Ememem is an

anonymous Anonymous may refer to: * Anonymity, the state of an individual's identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown ** Anonymous work, a work of art or literature that has an unnamed or unknown creator or author * Anonym ...

French

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant graff ...

ist based in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. They create

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s incorporating geometric motifs in cracked

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick, stone ...

s and

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means 'frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

s, a process they call ''flacking''. Ememem creates art at night, so that it is generally discovered at dawn.

Art

A street artist, Ememem creates mosaics incorporating geometric motifs in cracked sidewalks and façades. They describe this art as "a poem that everybody can read" and "a memory notebook of the city". They created their first mosaic in 2011 in an alley in their hometown of Lyon, although they had already been working with

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelai ...

; since 2016, they have created street mosaics across France, and also in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...

(including in the

Plaça Urquinaona The Plaça d'Urquinaona is one of the principal squares in central Barcelona. It is officially part of Dreta de l'Eixample neighbourhood, in the Eixample district, and is located at the intersection of the Ronda Sant Pere and Carrer d'Ausiàs Mar ...

and

Sant Antoni Sant Antoni is a neighborhood in the ''Eixample'' district of Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). Its non-official centre, the marketplace of the same name—designed by Antoni Rovira i Trias and built between 1872 and 1882—is one of the oldest a ...

) and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

as well as

Turín Turín is a municipality in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador. Geography The town is located 4 km west of Atiquizaya, 10 km east of Ahuachapán, the department capital; and 12 km west of Chalchuapa and the neighboring May ...

, Genova, Civitacampomarano, and Terracina in Italy,

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Hamar and Stavanger in Norway,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...

in UK and Carlow in Ireland. Their mosaics can easily be found in Lyon, and some visitors to the city seek them out. In 2021, Ememem was commissioned by the to decorate the location of a new

Grand Paris Express Grand Paris Express is a group of new rapid transit lines being built in the Île-de-France region of France. The project comprises four new lines for Paris Métro, plus extensions of existing Lines 11 and 14. A total of of new track and 68 n ...

stop. In addition to their street art, they have created additional commissions for

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

s, some of which have been purchased by

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individua ...

s. Ememem describes their art as ''flacking'', a self-coined

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

derived from the French language, French , meaning "

puddle A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too sm ...

" or "pool". They have cited by

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a ...

as an influence.

Personal life

Ememem is

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

and lives in Lyon, where they are known as , "the pavement surgeon" or "the surgeon of the sidewalks". They told ''

Ynet Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the ''Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...

'' that the name "Ememem" refers to the sound of their

moped A moped ( ) is a type of small motorcycle, generally having a less stringent licensing requirement than full motorcycles or automobiles. The term used to mean a similar vehicle except with both bicycle pedals and a motorcycle engine. Mopeds typic ...

, which they ride when they go to create a mosaic. They work at night to remain anonymous, and their identity is unknown; their work is generally found at dawn. They have refused requests for in-person or radio interviews, and declined to state their age or

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures us ...

. They share images of their work on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

with the account "@ememem.flacking", which had more than 169,000 followers .

Notes

References

External links

* * *
''The Guardian'' gallery of mosaics by Ememem
{{Authority control Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Mosaic artists Street artists 21st-century French artists Artists from Lyon Anonymous artists

Art

Personal life

See also

Notes

References

External links