Quick hello Monsieur Collage, can you tell a bit about yourself?
My name is Joseph, aka Monsieur Collage; I am 30 and Parisian since I was born. I consider myself a simple person who expresses his emotions through paper collages. I have always loved visual art – As a child, I was passionate about TV ads and later I drew my favorite manga characters. Then when I was 20, I started taking pictures. Not knowing how to use Photoshop, I started paper collaging, and I fell in love with this art. Being able to touch, tear, cut, and assemble the material by letting your imagination do it to create something unique is incredible.
What are you doing/working on at this moment?
I cut and paste almost every day on different subjects. I often have magazines and my scalpel with me. I also participate in the challenges of different collectives (which I respect a lot through their work and the fact of gathering so many people around the collage). Recently, I was able to collaborate with The Free Press to illustrate one of their articles with two of my collages, an honor for me.
What inspires you the most at this moment?
Society in general is my inspiration: Culture, music, politics, climate change… Entertainment, gay culture, the beauty of women and men, the way the world turns… Emotions too: sadness, joy, love, and self-fulfillment… all these things that each of us feels.
What’s your favorite personal work at this moment?
I don’t have any favorite works, because I love them all. I like experiencing different techniques and different styles. In fact, if I had to highlight one of my collages, it would be “Temporarily closed for technical maintenance”, because at that moment I understood that paper collage, combined with other techniques, offered thousands of opportunities to express oneself.
Any future plans/happenings you want to share?
My plans to come? Lots of things I hope so! Life will tell me.
Go and follow Monsieur Collage on Instagram, @monsieur.collage
