From the 47-meter minaret of Tunisia’s Jara mosque to Louis Vuitton silk scarves, Tunisian artist and Style.com/Arabia VOICES contributor el Seed’s calligraffiti is continuously being reinvented on various mediums. Most recently, the far-reaching appeal of his work—a blend of graffiti and Arabic calligraphy—manifested itself on Paris’ Pont des Arts, the iconic bridge near the Louvre museum.
The famous landmark was earlier home to thousands of “love locks;” tourists would place a lock with their loved one’s name on the pedestrian bridge and throw the key in the Seine River. Following the announcement of the removal of the locks for safety measures, the city authorities appointed Mehdi Ben Cheikh, director of Galerie Itinerrance, to create a temporary exhibition of street art on the Pont des Arts. Along with other international and local street artists chosen by Cheikh for the project, including Brusk, Antonio, and Jace, eL Seed painted a quote by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac on the exterior of the bridge in bold pink Arabic calligraphy. “Paris is a real ocean. Throw it in a probe, you will never know its depths,” reads the extract chosen by the artist from Balzac’s novel Le Père Goriot. Apart from capturing the spirit of the city by painting the words of a French literary icon in Arabic, eL Seed aims to evoke an emotion in all the passers-by trying to decode the message and highlight the beauty of Middle Eastern culture through his art.
As with his earlier works, the artist did not sign his name on the art to highlight the democratic nature of the streets and his belief that art painted on a public space belongs to the people.
—Natalie Theodosi
