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Matériaux trouvés dans les rues vietnamiennes

Pfägen, art brut and Rock & Roll

portrait de l'artiste Emeric Tonri en noir et blanc qui montre des supports récupérés pour ses oeuvres
Materials found in the Vietnamese streets

Pfägen is the artistic pseudonym of Emeric Tonri. As a child, he was interested in comics, drawing and painting. As an adult, he discovered the pleasure of being a musician and participated as a guitarist in various “Rock” and “Noisy pop” bands. 

In the 2000s, he devoted himself to writing songs. They will lead him to the Printemps de Bourges and the Rencontres d’Astaffort initiated by Francis Cabrel. It is at this time that he released a self-produced CD.  

Even during this intense musical period, Pfägen never stopped drawing and painting.  Ten years ago, he sold everything he had in France to go live in Vietnam, where he intensified his activity as a plastic artist.

A self-taught career

Pfägen’s entire creative career, whether as a musician, lyricist or visual artist, has been self-taught with a raw and Rock&Roll style that is always claimed. As a visual artist, Pfägen likes to mix references to music, cinema, literature, comics and art brut.  

Pfägen searches the Vietnamese streets for salvaged materials that inspire him. A shape, a simple hole, a break, a wear… are the trigger for his creations. This is how a beautiful series of characters made with Tipex on recycled elements was born. The rendering is raw, but with a certain tenderness in the facial features of the characters that we can guess are tired and shaken by life. Pfägen paints mostly in black and white but sometimes adds a few touches of color.

A Rock comic book, unidentified artistic object

In addition to his creations on recycled materials, Pfägen draws a lot with a raging, energetic and ultra colorful line. Recently, he has undertaken a “BD Rock”. This UFO “unidentified visual object” consists of 80 plates, 10 of which are about the “adventures of Batlar”. Batlar is a super-hero who goes to Lartika, a planet outside our solar system.

There he had many adventures that echoed the artistic world of Emeric Tonri.Pfägen’s beautiful creations can be seen at the important Galerie 55 Bellechasse in Paris. With the latter, Pfägen’s creations have been exhibited in Miami and in Basel during Art Basel. 

If you are interested by his artworks, you can contact us : here 

Click on the boards to discover the hidden references ! 

The editorial team

The editorial team

Pleasure and emotion of artistic discoveries