Love padlocks replaced by art

FOUR street artists have been at work on the Pont des Arts in Paris installing painted panels to replace the 45 tonnes of ‘love padlocks’ which are being removed.

The mairie invited artists Jace, El Seed, Brusk and Pantonio to install their work on the bridge, which has been temporarily closed during the work to remove the cadenas d’amour and replace them with the art.

Jace, who is from Réunion, says: “These paintings represent for my part a naive and offbeat vision of Paris life as the typical tourist imagines it.”

However the art installation is temporary – by the autumn it is planned to replace the paintings with glass panels, allowing people to more easily appreciate the view down to the Seine.

On the Facebook page of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, nearly 7,000 people ‘liked’ a photo she posted showing a padlock-free view, saying ‘rediscover the beauty of Paris’. However one user asked if she would be taking responsibility if there were now about 700,000 break-ups and divorces after the padlocks were removed.

The mairie said it was removing up to around a million padlocks because they had become too heavy for the bridge – couples used to attach them and then throw the key in the river, as a symbol of their love.

It is now planning a campaign saying Paris still wants to be associated with romance, but it would like people to express their love in other ways.

Le pont des arts en métamorphose @Anne_Hidalgo @ParisOTC @Paris @Livehotels #Paris #Parisjetaime pic.twitter.com/GcpLRdwNKU— picfromparis (@picfromparis) June 2, 2015

Photo: Jace