Paris is not only museums, palaces, narrow streets, romantic cafes, but also hundreds of thousands of graffiti that flood the city. Street art appeared on the outskirts of Paris at the end of the twentieth century and gradually filled the entire city – huge murals are found on the ends of high-rise buildings on the outskirts and in the center, small graffiti has been decorating the facades of houses in the very heart of the city for decades, hundreds of frescoes by unknown artists stand side by side with works by world-famous artists. street art stars. In this abundance it is easy to get confused, lost and not see the main thing. We’ll tell you about 9 places where you can see the best street art in Paris.
1. Frescoes of the Itinerance gallery in the 13th district
Photo: itinerrance.fr
Itinerance Gallery is one of the main street art galleries in Paris. Since 2004, she has been promoting street art, supporting young artists and collaborating with the best street artists from around the world, who are invited to decorate large areas with murals in various locations in Paris. The gallery’s most famous project is Street Art 13, during which in 2009 the gallery invited 25 artists from 13 countries to decorate the ends of multi-story buildings in the 13th district with huge murals. Artists participating in the project include Conor Harrington, D* Face and Shepard Fairey. The result was 32 works, which art critics have repeatedly called “an open-air graffiti museum” and one of the best graffiti in France.
Most of the frescoes are located near the Nationale metro station, on Boulevard Vincent Auriol. The addresses of all 32 works, photographs and plans are on the gallery website.
Interesting excursions from local residents in Paris
2. Museum of street art and post-graffiti Art 42 in the 17th district
Art 42 is France’s first street art museum, which opened in the 17th arrondissement of Paris in 2016. The museum does not have its own premises; its collection is housed in the halls, corridors and walls of the innovative computer science school founded by billionaire Xavier Niel. The museum’s exhibition is based on works from the collection of artist Nicolas Lasserre.
The street art exhibition occupies 4000 m², which houses 150 works by 42 artists, including such celebrities as Obey, Space Invader, Futura 2000, Bansky, JR, Bault.
Museum address: 96 boulevard Bessières. It is free and open to the public on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Visitors are asked to select a time for their visit and register on the museum website in advance.
3. Hundreds of Space Invader works in all areas of Paris
Photo: @mafioo/Instagram.com
Space Invader is one of the most famous street art artists in Europe and the world; his mosaic drawings dedicated to the game Space Invaders can be found in many countries – from Tokyo to New York and Melbourne. Even the International Space Station has a mosaic of it.
Invader’s homeland is France, his works can be found in 32 cities, and most of them are in Paris. The first Invader mosaics appeared in the city in 1996, and now there are already 1340 of them. The mosaics feature Invaders and geek/pop culture heroes: Mario, Pink Panther, Dr. House, Spider-Man, Princess Leia, etc.
Most of the artist’s works are concentrated in the 11th district. And for those who want to know the location and find all 1340 of the artist’s mosaics and take part in the quest, we recommend installing the Flash Invaders application.
4. Street Art Avenue project in the 19th district of Paris
Photo: urbanadventures.com
Street Art Avenue is a project of the City Hall of Paris, timed to coincide with the Euro 2016 in the city, within the framework of which 37 artists were allocated several thousand square meters of buildings, bridges and walls on both banks of the Saint-Denis Canal for graffiti, mosaics, frescoes and collages, on the stretch from Stade de France to La Villette. Unavida Familia, Alexandra Arango, Rébus & Bastos, Marco 93, Guate Mao.
5. Oberkampf and Ménilmontant are centers of street art in the east of Paris
Photo: ©Helene-Laxenaire/lemur.fr
East of Paris is one of the cradles of French street art. It is everywhere here – on bridges, roofs and walls of houses. In addition to thousands of graffiti by unknown authors, there are real masterpieces here: graffiti of the Art Azoi and Le M.U.R.
associations
Le M.U.R. They call their frescoes “ephemeral” and several times a year they invite different artists to make their works in the studio and paste their works on a 3 by 8 meter wall at 107 rue Oberkampf, which a month later will be covered with the works of other artists.
The Art Azoi association owns 3 walls (Square Karcher, Pavillon Carré de Baudouin and on the corner of Rue de Bagnolet). Every few months they are given to three different artists to paint them, always working in different styles.
6. Wall Rosa Parks, the largest street art in Paris
Photo: Richard Nahem/ipreferparis.net
The Rosa Parks wall, 500 meters of which was painted by 5 artists from different countries, is the largest street art in Paris. The wall was built in 2015, when a new station of the Rer E high-speed metro line opened in this area of the city and was given to the GFR collective for painting, which invited artists (Kashink from Paris, Bastardilla from Bogota, Katjastroph from Berlin, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh from New York and Zepha from Toulouse) to paint a wall together. Graffiti is made in a variety of styles, colors and techniques. Also next to the Rosa Parks wall, near the Riquet bridge there is an excellent street art gallery Galerie à Ciel Ouvert R’style, where young French artists exhibit.
7. Street art on the banks of the Ourcq Canal (canal de l’Ourcq) in the east of Paris
Photo: urbanadventures.com
The Ourcq Canal is one of the main centers of street art in Paris. The first graffiti appeared here more than 30 years ago, since then thousands of murals have been painted on the banks of the canal and bridges, boats and telephone booths. Residential and abandoned buildings were painted from foundation to roof, and monumental frescoes appeared on the facades of high-rise buildings.
Every few years, street art festivals are held here, thanks to which more and more interesting graffiti appears on the banks of the canal. The street art zone starts next to the Grand Marché Stalingrad market, lasts almost 10 kilometers and ends at the border of Paris in Aulnay-sous-bois. The best way to view street art is to walk, ride a bicycle along the canal bank, or sail on the boat that sails along the canal in the summer. If you don’t have time to explore the entire street art area, then visit the streets quai de Loire, rue Polemarch, quai de Valmy and 1 rue de l’Ancien canal – the best graffiti is concentrated there.
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Preview photo: © JeanneMenjoulet&Cie
