#SaccageParis: should we stop taggers or support artists?

"

Cleaning is good, but maybe we should take the problem at the root

". While the

hashtag #SaccageParis

is spreading on social networks to denounce the dirtiness of the capital, tags and graffiti are not left out by overwhelmed Internet users. “

Reported multiple times for a year now,

” reads a caption of a building facade adorned with the IDfix inscription, a signature familiar to the cleaning teams of the city of Paris. Just like DION, DAG, Kebla, ... So many nicknames now well known to Parisians, especially around the inner city and the urban promenade. "

The same names keep coming back

», Abounds Eliott Saguet, regional director of the HTP anti graffiti company, a tag cleaning company providing services to the town hall.

"

They are easily recognizable by the graphic style, when they do not sign outright by their nicknames

".

Read also: #SaccageParis, from tweets to reality

“

The most annoying is that some of them are well established

,” squeaks for his part Loïc Guézo, president of a group of residents on the Place de la Chapelle. Last Friday, Nicolas *, a member of the collective, was able to film a group tagging with impunity the white columns of the Eiffel-style viaduct where the skytrain passes, between Stalingrad and La Chapelle stations. "

They were six or seven to disembark from a big black car,

" he told

Le Figaro.

“

In full curfew, they took their time, quietly, to register twice the famous“ Spleen75 ”

already seen in other corners of Paris.

They were not vandals, but on the contrary seemed very satisfied with their work, which they took the trouble to photograph

”.

Read also: Place de la Chapelle, an anti-tag operation launched by the inhabitants

It was only a few days later that the collective spotted, on the site of an art gallery in rue Quincampoix, the photos of the tag accompanied by a text praising graffiti.

"

No desire to please or to seduce, it is a violent need for exteriorization

", explains the photographer in his commentary.

"

It's creaking, when we know that the gallery is funded by special aid from the mayor of Paris under the pretext of promoting contemporary art

", enraged Loïc Guézo, who sent a letter this Tuesday to Colombe Brossel, deputy to the town hall in charge of Cleanliness, to request a complaint.

Ambiguity of the town hall

Not easy, however, to catch these street graffiti artists, even though many of them, under pseudo, pride themselves on an artistic approach. Trane, Seno, See, PCP or TPK, so many taggers who use walls as a street art medium. "

If some aim to convey a political message, these tags are in their great majority acts of self-promotion

", underlines Alain Milon, sociologist specializing in aesthetics. “

What better advertising campaign than the street, for a budding artist who would like to make a name for himself?

".

Already in the summer of 2019, a Chilean street artist, Mauricio Esnore, had annoyed the inhabitants of the 18th arrondissement by tagging his name dozens of times on the walls of the district. "

My main goal is to feel alive, present, to exist,

" he had justified himself in an interview with

Joiamagazine

. Faced with repeated reports from residents, the town hall had nevertheless ended up filing a complaint.

Between the act of vandalism and artistic expression, the thread is very thin, pushing Anne Hidalgo's team to sometimes play tightrope walker. In January 2020, on Twitter, Penelope Komites-Valadares, deputy mayor, was particularly pleased that "

many recognized graffiti artists (have) their signature on the small belt

". “

A treasure for street art lovers

,” she said. "

This ambiguity is no longer lasting

" grumbles Loïc Guézo while in recent weeks, several users of the Dans Ma Rue application have seen their reports politely rebutted by the town hall, with the mention "

Possible intentional fresco

". "

The viaduct had just been the subject of a vast refurbishment project.

Intentional or not, does the town hall have only that to do with its budget?

".

To read also: Benoît Duteurtre: "The town hall destroys the harmony of Paris to impose its whims"

A position that also leaves Julien Lacaze speechless, president of the Sites et Monuments association.

"

We do not have the same conception of street art

" he judges disconcerted.

“

For us it is clear, these tags make the city ugly, and threaten the heritage: the paint used as well as the repeated cleaning are aggressive.

On Haussmannian facades that are regularly subject to tags, the stone starts to crumble in places

, ”he explains.

Verbalizing, a solution?

To fight against this visual plague, what to do?

“

In the past, the police waited for taggers at street corners to issue them with fines.

Unfortunately, today, it has other priorities…

”, laments Eliott Saguet, regional director of HTP anti graffiti.

"

It is up to the victims to lodge a complaint

", either the town hall of Paris, the SNCF, the RATP or the individuals themselves, one explains on the side of the police headquarters.

The law punishes any act of vandalism on public property up to a fine of € 3,750.

A penalty that can go up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros if the painting is not erasable, or if it is a listed monument.

"

When it comes to our furniture and that we have the legal capacity, we file a complaint systematically

", attests to

Figaro

Colombe Brossel, who however considers the relatively rare occasions, ie no more than five per year. "

The

dissuasive measures appear to us to be much more effective, which is why we have included in the Climate Bill a considerable increase in fines

". Any degradation on a surface that does not belong to the city is thus, according to the deputy, outside her field of competence.