We stand behind our Paris Family and all those affected by the recent tragedy. There are not enough words to comment on horrors that have happened, I only leave you with what moves us most and that is artists coming together to cope with these events. Here is summary of the French Kiss reaction and mural painted at the Palais de Tokyo in the past week. We are with you France.

GF

“Amongst the victims of the terrorist attacks were artists that we grew up with, free spirited hippies whose work has been part of our lives since we were kids. Like all of our friends and thousands of artists around the world, our first reaction when the news of the shootings broke out was to grab our pencils and start drawing something in their memory. Some of us were at the palais de Tokyo that day so when director Jean de Loisy invited us to do something there, we decided to put together a “French Kiss’” wall, bringing together artists from different fields and generations like we usually do in the Parisian streets. We then spent the next 48 hours with André, Lek & Sowat, Cokney, Alëxone, Arnaud Liard, Hugo Vitrani, Jean Charles de Castelbajac, Felipe Oliveira Baptista and Nicolas Gzeley working on a collective 50 meters long mural. For those of us that had been listening to the paranoiac news for the last 24 hours, it just felt right to step outside of our homes and just be together… The first night, André came to draw the infamous ‘Je suis Charlie’ logo, its letters trembling, like if they were scared (which we were). One advantage of Graphically illustrated designs is that they have no barriers. The next morning, Hassan Massoudy posted the Arab version of the logo on his facebook, which Cokney later painted at the end of the of our mural, surrounded by Castelbajac’s angels and dark abstractions…” French Kiss Paris 2015

pictures: Nicolas Gzeley

Complete list of participants

André, Lek & Sowat, Cokney, Alëxone, Arnaud Liard, Hugo Vitrani, Jean Charles de Castelbajac, Felipe Oliveira Baptista and Nicolas Gzeley