I started this project in my teenage bedroom I was 12,

When I were 12, if you came to my room, there were skateboard posters on the wall withdrawings of women’s shoes and skateboard sneakers, In the French college we had artclasses for hours every Wednesday, and our professors let we expressed what we liked andI made a collage like an act of rebellion. I don’t have any art education, but I have a lot ofskate magazines in my head. It was an act of rebellion for me to do so. I got 20/20.As a troublesome child at school it gave me a silver lining.

Mixed medias, 2003 School project
29,7 x 42 cm (11,7 x 16,5 in)

Living in a small village, I explored foreign countries and the art world through the social network MySpace in my teenage bedroom; that was my mood board, my private workshop, and MySpace for my « NFT projects » at the time. I came up with ideas for digital projects ranging from shoes and clothing to designs. It was like playing a video game to me.

Profile picture avatar, 2000 Webcam autoportrait
320 x 240 px (3,3 x 2,5 in)

I was breaking my shoes fast every month, my family couldn’t afford new shoes every month, I started thinking about how to make it more durable, and visited a shoe maker in my city. In the meantime, at the skate park, they were a group of people making screen-printed t-shirts.

I know how to make shoes, so I make shoes for my friends, but even without knowing that what I was building this what I’ll call a brand when I’m an adult.

Destroyed skateshoe Size 42

My first creations weren’t really inspired by the fashion industry, they were meant to serve my friends for who they were and what could represent their life of freedom, attitude, melancholy and rebellion.

Portrait 2009 Photography by Thomas Erber
27 x 36 cm (10 x 14 in)

I had the opportunity to get help from a lot of great old souls who gave me advice and leather leftovers from big luxury houses. I had 2 samples in a factory and couldn’t make the sneakers again in France, so we reworked with them on how to make ‘French made’ sneakers again when it was probably the first time it was remade in the country in 2009.

Soulier de sport, made in france 2009
Feathers and leather leftovers sample
Size 42

2009 : I got an appointment with a showroom in Paris and when I got there I realized it was actually the dad of a kid I just met at a skate park and the showroom owner told me
you’re as young as my son! Well, you can stay in the showroom for free and try to catch the eye of some shops, Joyce, Maria Luisa, Colette, Luisa Via Roma…10 Corso Como were my 1st place where to find my creations.

Soulier, made in france 2009
Feathers and leather leftovers sample
Size 36

2009 : Officially landed in Paris with some of mentors in my heart, it was probably Hedi Slimane or a rock band

Portrait, 2009
Photography by Quentin Cherrier
24 x 36 cm (9,5 x 14 in)

I started photographing every possible skate track at Palais de Tokyo and my friends there, a series called ‘Young Users 2000’, a collection of skateboard wheel track clichés shot in front of Palais de Tokyo, an art center in Paris over a more than 6 year. Ever since I started this kind of journaling in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul, I’ve been on a topic about melancholy: the sheer excitement and dramatic tenacity of being a Gen Y and a Gen Z.

Eugène Riconneaus skateboarder tracks 3, 2015
Photography (01/05 +1 ap)
50 x 70 (19 x 15,7 inches)
©Private collection

Started a simple exercise, stopped to use the pencil brush, then replaced it with my skateboard wheel to paint on the canvas. Recently, a French auction house wanted to use the skateboard for a street art auction. I said no, I can’t think about selling pencils (and I’m not a street artist).

Eugène Riconneaus pencil brush, 2014
©Private collection (workshop)