Points de Vue - Artistic residencies and street art festival

Points de Vue – International Public Art Festival / Bayonne – Basque Country (France)2025 Edition – A Time of TransitionEach autumn since 2017, the city of Bayonne, in the heart of the French Basque Country, has become a living stage for dialogue between contemporary artists and urban space. Points de Vue is an international public art festival that invites artists from around the world to create site-specific works: large-scale murals, installations, stencils, collages, performances… All produced in close connection with the city, its people, and its heritage.Rooted locally, open to the worldWhat makes Points de Vue unique is its ability to bridge the global and the local. Organized with the support of the Basque Country Urban Community, the festival is grounded in territorial engagement, closely tied to the social, cultural, and urban realities of the region. Each project is developed through local research, dialogue with residents, and mediation work that ensures a lasting impact in the urban landscape and collective memory.2025: a turning point editionThe 2025 edition marks a shift in the festival’s history. Conceived as a transition year, it opens a new phase of reflection on how artists inhabit public space. The aim is to allow more room for long-term research, experimentation, and meaningful artistic presence.This year, the festival is part of a major cultural event in Bayonne: • The reopening of the Bonnat-Helleu Museum, one of the most prestigious fine arts museums in France, renowned for its exceptional collection of Old Master drawings and European works (Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci…).Where heritage meets contemporary creationThe 2025 programme includes: • Artistic interventions in public space, echoing the museum’s collections and aesthetic legacies (Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Modernism). • Artist residencies in several towns across the Basque Country, rooted in the landscapes and stories of the region. • Restoration of existing urban artworks, raising questions about living heritage and urban memory. • A monumental immersive installation as the festival’s central hub — a gathering place, information point, and public venue for a roundtable on the theme: “An Open-Air Museum?” • An ambitious mediation programme, involving residents, school groups, and visitors in discussions on preservation and transmission in public art.Committed to legacy, transmission, and transformationPoints de Vue is more than an event — it is a collective act of looking. It examines the life of public artworks, their impact on urban identity, and their power to foster imagination. It questions what remains: in memory, in the digital archive, in the cityscape.Since its creation, the festival has welcomed over 90 international artists, produced nearly 80 public artworks, and built a loyal, diverse audience. With the 2025 edition, Points de Vue embraces a renewed artistic approach — more attentive, more contextual, and deeply engaged.