Leaving a presence around Paris

At the moment, as the topic I am studying for college is ‘absence as presence’, I am interested to hear about anyone leaving their sense of presence, their trace, in their art. So hence why those yarn bombers in Chipping Norton caught my attention a few weeks back. This time the ‘bomber’ that has interested me is a ‘face bomber’, a street artist called Gregos who has been leaving his face around the streets of Paris.

Stripy face

This reminds me slightly of the Gromits that have been on display around Bristol and Somerset this summer (we found one in Cheddar Gorge).

One of the Bristol Gromits

Gregos is a self-taught artist, and is a year younger than me. He  creates replicas of his face showing a variety of expressions which he then paints and leaves around Paris. Each face is a self-portrait and expresses his feelings, thoughts and ‘his past, present, and future, everything that makes Gregos’ (http://gregosart.com). He is leaving his presence everywhere.

I hope it isn’t windy

He has, to date, left around 500 faces, mostly in Paris, but also elsewhere in France and in other cities around the world such as Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Seattle, Athens and Berlin.

The many faces of Athens

I love his idea, everyone leaves a trace of themselves around the streets of where they live, and in the cities they visit around the world (if they are lucky enough to travel that far) but Gregos does it conspicuously, literally. Of course we can’t all do this, the world would be filled with faces.

References

Gregos’s website, http://gregosart.com/ [last accessed 12 September 2013]

BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24022206 [last accessed 12 September 2013]