“A decaying paste up in Butte aux Caille proved worthy of almost an entire essay in itself.  The subject is a young girl, looking confidently at the viewer, relaxed yet perhaps not totally welcoming our intrusion into her world.  The concentration on her face seems to ask “Is this a person I can trust or not?”

The artist is Italian stencilist Federico Luvol, many thanks to Thom Thom for supplying the ID.   The young girl is actually a Syrian refugee at school in Italy and the message concerns the appalling treatment dished out to refugees who have fled war, horror and ethnic cleansing in their homeland only to face a different kind of abuse in supposed countries of refuge.   The paste up art is a composite of stencilled image and cut paper negative lightly overlayed with splattered spraypaint.  Over time the paper has decayed and in a couple of places, down the right arm and the back of the head, the paper has torn away leaving a blank wall silhouette defined by the paint overspray, this adds a third component to the collaged image.    This is the kind of street art discovery that revives tired limbs, jaded eyes and gives me the motivation to kick on and find more.”

Extract from “Paris Street Art – Part Deux” on sister blog Graffoto

photo: Dave Stuart