After The Race

     

There has always been a strong relationship between art and motorsport. Many artists in the past have been inspired by the visceral attack on the senses that a proper motor race can be. Their work has generally taken the form of oil paintings on canvas or drawings on paper. But what if you wanted more? 

To answer this question, Jean-Denis Claessens and Edmond ‘Pogo’ Thonnard created the project ‘After the Race’: a vast collection of car bonnets, doors and other car parts decorated with legendary motorsport liveries and looking like they just finished a gruelling 24 hours at Le Mans. 

Motul: The collection is a vast archive full of memories of legendary race cars straight from the history books. They almost look like the real thing. How did you come up with this idea? 

Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve been going to the track to watch races and have been extremely fascinated by race cars. A few years ago, a friend of mine who runs a workshop for classic Porsches took me to a body shop to get some parts. The body shop was filled with old car parts, and in the corner I spotted an old race car hood with faded paint and peeling stickers. I was fascinated, and suddenly the idea for this project came to me. 

 

A lot of legendary, winning race cars are preserved with their race dirt, never to be washed again. What attracts people to these cars, and why do you recreate it? 

I don’t like clean cars. I’m fascinated by the design of a car and especially by race liveries, but I like it better when they are dirty and dented after a long endurance race. It’s the sort of patina you never see anywhere else. It’s totally unlike the patina of a classic car found in a barn gathering dust and cracking its paint. The patina of a racer is created at speed, picking up rubber, exhaust fumes, oil, dirt or sometimes even paint from other cars—a big difference. That’s why in our projects we actually use real oil, rubber and dirt to recreate the wear and tear. It’s not just painted on. 

There is a lot of skill that goes into making these. Do you have any classical art training or experience with more traditional art projects? 

No, not really. I’m a graphic designer and have been doing creative work all my life, but I didn’t have any real experience in painting before this. My partner in ATR, Edmond ‘Pogo’ Thonnard, who I’ve known for more than 25 years, is a street artist. He taught me how to paint and how to use a spray can. Now we’re working on this project together.