Exiting the 7 into Saint Denis, just north of the boundaries of Paris, you would not expect to find such a treasure trove of art in this seemingly sleepy neighborhood. As you head towards the Saint Denis Canal, tags, throw ups (spray painted bubbly letters that are put up in less than five minutes), and murals populate the streets on fences, walls, or even the ground. This area called Street Art Avenue is a haven for street artists. Street Art Avenue was created in 2016 in a revitalization effort that also led to the creation of riverbanks and bike paths, which was prompted by the Euro Cup, which has its Paris adjacent stadium in Saint Denis. Every year a new edition of a handful of street artists are commissioned to create artwork in this ever-changing, unofficial street art museum. There are also spots to put up legal graffiti, but Street Art Avenue has also attracted significant illegal artwork that has been respected and not removed.

Street Art Avenue is more than what it seems. While there are 30 official artists, there are many more pieces of street art. The public work that is accessible 24 hours a day offers an understanding of the politics, culture, and artistic moment. Lining the walls are political messages relating to feminism, policing, and even events as current as Russia invading Ukraine. Not only is the literal artwork offering an understanding of politics and culture, but also various elements of tension on Street Art Avenue offer further insights into current politics and culture.

First, Street Art Avenue is the exact line that separates gentrified Saint Denis from its poorer side. From across the river one can see modern apartment complexes going up and a massive shopping center with a Zara, while the side with the majority of the street art has rows of apartments that look rather small and dilapidated. This area is a clear sight of gentrification and its contrast between the sides of the river highlights this change. Additionally, there are barriers set up to prevent homeless people from sleeping under the shelter of bridges on Street Art Avenue, which is displaying how gentrification is beginning to creep into the other side of the river. It can be noted that in some ways street art contributes to gentrification due to the belief that it is pretty, cool, and trendy.

Second, there is a high contrast between nature and the unnatural. While next to a water feature (that is related to nature even if not natural per se, as it is a manmade canal), the area surrounding it is covered in grey concrete. Even in the water, I saw a duck or two, but they swam next to an upside-down plastic water bottle bobbing near a waterlogged plastic bag. This tension between nature and the unnatural serves to emphasize tension on this avenue, in other respects, and also highlights priorities of the moment.

Third, while Street Art Avenue serves to be a haven for creativity and beauty, the wall that a significant amount of art is on is covered in barbed wire. While the trash in the water also offers a contrast in terms of beauty, the barbed wire creates a sense of constraint to which the art works’ creativity is in contrast. This is in addition to the barriers against providing shelter for homeless people. While Street Art Avenue may seem to be a free-spirited place with the support of creativity and the many liberal leaning messages on the walls, in many ways it is still a product of its time in that it still is a restrictive place.

Lastly, Street Art Avenue puts into conversation what it means to be street art. While the uninitiated viewer may see the street and its different art as something cohesive in that it is part of the same movement, for many reasons this is not true. In particular, there is a conflict about commissioned work (often murals) and non-commissioned work. Some street artists believe that commissioned work should not be classified with their work because people who do commissioned artwork are not putting themselves in danger in the same way that illegal street artists do. Thus, at times there are tags over murals and commissioned artwork as backlash against these pieces. This is not always the case, in particular as it relates to street artists who have significant clout. Other street artists respect those with powerful reputations in the street art community for a variety of reasons, an important one being that they may hope to collaborate with these artists and thus do not want to start a fight. On the flip-side, some people see tags as unartistic and uninspired, but there does not seem to be a particular form of backlash that is visible on the walls of Street Art Avenue.

The tension surrounding Street Art Avenue through the gentrification of the area that is divided along the canal that Street Art Avenue traces, the natural elements in contrast to trash, the creative beauty being positioned against the rigidity of barbed wire, and the struggle of what it means to be street art all come together to serve as a space to understand the cultural and political moment. The tension displays the pull from the past to the future, in current priorities and political and cultural alignments. Street Art Avenue is not just interesting for its art, but also because it is on the forefront of the changing art scene and in our changing community.