a kind of luxury.
This B/W dominant is tied to :
THE LACK OF BUDGET : I’m used to work with small budgets: sticking, photocopies…
My first clients were private persons or associations without budget, for CMYK print.
A METHOD OF WORK : At the research stage, I realize the projects on grey scale in order
to remain concentrated on the essential: the legibility degree, the graphical charter relevance…
the black, as a neutral value. The color is artificial and can be disturbing.
It’s only at the last stage of the research that I decide if I will use the color or not.

There’s also maybe this childhood memory, around the age of 8-10,
I was sure that the world was completely black and white. Certainly because of
the photography archives and INA’s videos (National Audiovisual Institute) about world wars.
Mute films shown in the B/W television, family’s photos, my village pictures turned yellow
with the time… Today, it makes me smile, but I keep unconsciously some after-effects.

• 5. What is more important for you when you’re working for music artists :
the music or the personality of the artist ?
I would say directly, the personality of the artist, but this one is obviously in dissociable
of the music. While I’m talking with the artist, defining for instance his temper or his phobia,
talking about everything and nothing, that when the communication of the artist is appearing,
and I will also say that maybe unconsciously he is conceiving it himself.
I can not work on the image of a musician if I don’t like his personality, what he emanates
and his music even if there’s a lot of money in the budget. The industry of the music
and its image don’t interest me. I’d rather work on a cover of an album every two years
and feel artistically free.

• 6. What’s your connection to Tsunami-Addiction ?
What is it that you do for them (and the other way around) ?
As you know it already, Tsunami-Addiction run by Gloria a.k.a Reiko Underwater,
is an office of productions, research, consulting, editions, events and initiatives
related to undercovered arts.
T-A represents Event10 among others. E10 is in charge of its Art Direction.
In a certain way, we are one, a common taste for the creative instability, the wish
to deviate towards the non-established, the ephemeral. One of the most representative
projects of our collaboration is Famous, a magazine from which an issue
to another is always moving.

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