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Artist Mends Cracked Sidewalks, Potholes And Buildings Using Vibrant Mosaics, And Here Are His Best 30 Works
Ememem is an inventive artist who fills potholes in his home city Lyon, France with beautiful mosaics to brighten the days of anyone who spots them during the day. The street artist decided to draw people’s attention to the deplorable condition of roads and sidewalk safety in France. You could say Ememem is set on a mission: patching up his city’s broken pavement by filling potholes with colorful works of art—mosaics that turn eyesores and traffic hazards into things of beauty.
By creating colorful tiled mosaics in the potholes riddling the streets of Lyon, Ememem has become the latest artist to offer his take on this public nuisance. Thanks to his efforts for the last 10 years, some of Lyon’s sidewalks and splintered facades are now filled with colorful mosaics that are both creative and unique.
More info: ememem-flacking.net | Instagram
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Beautiful! Good thing you're not here in Saginaw, MI.... You'd be fined for vandalizing, damages to city property & maybe even SUED for not being an employee of the road crews.
Bored Panda reached out to Ememem and he told us a little bit more about his recent work and upcoming future plans.
“These days during my day-time job I work for the new metro ‘Grand Paris Express.’ I install my 'flacks' around the construction site during work. I hope that the people who live around the area will appreciate my poetic approach. The action is financed by Société du Grand Paris! If you'd like to find out more about the project that has been financed by Société du Grand Paris you can do so by clicking here."
"I also do collective exhibitions, I have two coming up soon in the month of June. My first exhibition starts on June 2nd in Lyon, it’s called ‘Spraying board.’ The second one is ‘Ceramic Now!’ and it starts on June 8th in Paris, 15 rue du Louvre.
During the summer, hopefully, I’ll be able to attend a lot of festivals all over France and Europe, the plans, for now, are mostly Italy and Germany.”
The French artist is also known as ‘the pavement surgeon,’ he believes that repairing the sidewalks is “a poem that everybody can read,” as he mentioned on his website. The beautiful and bright additions to the cracks and broken areas of the city serve as a memory notebook between the colorful buildings. The artist is also known to have quite a long history with mosaics in general, over 10 years in fact.
As we mentioned previously, Ememem’s first mosaic dates back 10 years when he found himself in a damaged alley in Lyon. At that time, he already was working in ceramic and translated that practice to revitalizing the outdoor area. Since 2016, he’s been consistently filling potholes and other divots throughout France, but mostly in Lyon. These days the artist holds various art exhibitions for his outdoor work with many future dates to come.
Like the pattern and the matte finished tiles... less chance of slipping.
This is probably the most interesting street are being done right now. I love it.
This is probably the most interesting street are being done right now. I love it.