Mur des "Je t'aime" - Wall of "I love you

The end of 2022 saw the completion of a great adventure that had begun a year and a half earlier: the inauguration in Suzhou, China, of the reproduction of the Mur des je t'aime, the famous work in the Square des Abbesses in Montmartre.

In the summer of 2021, Empreinte was contacted by Claire Kito and Frédéric Baron to carry out an identical reproduction of their monumental work made up of 640 enamelled lava stone tiles bearing the words "I love you" in 300 different languages.

The original work was unveiled more than 20 years ago, so they had to start from scratch. As the files and the composition of the characteristic blue of the tiles had been lost, we had to start by photographing each of the tiles one by one so that we could faithfully redraw the different calligraphies. Then came the time for dozens of trials and tests to reproduce the desired blue.
We were not at the end of our surprises, as we later discovered that the tiles had been printed using a special glazing technique that had never been used before by Empreinte.

Despite all these challenges, it was in record time, and thanks to the confidence of the artists and the France China Partnership (the association behind the project), that the tiles were produced and presented - not without great emotion - to everyone in our workshop at the beginning of August, before setting off on their long journey to the other side of the world.

Empreinte's first project in Asia was full of technical challenges, but also of the special emotions inherent in its artistic character.

The Empreinte teams are proud to have been able to take part in it, and to have brought the excellence of French know-how all the way to China.

Location
Paris - France

Artists
Claire Kito & Frédéric Baron

Client
Association France China Partnership - Nan JI Berger & Yi Jin Borghi