Sixty Years of Parisian Street Art Celebrated
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

Paris: “Capitale(s) 60 Ans D’Art Urbaine À Paris” is the title of a street art exhibition at the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) which celebrates art works and urban graffiti as a viable part of the history of the city. While some may find these works collectively a blight on the urban cityscape, others enjoy the creative works as an art form that embellishes the city environment in an ever-changing exhibit of works to be discovered.

The exhibition presents the history and evolution of urban street art and artists including many examples of their works. One prolific artist who goes by the moniker of “Invader” has permanently installed over 1,475 pixelated tile mosaics on buildings in Paris alone. On an enlarged map of Paris each of Invader’s works is depicted with a small image denoting its location. The artist also created a massive catalo index listing each piece. To date it is estimated that Invader has installed a grand total of 4,000 works around the world.

Starting out as “gorilla artists” in years past, many of the artists have gained fame and fortune resulting in their work being highly collectible and, in some cases, desirable by property owners to have them embellish their buildings. A Banksy stencil painting on a building for example can be worth many millions of dollars and in not more than one instance walls have been removed from facades to be sold to wealthy collectors.

While the artists seek out blank canvases in need of embellishment the works themselves range from spray painted, stencil art, stickers, large photo reproductions, bas-relief sculptures, murals, paintings and those created with permanent marking pens among many of the styles presented.

The subjects of the works themselves run the full range of personal expression as well as political and social comments on conditions and the times in which they are created. The styles and quality of the works naturally range a wide gambit of artistic abilities from those excellently executed to those of lesser skill and quality. What sets the Parisian artists apart from many such undertakings elsewhere is the use of the permanent application of works including that of mosaics.

The artist Pavement Surgeon specializes in creating custom-shaped mosaics to fill voids and dangerous transitions in sidewalk surfaces that appear to be an underlayment from a previous civilization, not unlike a partially exposed Roman mosaic that appears under a sidewalk or floor at an ancient excavations site.

The once outlawed defacing of both public and private property has taken on a new legitimacy that lies in the Dada Art movement’s anti-art tradition in seeking audiences outside of the art establishment’s confinement of museums and galleries only to have now come full circle of being collectible and exhibited.

Due to its popularity, the exhibit that was scheduled to close soon has been extended and, judging by the number of enthused youths in attendance, its biggest impact may be an inspiration for an entire generation to pick up spray paint cans, markers and other supplies to leave their own stamp on the city…

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs  and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)