Anonymous Paris Street Artist Returns with New Mosaic
The mystery French street artist known only as "Invader" has struck Paris again — this time to celebrate the Olympics.
Invader has been sticking his quirky mosaics to Paris walls since the 1990s, usually at night and without permission. He's become France's most intriguing contemporary street artist.
His works have appeared in all corners of Paris and his fans have a lot of fun hunting them down.
And now there's a new, Olympic-themed one for them to find.
Invader stuck it to a wall on one of the River Seine's embankments early in August. Using tiles to create the mosaic, it shows one of his signature Space Invader figures running.
The work's colors evoke the shades of blue that Paris Games organizers have used to decorate the city for the Olympics.
A representative for the artist — who, like him, maintains anonymity — said by email to The Associated Press that "Invader told me to say that he wanted to celebrate the Olympics in Paris with this mosaic."
The artist's admirers can download his app, called "Flash Invaders," and then use it to take photos of any of his works that they find.
When they do, the app awards them points. The more works they find, the more points they get.
The app has nearly 400,000 players.
The new mosaic is the 1,512th that Invader has glued up in Paris. Players get 50 points when they find it with his app.
Since the first mosaic of a blue Space Invader went up on a Paris street in 1998, more than 4,000 of his mosaics have appeared in cities and towns on all continents except Antarctica.
Like Banksy, the British street artist he is sometimes compared to, Invader is elusive and protective of his anonymity.
He comes, glues, and disappears into the night.
Most of the mosaics include the aliens from the Space Invaders arcade game. Others are portraits of famous faces like Lou Reed and Andy Warhol, while some reference pop culture.
