Reuters - Video

Edition: US | UK | IN | CN | JP

video MOST POPULAR

Breakingviews TV: Google's European slap
Breakingviews TV: Google's European slap - 03:03

Romantic street art replaces love locks on Paris bridge

Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - 01:42

Arabic grafitti by Franco-Tunisian artist is among works that replace the love locks that once adorned a Paris bridge. Sharon Reich reports.

▲ Hide Transcript

▶ View Transcript

The "Love Locks" are gone... and Paris' Pont des Arts bridge is transformed with a burst of street art. Spanning the length of the bridge is a work by Franco-Tunisian artist eL Seed, that spells out in pink Arabic letters a quote from Balzac's novel "Le Pere Goriot." Translated to English, it says: "Paris is in truth an ocean: you can plumb it, but you'll never know its depths". Gallerist Mehdi Ben Cheikh is behind the temporary grafitti exhibition on the bridge. SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Ben Cheikh, Gallery director, saying (French): "I thought it was brave ... brave to put an Arabic sentence up in Paris. It's not only a language of terrorists. It's the language of a whole people across the world. A people who are very open ... and have an extremely spiritual dimension." People walking along the bridge, which is situated in the heart of Paris's artistic establishment, have mixed feelings about the new exhibit. SOUNDBITE: Tourist Max Dulberger saying (English): "It's a cool combination to bring together difference types of art, with the classical stuff and more modern nitty gritty stuff, so that's kind of a cool combination." SOUNDBITE: Tourist Jamie McMahon saying (English): "Paris is supposed to be the city of love and and here we've got some horrible drawings on the bridge. I think it cheapens the bridge. Although the padlocks weren't nice to look at, the idea of the padlocks was a nice idea, romantic." Workmen began taking off the padlocks last week after a section of railing collapsed under their weight. The graffiti panels will be replaced by plexiglass later this year.

Press CTRL+C (Windows), CMD+C (Mac), or long-press the URL below on your mobile device to copy the code

Close

Romantic street art replaces love locks on Paris bridge

Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - 01:42

Featured Videos

Design-your-own 3D virtual Lamborghini

Design-your-own 3D virtual Lamborghini

Cloud-based technology from British company ZeroLight lets Lamborghini fans create a 3D virtual model from a limitless number of combinations
Spectacular World Cup of Snowkiting gets going in Italy

Spectacular World Cup of Snowkiting gets going in Italy

Snowkiters race across a frozen lake in Italy on either skis or snowboards to compete in the Snowkite World Cup
Living dangerously, one foot at a time, in 'Free Solo'

Living dangerously, one foot at a time, in 'Free Solo'

Climber Alex Honnold's death-defying ascent of El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park is taking him to the Oscars, where a film about his feat will compete for the movie world's highest honour
The elusive black panther is spotted in Kenya

The elusive black panther is spotted in Kenya

Images of a rare African black leopard - known as panthers - have been captured in Kenya, the first verifiable record of the animal for nearly 100 years
Meghan being harassed just like Diana - George Clooney

Meghan being harassed just like Diana - George Clooney

The media are harassing Meghan Markle just as they did Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash while being pursued by paparazzi, her friend George Clooney says