On April 20, the bodies of two street artists from Toulouse were found dead in a tunnel near the Sutter Ave-Rutland Road station, in the Brooklyn district of New York. They are Pierre Audebert, 28, and Julien Blanc, 34. The latter was from the Pyrénées-Orientales.
“His dream was to do graffiti in the New York subway. But he was careful, especially since he was the father of two little boys”painfully tells an old friend of Julien Blanc, 34, who died on April 20, mowed down by a subway train in Brooklyn, with his friend Pierre Audebert, 28.
Julien Blanc, alias Jibeone, was settled in Toulouse with his family, but was originally from Perpignan. “We met in 2004, we were 15 or 16 years old. At first we saw each other for graffiti, and then it quickly became a pretext, because we became very good friends. We painted and we did the party. As we got older, with the children, we saw each other less, but at least always three or four times a year”details his friend.
At the age of 19, Julien Blanc left Perpignan to settle in Chambéry, then Toulouse, as part of his job. A year ago, he quit his job to devote himself entirely to his art: “And it was starting to work well, he lived from his passion, from what he sold. He was on the rise on the art market. He was respected and recognized in the industry”. Jibeone was in artist residency at La Pépinière in Toulouse. The two young men were in New York to meet gallery owners.
He was a golden friend
His friend also thinks of his children and the women in his life, his mother, his sister and his companion, for whom he was a pillar: “He was loving and dedicated, he dreamed of being able to shelter them through art. He worked a lot for that, did not count his hours”. To speak of him, he resumes: “He was a straight guy, honest, of absolute kindness. You could count on him, he was reliable, very sociable, kind to everyone. He made friends everywhere, everyone fell in love. He was interesting, always had something to say. He was a good person. He was a golden friend, that kind of person is rare.”.
Jibeone produced this fresco in Toulouges on the occasion of the Teenage Street Festival, last September.
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In the Pyrénées-Orientales, the artist had produced a fresco on the occasion of the Teenage Street festival last September, in the Clairfont park in Toulouges. Since the announcement of the death of the two artists, tributes have multiplied in the world of street-art, in shock.
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