Atelier YokYok and graphic engagement with architecture

The creative team from Atelier YokYok have come up with “The Worm”, a graphic artwork based on the principle of anamorphosis to decorate a social housing project composed of 61 units by Atelier du Pont as part of the Ivry Confluences project near Paris.


Ivry-sur-Seine in the Paris metropolitan area is the location of Ivry Confluences, one of the region's major development projects. The project in the port area involves building numerous residential buildings, schools, infrastructure and a large park.
This sets the scene for the graphic artwork called  “The Worm” by Atelier YokYok. The artwork decorates a building composed of 61 social units, designed by Atelier du Pont.
The creative artists play with the optical effects of anamorphosis, which gives a highly distorted perception whose true form only appears when observed from a particular position, and this way “The Worm” sets up a graphic engagement with the architecture. 
The cobalt blue artwork starts from the pillars of the loggia on the ground floor but only truly reveals itself if you have the patience to find just the right viewpoint, which therefore drives interaction between residents and building in a visual game of hide-and-seek. 
Which is exactly what Atelier YokYok wants: to drive a playful exploration of the space between depth and surface and, at the same time, to launch a visual message to the urban context. Here, the art of anamorphosis creates an artistic reference on the one hand and proposes new, dynamic relations between users and the city on the other, thus making sure the building is really part of the neighbourhood.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Atelier YokYok
Location: Ivry-sur-Seine, France
Year: 2017
Images: courtesy of Atelier YokYok
Other articles about Ateler YokYok on Livegreenblog: The Paper Dome, Treedom