The ''Wall of Love'' (french: Le mur des je t'aime, lit. the ''I Love You Wall'') is a love-themed wall of in the Jehan Rictus

garden square A garden square is a type of communal garden in an urban area wholly or substantially surrounded by buildings; commonly, it continues to be applied to public and private parks formed after such a garden becomes accessible to the public at large. T ...

Montmartre Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue Ca ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France. The wall was created in 2000 by artists Fédéric Baron and Claire Kito and is composed of 612 tiles of enamelled

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

, on which the phrase 'I love you' is featured 311 times in 250 languages. Each tile is . The wall includes the words 'I love you' in all major languages, but also in rarer ones like Navajo,

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

, Bambara and Esperanto. The wall is open to the public free of charge.

Origins

Frédéric Baron first asked his brother, and later his foreign neighbours, to write words of love in their languages, then collected 'I love you' in this way in over 300 languages and dialects of the world. Claire Kito, a calligrapher, then assembled them in a work to be realised on enamel plates.

Symbolism

The symbolism of the wall was a personal choice of the artist. A wall is, of course, a symbol of division and separation, and here Fédéric Baron wished that a wall could also be a support for the most beautiful of human feelings. The red splashes on the wall symbolize parts of a broken heart and can be gathered to form a full heart.

References

External links

{{commons category, Le mur des je t'aime, ''Wall of Love''
Official website (English version)
2000 establishments in France 2000s murals Buildings and structures completed in 2000 Paintings of Montmartre Buildings and structures in the 18th arrondissement of Paris Tourist attractions in Paris Montmartre Love Walls