You might have already seen Sumo’s designs or transforming a Porsche into a work of art. But now the Luxembourg-based urban artist has a new way for people to experience his artwork: through chocolate.
, together with Chocolats du Coeur and with the support of the Josy Welter House, has launched a pop-up store that combines the colourful universe of the artist with the sweets produced by the Tricentenaire’s social inclusion chocolate workshop. Josy’s opened in the Ville-Haute on Saturday 1 June, and to celebrate the launch Sumo sat down with Delano to talk about the collaboration and what makes it special.
New ways to experience art
“I’m always looking for new ways to experience my art,” he explained during an interview in the brightly coloured store on Rue Genistre. Stepping into the store is a bit like stepping into cross between a miniature version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and an art gallery: several framed prints and paintings by Sumo hang on the walls, while shelves of vivid, eye-catching chocolates sit on the shelves underneath the artworks. A large square canvas featuring Sumo’s Crazy Baldhead character as a glasses-wearing green-haired Oompa-Loompa--a creature who works for Willy Wonka--hangs on the right wall.
“It’s for all the senses. You come in, I want you to smell the chocolate, I want you to see the art. You can see the chocolate, which is also colourful, then you can taste it. So it’s a mix of all the senses. It’s more than I can do with just a painting.”
Chocolates that complement the artwork
So how did things get started?
“I contacted Chocolats du Coeur, because they have this big chocolate workshop--the Tricentenaire--which is in Bissen, in the north of the country. They work with people with a disability, and they have this really big chocolate workshop and they have their own printing facilities, so they can also make custom packaging and wrappings. And so I suggested: how about we collaborate together?”
The chocolates are specially designed with Sumo’s art in mind. The first products are round, colourful chocolates with a crunchy hazelnut core, available in every colour of the rainbow. “They’re like the bubbles in my paintings, and the colours are also inspired by the colours I use in my paintings.”
Josy’s also offers chocolate bars--white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate with strawberry--with these colourful chocolate “marbles” embedded in the bar, chocolate “pizzas,” complete with a hammer to break up them up into smaller pieces, as well as boxes of more classic pralines wrapped in paper decorated with bold, patterned bubbles.
The packaging of the products are all inspired by Sumo’s artwork. But prints--which are tailored to fit perfectly in the chocolate boxes--can also be purchased in the shop. “So you have something to eat and something to keep.”
“I wanted to create some things especially for the shop,” Sumo explained. The Oompa Loompa painting was one of them, “and the idea is also to make a little more merchandising that you can buy here. Like, you know, a nice mug filled with chocolate, for example.”
Taking pleasure and enjoying the moment
Besides finding ways for people to experience his art in a different way, the collaboration represented a new challenge for Sumo. “I thought it would be nice to have something, an alternative to what you’re getting in Luxembourg. Because you get amazing chocolate in Luxembourg, but everyone has kind of the same look. It’s very minimalist, it’s very chic, it’s all very high-level. But it all kind of looks the same.”
“I want something high-end, but fun. Something that you can give, as a present to someone abroad, or if someone visits Luxembourg and wants to bring something back home. You know, this is not something you find everywhere,” the artist explained. “I don’t want to be competition to the others necessarily, but I want [to do] something different. I want to make it special in my way.”
“I like to make people feel good, I like to make myself feel good with my art, but it’s all about pleasure. My work is very much about celebrating life and freedom, so this goes hand-in-hand. It’s enjoying life, it’s enjoying the moment, it’s enjoying the company and sharing it with people, it’s the pleasure of giving, having it nicely presented at the dinner table at the end of the meal, you know, to have that wow-effect.”
Quality chocolate made in Luxembourg
The chocolates are made in Luxembourg with high-quality, Fairtrade, organic ingredients by people working in the Tricentenaire’s “atelier protégé,” which boosts social inclusion. Everybody is motivated and passionate, Sumo told Delano, and it’s a pleasure to work with them because of their craftsmanship.
“In the inclusion workshops, there are around 60 people with disabilities, plus a dozen supervisors. In the chocolate factory, there are 22 people with disabilities and five chocolatiers,” explained , director at the Tricentenaire. What’s more is that the whole project is supported by the Josy Welter House (and it’s from where the pop-up store draws its name: Josy’s). “The owners of the premises [the Welter family] really wanted to help us, and it’s them who put us in contact,” said Lesuisse. Besides the new pop-up chocolate store, they also support other social projects, such as the Caritas store next door.
“It's truly the art and the quality of chocolate--and behind it there is a social project,” said Lesuisse. “But what we highlight is the art and quality of the artisans. The fact that they are people with disabilities is really secondary. That’s not what we want to highlight. They are proud to do this work."
Long-term goals
For now, the pop-up shop will be open for one year. Plans are already in place to produce ice cream for the summer, and beyond the chocolate “marbles,” Sumo and Chocolats du Coeur are also working on creating flat ganaches that would serve as mini-canvases for art and allow for new flavours to be added to the collection.
“The plan is to do a long-term project,” concluded Sumo. “It’s very exciting. People who have tried it so far are super excited and my kids are going crazy as well… I hope that a lot more people are going to have the same reaction.”
Josy’s Chocolats du Coeur x Sumo is now open on 10 Rue Genistre in Luxembourg’s Ville-Haute, Tuesdays to Fridays 11:30-18:00 and Saturdays 10:00-18:00. Find out more .