2023-07-13 12:00:05
The Asian Marianne of Combo, in Paris, in February 2017. COMBO
On July 5, the Paris Court of Appeal condemned Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his movement, La France insoumise (LFI), for infringement of the property and moral rights of the artist Combo, as announced by Agence France -Press (AFP). “This is the first recognition by French justice of the copyright of a street artistwelcomes the Monde the lawyer Nicolas Le Pays du Teilleul, who represents the interests of Combo. Until now, the graffiti had been apprehended by the courts only under the penal, repressive angle. » In his eyes, graffiti artists “can finally become fully aware of their rights and find themselves in a better balance of power to negotiate them”.
The story dates back to 2017. The day after the violent arrest of Théo Luhaka, which sheds harsh light on police violence, Combo decides to react. On the night of February 15 to 16, the artist, born to a Moroccan mother and a Lebanese father, sticks, boulevard du Temple, in Paris, a Marianne with Asian features, holding a flag on which is inscribed “Liberty, Equality, Humanity”. The image is so strong that, on March 18, during a demonstration by La France insoumise, the party cameras filming the event linger there. On this date, the slogan “We want justice”which Combo had tagged, as well as his signature were erased, replaced by the crest of another street artist, Styx.
The Asian Marianne will subsequently appear in the first seconds of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s campaign clip for the 2017 presidential election, then again in 2020, in the official video of the “rebellious” during the municipal elections. For Combo, it’s too much. In June 2020, his lawyer sent the party La France insoumise (LFI) a formal notice, which remained unanswered.
Political use
In the first instance, the lawyer Mathieu Davy, who defends LFI and its founder, pleads the brevity of the quotation and claims the freedom of panorama, which applies to works permanently located on public roads and also to works covering sculptures and buildings. Combo’s defense replies that the work does not appear in the videos in an incidental or fortuitous way, as an element of the public space serving as decor, but that it was deliberately integrated there, to reinforce an ideological message. In the eyes of the artist, the political use of his work would have harmed him. He claimed to have been refused the hanging of one of his Mariannes in Cogolin (Var), the organizer of the exhibition having feared that visitors would associate it with a far-left work.
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