Street art in Paris

The introduction

Hello people, I hope, that you are all doing just fine!

In this article I want to tell you about my experience in Paris and the things we did there. I mean, I’ve always liked France and I can’t say, that I’ve always wanted to visit it though, because my dream was to visit London and since I have already fulfilled that wish, now it was time for Paris, if you want to know the truth. However, we were not there on our own, I mean, we went there from our college as we had some project week just like we did in Milan. However, this time it was another assignment, it was about the street art in Paris and discovering and exploring the pieces of art there and then we had to design a street art of our own, you know. It was a big challenge for us, well, at least, it was a big challenge for me, personally, because I kind of had some things done as a street artist.

Well, I’m not saying, that I have something great created or that I can draw some street art or that I know many things about it. However, my sister had this thing about the street art and she did pretty good job in it and she made some street art and we even went and made one of her street arts on the wall in our town in Georgia and it was pretty good, if you ask me, because if we judge it by everything, it was good. I mean, we were just kids and not professionals or anything and it was my sister’s first street art on some wall and, besides, it was really dark there and there were people walking around and we were kind of scared, as, you know, it’s not that legal to do that stuff. Of course, if it’s your wall or your house or whatever, you can do whatever you want. However, I must say, that this one was not ours and, it was not really anyone’s property, to tell you the truth. However, it was still not ours and we could have been in a big trouble for that, I guess.

Anyways, what I want to tell you is, that I knew some things about street art and it was not something just a street art for me.

Street art in Paris

Well, the street art in Paris is pretty interesting and the most of them are in the 13-th district, where people come from all over the world just to make their graffitis there. There’s even a gallery in the industrial part of the city, where the graffitis are exhibited. You know, the main topics for the graffiti artists in Paris is the environment and the environmental issues, and I’m really glad that it’s not something not worth making graffiti.

Well, we went throughout the city to see some great street art there. You know, there’s this film called “Banlieue 13” or “District 13” and it’s a film of my childhood. I can say, I mean we watched it again and again when we were kids and we knew the text and everything by heart, I guess, and we loved watching it so much, that we even had it on a cassette and so that we could watch it whenever we wanted and that was a dream come true for us then, you know. It was our favourite film, I guess, or it was one of our favourite films, I can say. You know, when you think, that it was filmed in 2004, you kind of feel how many years have passed since then and you feel yourself pretty old, of course, and it’s kind of strange, because I don’t really feel, that so many years have passed after that. However, that’s true and I can’t do anything about it. I mean, you can’t stop the time or even slow it a little bit, so that the time passes and you become older and older every second and it’s pretty strange, if you ask me. And there’s when the art comes in! I mean, those pieces of art stay just the same and that’s like a moment frozen or something like that and we grow old, but the pieces of art stays forever. We disappear and the art stays just the same.

So, I have never been to Paris, so that it’s clear, that I don’t know the streets and things like that and I can’t really tell you where exactly we saw those pieces of art on the walls and on the buildings. However, there was this name “Boulevard Massena”, which I remember, as we were there, too, and we saw some street art there and they were just really wonderful. I mean, there were these huge buildings and the street art was all from the bottom to the top of them and it was really amazing to look at them.

Well, we were walking into the streets of Paris looking for some street art and, to be honest, you didn’t really need to search for them, as they were created to be seen even from the further away. I mean, as I’ve already told you, there were huge street arts everywhere on those buildings and everything and it was seen from down below very well and you could just be amazed looking at them and enjoy the view. Well, of course, there are people, who don’t like street art and they think, that it’s a vandalism and things like that.

Well, it all depends on the art and how it is createdand what it is and everything. I mean, when there’s this stupid sign somewhere on the wall, it’s a vandalism, because it doesn’t really represent anything, if you ask me. however, if there’s a piece of art, I mean, some picture or saying or something like that, it’s not vandalism, it’s art and it shouldn’t be erased or something like that, if you ask me.

To be honest, we mostly saw these street art paintings, which were visible to everyone. I mean, those are legally done mostly and they are not overpainted or something like that, you know. Those kinds of things are on the buildings in Tbilisi, too, they are made for different companies, such as Caucasus Online, that is an Internet provider and they had these advertisements made and they hired some people to paint those things on the wallsof some buildings all around the city and they are pretty cool, I must say. I really like them and, besides, they are not the same, I mean, every painting on those buildings is different from each other and that’s what makes them unique and interesting.

Although, we also saw some of that real street art in the streets of Paris and by that I mean, that we saw those pieces of art created illegally, I guess, because that’s mainly what street art is about. And they were in some hidden places, mostly, because when creating them, they need some time and that time is like a century when you paint something and you don’t want someone to see you doing it, you know. I know that feeling, because as I’ve already written, I have been a participant in something like that, though it was not a big deal, but we still were afraid that someone would see us in action and would get us in trouble or something like that. And I had seen some movies about street art and doing it and how people could get into jail for that and as I was really little at that time, I thought, that I could go to jail if someone saw us making graffiti there on that wall.

You know, there are so many places in those large cities, where you can find really great graffiti and there are some great graffiti artists all around the world and every city has its own graffiti artists, which are well known and everything and some of them just creates graffiti for fun and some of them have these cultural graffiti and some protest some things and some makes graffiti about their political stuff and things like that and every graffiti artist have their own style and way of making graffiti. So that it’s very easy to look at the graffiti and guess, which graffiti artist made it, when you know those styles of those particular graffiti artists and you see that graffiti on the walls somewhere in any place around the city and things like that, you know. And well, mostly they have their signature and they leave that signature along with their graffiti art, of course.

I have seen many graffiti art so far and I have seen it in Tbilisi and in Basel and in Prague and in Milan and in Berlin and in Paris and in Freiburg and in Sagarejo and in London and in Sheffield and. Well, they are all different, of course and they are very strange, too, I mean, there are many graffitis, which are just beautiful. However, some of them are strange, because they represent some things and ideas and protest and if you are not familiar with the problems in that city or country, you won’t understand what that graffiti artist wanted to say by that graffiti art. And I don’t agree with that thought, that graffiti art is not art and it should not be on the walls or anywhere else and that they should be removed at once and everything. The real graffiti art is an art form and people should understand that and not fight against it, because the more you fight against it, the more graffiti artists will “be born” and the more graffiti art will appear on the walls, because that’s how people work and that’s how it is, when you try to ban something. And while doing that and thinking, that if you forbid something, people will actually listen to you and not do it anymore, you are very wrong, because that way you just provoke that thing and the more you ban, the more there will appear. It’s like an echo, if you ask me.

Well, I always enjoyed looking at graffiti art and I was really glad, when I encountered some great graffitis in Tbilisi, because back in those days, it was really rare to see some beautiful and great graffiti art in Tbilisi and there were some places, where you could see some of them. However, there were not much places like that, you know. And if there were some “graffiti”, you wouldn’t call them graffiti, because they were just some stupid so called signatures or names of children or people and the very popular thing was to write “I love you” in Georgian in every corner and every wall with those spray paints and that’s how boys would refer to girls, who they liked or loved. There were these words like “I’m sorry” and some other swear words, too, of course. And that was what you would find mostly on the walls instead of those wonderful graffiti art and I was very glad to see some of those graffiti art appearing on those walls along with those stupid words written on the walls, you know, because it felt like people were becoming wiser and graffiti was becoming more and more popular. Then they started making graffiti, which had some other meaning, than just being beautiful, and that was pretty cool, too, of course.

Anyways, graffiti art in Paris is much more developed, than that one in Tbilisi, of course, however, there are some great graffiti artists in Georgia, too. It’s just that, they don’t have that kind of spray paint or things like that, which are strong and of good-quality as they have in France or other countries, but they do just fine and create some great stuff, if you ask me.

However, being in Paris and looking at all those graffiti art pieces and finding even more is like a heaven for graffiti artists or people interested in graffiti art and as one of them, I was really shocked about all those huge graffiti paintings and seeing them not on pictures or Internet, but in real and in live and “in person” was just an amazing feeling for me and I was very satisfied that I was chosen for that project from our college among those couple of other students, who study with me in the UWC and that we could see all those beautiful things and then create our own graffiti. Well, the plan was to create a graffiti art somewhere in Paris, however, then we decided to do it in Freiburg when we got home, because creating graffiti is not that simple in Paris and, besides, we didn’t really know much about the streets of Parisor the neighbourhoods or anything like that. I mean, it was our first time in Paris, you know, and we just spent a couple of days there and it was kind of impossible to choose a place, where we could do some graffiti, and it was wiser to do it in Freiburg, where it’s easier and not that illegal to make some graffiti art, I guess.

So that, we would create our own graffiti art on papers and then we would make it on some wall in Freiburg and we would have an amazing art of ourselves and we would be proud of it, I guess, because it would be something, that we would do together. You know, it’s always something, that you are proud of, when you do that exact certain thing on your own. It’s like, that you are really happy at that time of creating something and when you create it finally, you just see the result and decide, whether it came out that way that you wanted or not and, well, something is still done, you know, and you can’t just be disappointed if it doesn’t come out as expected, because you just had something done, you know. Though it’s really frustrating, if you are making something and it doesn’t come out as planned, however, it’s still something, you know, and the process of doing that something is still that one, that you feel not useless or something like that and you feel, that you can do something, even if it doesn’t live up to your expectations. The process itself gives you some kind of stimuli and you want to make something in your life, you know, and, well, maybe even create something for others than yourself and when you are making something for others and they like that thing done by you, you just feel really useful and then you are proud of yourself and that’s really a good feeling at that time and it just encourages you to make something good again and again and be a better person in doing so.

Anyways, my visit to Paris ended up very well and I was really pleased with my trip there, because I saw so many things and experienced some great French culture, that I will never forget and I’m thankful for that to our college, of course.

So that it was an amazing trip to Paris in alland the street art there is just amazing and everyone should see it and not just Louvre or the Palace of Versailles or Eiffel Tower or things like that, if you want to know the truth.

Photo gallery