-"I must return to my art studio,I have a vernissage in Second Life"
About what studio does he speaks ? Is it about his old beautiful house in Nice or his virtual factory ?
Is he becoming crazy, since he bought an island made of pixels for 1600 real dollars and 300 dollars monthly charges?
If his interlocutor doesn't understand, Patrick Moya does, who juggles from one universe to another, from RL (Real Life) to SL (Second Life), in the same way that he has always played with different media, from brushes to computer, from pseudo-naive paintings filled with animals to 3D movies or giant steel sculptures.

by Florence CANARELLI

(this article has been published in ART COTE D'AZUR magazin, may 2008)

Awaked at dawn, before drinking his coffee, Patrick Moya turns on his computer to increase the radar which gives the names of all avatars spent on his island during the night, direct from Japan, Denmark or USA.
Eating his breakfast above the keyboard, ignoring crumbs falling inside, for fear of missing a few minutes of his "second life", his double moya janus is going to say hello to some students of Fine Arts in Venice, which prepares the (true!) Biennale of Architecture in the virtual workshop that he had installed on the south-east shore.
As he must sell a few paintings under pressure from his gallerist, he goes upstairs, into his studio of the first floor in RL, to start some work of commande.
During the time that the painting is drying, he return down stairs, to visit  in SL a new place of exhibition, for example, the Island of "Doctor Muglerstein" designed by Thierry Mugler, who has proposed to Moya a (virtual) artist's residence.

The lunch hours are the only moments devoted to his private life, whereupon he returns in Second Life, and, depending on the mood of the moment, he decide to build a new Moya Museum, a Moya Hospital, or a Moya Shop. When he didn't dig a dizzying abyss in the cliff of the Old Moya Town, to impress the visitors.

Then, under the stroke of inspiration, he goes back in his studio, trying to make the pictorial representation of his avatar, or to add his painted animals on a digital image coming from Second Life… 
 

After the ritual 4 hours pm coffee (real this one), he come back in his second life to create some new virtual sculptures.

Playing with the specific  "scripts" of SL - by which we can give attributes of flexibility or rotation to forms chosen - he continues his work of the RL : declining the 4 letters of his name, M-O-Y-A, or his fetish themes like wings, masks and self-portraits.

When the night comes, Moya is preparing to "go to eat at his mother's home", the only opportunity for him to watch a bit TV and learn something about the real world - before returning quickly to participate in the intense night life of SL.
 

Sometimes, Moya lets his avatar dancing in a "rave" of SL, and go back in RL to finish a giant 4 meters long canvas for a "Dolly Party", while listening to streaming music of a DJ in live from Zurich.

And before shutting down the computer, he returns on his island to meet visitors and offers them a guided tour by car… Even if he does not have his driving licence in RL !

At two o'clock in the morning, Moya goes up stairs for the last time … to go to bed, leaving with regret his exciting second life.

To continue the illusion of a new world to visit, Patrick Moya wrote a Tourist Guide of his island, which tells in details the history of the establishment of Moya in Second Life.
He explains, for example, the construction of the old village of Moya overlooking the sea, with, on the top, the Moya Chapel (a copy of  the Saint John the Baptist Chapel painted by Moya in Clans, a little village near Nice) or the Moya Club, which hosts the famous evenings techno "Dolly Party" whose Moya drew the mascot.
In addition to many Moya museums, the Guide also lists  the "Biennale di Moya" (inspired from the real Biennale of Venice), or the various Moya shops, where nothing is for sale but are used to exhibit works made by Moya on the themes of fashion, optical, lingerie or wines. The same is true for the Moya Hospital or the Moya pharmacy. To enter the Moya Land, you dont need visa or identity papers, but you could make a "Moya Tour" by car in the presence of the artist.
The Moya island : a dream state !

The guide of the island Moya is available on the Internet at this address http://www.moyacircus.com/sltourisme.htm