MATURE FLÂNEUR

In Paris’ 13th: A Bastion of Rebel Art in a Land of Glass and Steel

Vive la resistance of Les Frigos!

From the inner walls of Les Frigos, with the Frigos building depicted on the far left. All photos by Tim Ward

There are two kinds of art one encounters in Paris. First, the sanctioned art of museums, galleries and special exhibits in public spaces. But then there is unsanctioned art, the art of the street, painted covertly on the sides of buildings, on walls, under bridges. I call it guerrilla art, and indeed, it often has a subversive tone to it, an element of war, as if the streets of Paris are a battle zone between the keepers of manicured order and the agents of creative freedom.

Street art ambushes a Paris staircase.

In Paris’ 13th Arrondissement, I had come to believe the battle for the street was lost — that the artists had fled before wave after wave of new construction and gentrification pushing out from the city center along the left bank of the Seine, wiping away block after block of historic old buildings and replacing them with sleek glass and concrete monoliths. I had ventured into this region a few times on my own, and honestly, I had given it up as a part of the city worth my time as a flâneur — one who wanders with no aim other than taking in the ambiance of the…