French artist brings flash of colour to Ankara streets

Walking through Ankara’s streets, occasional flashes of colour light up the pavement where French artist Ememem has painstakingly patched up the potholes and cracks with vibrant works of mosaic art.

- BURCIN GERCEK

He calls it “flacking” — the art of transforming unsightly cracks and crevices in the ground into uniquely shaped ceramic creations.

The artworks — made of recycled materials, bits of glass and broken or discarded shards of pottery — are what he calls his “plasters for the pavement”.

What inspired him was “the spirit of the city”: although to the uninitiated, Ankara can sometimes appear “grey”, Ememem said he saw it as full of “colour, light and traditional motifs”.

At times accompanied by texts, these eye-catching “street scars” are a reflection of his impressions and even some of the Turkish expressions he’s heard on the streets.

His works first appeared on the streets of Lyon, hometown of the artist who has never revealed his name or his face.

They then began appearing in Paris and other cities, like Milan, Barcelona and Leipzig, and more recently Chicago and New York.