With the support of Parisian authorities, Paris-based art gallery owner Mehdi Ben Cheikh handed over a derelict social housing tower to more than 100 street artists, opening up what My Modern Met insists is "the largest street art exhibition ever created." The 10-story tower, slated for demolition at the end of the month, now features a tangerine façade and 36 apartments that have been painted over and deconstructed.
Some have optical illusions (like the giant diamond, above) painted onto the papered walls and hardwood floors, others, like the apartment of French artist Sambre, are even more surreal, with walls of old doors and painted women perching on real-life (orange spray-painted) bathtubs. Still others have a political agenda; the apartment decked by Paris-based artist Rodolphe Cintorino, for example, is painted with morphed, dystopian imagery of a war-torn Syria. Tour 13 is free to the public, but—alas—only open until Oct. 30. "It's part of life, you do something for the others, once it's done, they see it, they like and it vanishes," Chilean artist Inti Castro told the Wall Street Journal. "There is no feeling of property for my art."
· 100 Street Artists Take Over a Nine-Story Building in Paris [My Modern Met]
· Tour Paris 13 [official site]