Anonymous French artist known as Ememem is on a mission to do what his city failed to do; fix the cracks on its streets.
Tired of waiting for officials in Lyon, a city in east-central France, to do something about the deteriorating street infrastructure, Ememem took matters into his own hands. He started repairing the cracks on the pavements and buildings with colorful mosaics.
Ememem started this intriguing project in 2016 after noticing the wear and tear on the public surface outside his workshop. After patching some cracks there, he proceeded to do the same on several other locations and quickly became known as a “pavement surgeon.”
“My work is the story of the city, where cobblestones have been displaced; a truck from the vegetable market tore off a piece of asphalt,” the artist explained in a chat with Guardian.
The artist refers to his repair technique as “flacking,” which is a wordplay on the French word “flaque,” which translates to “puddle.” He adopts a free-flowing approach to the interventions, allowing the shape and size of the fracture to inspire him. This dictates the material and color he uses, as well as the resulting patterns.
While most of Ememem’s works are located in Lyon, he has also created in various other cities across Europe, including Aberdeen, Madrid, and Paris. In case you don’t have an opportunity to check them out in person, here are more of them below.
