Reuters - Video

Edition: US | UK | IN | CN | JP

video MOST POPULAR

Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken are \
Sharon Stone, Christopher Walken are "Gods Behaving Badly" - 01:07

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

How rugby could tackle Japan's tattoo angst

How rugby could tackle Japan's tattoo angst

World Rugby has advised players to cover-up tattoos during next year's World Cup in Japan, but many advocates for the body art hope the arrival of inked athletes sparks a debate in a country with a complicated relationship with tattoos
A second chance for 300 derelict islands in Dubai

A second chance for 300 derelict islands in Dubai

Three hundred man-made islands. Streets with artificial snow under a desert sun. This ambitious real-estate project in Dubai has laid largely dormant since the 2008 financial crisis, but one developer is trying to make it come back in a big way
From gunbattles to tourism: Colombia's ex-rebels turn rafting guides

From gunbattles to tourism: Colombia's ex-rebels turn rafting guides

A group of former rebel fighters, who traded their guns, battle fatigues and heavy rucksacks for paddles, helmets and life jackets, launch four rafts laden with visitors into the turbulent Pato River, deep in Colombia's dense Amazon jungle
Spider-Man creator, comic book titan Stan Lee dies

Spider-Man creator, comic book titan Stan Lee dies

Stan Lee, who dreamed up Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk and a host of other Marvel Comics superheroes that became mythic figures in pop culture and saw big bucks at the box office, has died at 95
Scientists to swap dirty old kilogram for something more stable

Scientists to swap dirty old kilogram for something more stable

After years of nurturing a sometimes dusty lump of metal as the global reference for modern mass, scientists are to redefine the kilogram - ditching a relic made of platinum-iridium alloy for something more up to date