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

When I was 12, if you had come into my room, you would have seen posters of skaboarders on the wall, along with drawings of women's shoes and skateboarders' sneakers. In the French college we had artclasses for hours every Wednesday, and our professors let us express what we liked. I made a collage as an act of rebellion. I didn’t have any art education, but I had a lot of skate magazines in my head. 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 quickly every month, my family couldn’t afford new shoes so often, so 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, there was a group of people making screen-printed t-shirts.

I learnt how to make shoes, so I started to make shoes for my friends, without knowing that what I was building was what as an adult I now call a brand.

Destroyed skateshoe Size 42

My first creations weren’t really inspired by the fashion industry, they were meant to serve my friends and to represent their life of freedom, strength, 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 managed to get a factory in France to build 2 samples, but I couldn't find any French factory able to produce them at scale. Unfortunately no factory here was equipped to produce sneakers anymore, because the whole production had moved to countries specialised in low-cost manufacturing. I had to work with the factories on how to make 'French made' sneakers again. In this way, in 2009, for the first time sneakers were made again in France.

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

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

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

In 2009 I also officially landed in Paris with some 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 years period. Ever since I started this kind of journaling in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul, I’ve been working on 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

Starting as simple exercise, I stopped using the pencil brush, and 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)