Art on the Street in Paris

Dear Liza,

There is a lot of art in Paris’s gardens and art galleries, famous museums and even rich people’s apartments. But what I noticed a lot this visit was the art on the street. Grafitti, stickers, and commercial installations give a lot of flavor to a city like Paris, where politics and art is as close as the street corner.

These stickers are on many lamp posts, encouraging us all to eat a plant-based diet. The slogan at the bottom says, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. Having recently changed to a more plant centered diet myself, I would encourage this, as well.

I like this small, pale sticker attached to the traditional street sign. In the equivalent of a whisper, it says, “I exist.”

We found this Sharpie message on the Pont Neuf. It is a disapproval of the French President’s new retirement policies and a play on an old piece of absurdist art. It says ,“This is not a macron.”

And then there is this five-story fiberglass statue of artist Yayoi Kusama, standing in the median strip of the Rue du Pont Neuf on the Right Bank. In a promotion for Louis Vuitton, an expensive fashion designer, she stands outside their main store, painting her signature polka dots… on everything!

You just never know what you’re going to run into on the streets of Paris.

Love,

Grandma Judy