Luggage Nice. 2025

This painting presents an unusual reinterpretation of the famous David statue from Nice’s Promenade du Paillon park.
One of his arms is weighed down by a bizarre chain of lockboxes for apartment keys, which now flood tourist-heavy Nice — a symbol of the frenzy surrounding expensive short-term rentals.
His other hand grips the handle of a rolling suitcase — another inescapable emblem of the city, where tourists come and go in a constant, unending stream.

In the background stands the iconic Tête Carrée building, its name subtly encrypted in a ribbon woven through the composition.
In this fantastical interpretation, the structure appears to be made of countless pages from books, symbolizing accumulated knowledge, memories, or even information overload.
The colors and textures create an effect of shifting reality, where the boundaries between past and present, between art and tourism, begin to blur.

This work is a reflection on mass tourism and its impact on the identity of a city — on how culture is perceived and how travel is understood.
Here, David is not a hero or warrior, but a collective image of the modern tourist: endlessly seeking experiences, yet often only skimming the surface of a place’s true depth.