The walls of the dark alleys were the first to bear the poetry of his features. The one who has been nicknamed the Cocteau des allees was one of the leading figures of the punk and underground movement of the 80s in Montreal. A period of excitement and sustained artistic experimentation characterized by transmutation of disciplines and rejection of established codes. Zïlon has made its mark in visual arts of course, but also in the fields of music and performance. For more than 30 years, his ability to constantly reinvent himself and his great versatility have made him a major artist who transcends generations and borders. With more than fifty exhibitions to his credit, his works have been seen in several major cities around the world, including New York, Paris and London.
In addition to his success in the gallery, Zïlon also created comics, made film storyboards, posters of festivals and shows, decorated rooms, created frescoes for theater and cinema. He has collaborated on some of Quebec’s most recognized artists such as Gilles Carles, Wajdi Mouawad, Robert Lepage, Jacques Languirand and Claude Péloquin. Montreal perfumer Claude André Hébert has designed a perfume in his image. He has taken part in many major artistic events, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Francofolies de Montréal, the International Festival of Films on Art, the International Fashion and Design Festival of Montreal and Grand Charivari. His twelve works, created live during the big Jazz Festival event in 2005 featuring DJ Champion, fascinated and marked a very large audience. Similarly, the clothes painted for Philippe Dubuc’s Paris show in 2003 made an impression and are now part of the Moët et Chandon collection. In 2011, he created digital works that will be projected on a giant screen during the Fashion and Opera show created in collaboration with the Opéra de Montréal on the main stage of the Festival Mode et Design. The show will be repeated in Los Angeles the same year for the event Le Québec à Hollywood. At the same time, he flies to London to offer a live performance as part of London Fashion Week. In 2013, he created a breathtaking setting for the Savoy room at the Metropolis in Montreal as part of the Francofolies de Montréal. He also participates in his illustrations to a music video of DJ Champion. Finally, he is invited by the prestigious Maison Givenchy to produce three monumental works, live, as part of the launch of a new collection of eye shadows in Paris.
Zïlon stands out especially by his talent as a performer. His live performances offer spectators an extraordinary experience by inviting them into the intimacy of his creation and it is not uncommon to see him complete with musical atmospheres of his own. True to its beginnings on the street, Zïlon wants his work to remain accessible to as many people as possible and the interactivity with the public is a growing concern. He is experimenting with new ways to get people to react and even to intervene in his work.
Multidisciplinary artist, marginal and unclassifiable, he leaves no one indifferent. His message is genuine, raw and hard. Expressing feelings on the skin and without shame, from revolt to rage to live, Zïlon touches. Popular in the noble sense of the word, without being easy, it escapes categorization. Zion’s works draw on the solitude and distress that each of us knows, but they also express the hope and the strong desire to be loved.
Zilon is an artist committed to his work, but also in his actions. He has created works for the benefit of several organizations that work, among others, with people living with HIV / AIDS and with children.
+ d’infos: https://espacezilon.wordpress.com/about/