French street artist Enzo is a busy guy. As a muralist and organizer, he’s always planning, painting, or traveling. And sometimes, he’s doing all three. Enzo recently took part in this year’s Bushwick Collective, an internationally recognized art event in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that invites artists from around the world to paint walls in the neighborhood. Enzo’s mural is a rumination on life and death, showcasing a dark skull with an orange and yellow glow as the two elements are fused with the portrait of a woman.
It’s Enzo’s second year painting for the Bushwick Collective, and this year he wanted to “reaffirm [his] presence” at the event. His mural is deeply personal to him and reflects, in part, the idea that light comes from the darkness. It’s something he experienced after his father died in 2018, and he had to take care of his mom and brother.
While his mural is personal, Enzo loves it when his art is interpreted by others. In 2025, the live painting in the neighborhood offered conversations with people about his work, and it led to one magic moment. A man stopped in front of Enzo’s piece as he was working on it. “Maaan that’s amazing, I understand the meaning behind that,” the person said. “I was dead twice in my life, enjoy life, enjoy life!!!” This was without Enzo explaining the meaning behind the mural, and the interaction exemplified why he’s a street artist.
Beyond painting, Enzo is also an organizer. In 2024, he planned the first annual Enz’Horgues Festival, a street art festival in Horgues, a small village in southwest France. Similar to Bushwick Collective, artists came together to paint blank walls. Enzo is now working on the second iteration of the festival happening in September 2025.
My Modern Met spoke with Enzo about his piece for Bushwick Collective, promoting the event, and what it’s like to be an artist painting a mural rather than being the organizer. Scroll down for our exclusive interview.
Your piece for The Bushwick Collective is electric. What was the inspiration for it?
Thank you. My piece for the Bushwick Collective is electric because I wanted to reaffirm my presence for my second time painting here. I needed to do a popping piece, really eye-catching. The inspiration is about life and death. This subject always interested me, and I wanted to go deeper into the subject about myself, showcasing more personal works.
Can you tell us the meaning behind it?
I love when my art is interpreted by the people, not by myself, but the meaning behind that is that everything is connected, from the beginning to the end. You can find the beautiful portrait of a woman, pure and sensitive, quiet, as what we’re all looking for in life, representing life, and the skull, darker, representing death. The opposition of both, linked by the light and dot lights, is about a quote that means a lot to me, that “light comes from the darkness.” It means that whatever can happen to you in life, you have to fight for that and you’ll shine more than ever. You can be broken into 1,000 pieces, but once you’re rebuilt, you’ll be stronger than ever.
My father passed in 2018, and we had a really hard time with my brother Hugo and my mom, and we came close to losing everything. I became the man of the family at 25, needing to fight for my family, making sure everybody is comfortable, painting, making money, but taking care of family affairs with lawyers, paying bills, selling our house, etc. Today, everything is fine, my career is growing, my brother is now a self-made jeweler, and we still take care of our mom. Through those hard times, we stuck together and we are stronger than ever.
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How did you go about planning this piece and executing it?
To plan this piece, I first thought about what I wanted to express, then sketched something until I was like, “Yes, I got it, my composition is good.” Tried to find some photos and remastering that, for my tones. Now it’s time to paint, so let’s buff paint the wall all black, and do my doodle grid. Once the grid is done, my sketch lines came over there, and it’s time to make the magic happen, let’s spray paint! All my colors are good, and I got my portrait, skull. I added acrylic orange/yellow paint with brushes for the background, creating gradients, the acrylic paint adds texture, and at some point, I added spray paint to make it glow.
What is it like to create art in a public setting where people can watch you work?
Creating art in a public setting where people can watch us at work is an amazing feeling. I love this vibe, especially in New York where the graffiti and street art come from. You can interact directly with the people crossing by; there’s no difference between them. One of the most beautiful things that happened on this mural is that a guy crossed by, he stopped in front of my piece, telling me, “Maaan that’s amazing, I understand the meaning behind that.” He pulled off his cap and showed me a big scar on top of his head. “I was dead twice in my life, enjoy life, enjoy life!!!” I didn’t tell him anything, and he understood my piece. He’s from the neighborhood, and when something like that happens, I remember why I’m doing street art, talking to the streets.
This is the second year you’ve been part of The Bushwick Collective. How has this year differed from the previous year?
Yes, it was my second year with The Bushwick Collective. The first year was the introduction, the second year is the confirmation! That’s why it had to be an amazing piece. Being part of this is awesome, surrounded by all these amazing people, all these talented artists. It’s like a big family coming from all around the world, we link up and all take care of each other. We have to push the limits. The Bushwick Collective is where we have to challenge ourselves. Like Joe (the founder of The Bushwick Collective, running it for 14 years now) says, whatever you have done, whatever you created, here are some of the best artists in the world. So you did another amazing piece, and “what’s next?” We always look forward.
One of the different things I did this year is that I went to Fox 5 studios for Good Night New York, representing The Bushwick Collective as an artist, with Joe and Ryan (representing volunteers). I’m really proud of that, and it means a lot to me. I also did the news on Fox 5 again, going live on Good Day New York with other artists like Golden from Miami and Shane Grammer from California. I was part of a pilot for an upcoming series about street art with UpMag, a New York-based street art magazine run by my close friend T.K. Mills. I love New York, this is so exciting!
Enz’Horgues Festival 2024
You’re the creator of Enz’Horgues Festival, a street art festival. How does it compare being an artist (and not involved with the planning) with The Bushwick Collective this year, to being the person in charge of the entire event, as you are with Enz’Horgues?
We are not on the same level as The Bushwick Collective, which is legendary in New York and around the world. It’s only our second edition, but I hope we will have many others. I’m glad I have people helping me as a council and all the staff of the organization, but we are previewing that like eight months before. So I can’t imagine Joe for The Bushwick Collective!
We have to plan all the organization, all the sponsors, preparing all the activities, raising money to make it happen, ordering all the paints, getting all the artists, painting all the places before artists arrived to have their blank wall ready, organizing the week for artists, bedrooms, food, motivating people to be involved, briefing the staff, doing the communication, marketing, etc.
I love both sides. Creating an event is always exciting and a lot of pressure; it’s different from creating a mural, and I can now understand how things are going behind the scenes for an event! I do it with the heart for the community and bringing my professional experience of painting and traveling to amazing places like The Collective in my South of France, so it’s all love. Also, I do it for my people here, especially the kids. They are the future, and I want to show them there are amazing artists in the world, and they have to discover that. I want to mainstream street art and give accessibility to it, so that people from my town discover our discipline, and my artist friends, photographers, and journalists all around the world discover my Pyrenees region. It’s a win-win. So trust me, it’s easier to be an artist and just paint!
What are you working on now? Anything exciting you can tell us about?
Right now, I’m working hard on the upcoming Enz’Horgues Festival. Artists have to be here September 10 – 17, and the festival will be from September 13 – 14! This year will be focused on the color orange.
We had 3,000 people last year, I think we’ll go for 5,000 visitors this year, so it’s huge for us. We have awesome artists coming this year like Shane Grammer, Ally Grim, Zach Curtis, Cova, and coming back like Madvaillan, V.K., and Calicho.
Also, I’m spending time at the studio, painting for a solo exhibition in London around November. I’ll be part of a group show in New York with Arty Goodness in the fall. I still have a lot with my murals and commissions and amazing projects, trying to be better and bigger, some upcoming collab with brands like Redbull, Audi, … and I’m still open to collabs and commissions. Can’t wait for the future, so what’s next?!
