The agglomeration and the city of Avignon had initially refused to cover the work, in the name of freedom of expression and interpretation.
Le Monde
The fresco representing Emmanuel Macron as a puppet manipulated by the economist Jacques Attali, in an Avignon car park, was completely covered on Friday, June 24, in the morning. Since Wednesday, the controversy has been informed in the face of this representation deemed anti -Semitic.
“Following emotion reactions and the growing controversy aroused by the fresco of the graffiti artist Lekto located in the Italian car park in Avignon, the prefect of Vaucluse exchanged yesterday with the president of Grand Avignon, owner of the premises , in order to agree on the erasure of this fresco. This operation was carried out this morning, “said the prefecture in an email at the France-Presse agency (AFP).
“Faced with the very numerous reactions aroused by the fresco of the street artist Lekto, suddenly the subject of a controversy very widely relayed by social networks, the agglomeration community of Grand Avignon, yesterday yesterday Afternoon, made the decision to cover the facade of the building concerned which belongs to it, “had a few moments previously announced in a statement the Avignon agglomeration. The fresco had already been partially covered, anonymously, on the night of Thursday to Friday, recalled the agglomeration community.
Liberties of expression and interpretation
The agglomeration and the city of Avignon, led by the socialist Cécile Helle, had refused to erase the fresco on Thursday, according to France Bleu Vaucluse , in the name of freedom of expression and interpretation. “Everyone can interpret the image as they want, since there is no word on this wall,” said the Grand Avignon, owner of the building on which frescoes of the genre follow one another, at the entrance from the city. They would have finally changed their minds against “the insistence of the prefect”, had specified the radio.
“The interpretation of this fresco leaves little doubt. The figure of the Jewish banker manipulating his puppets is a recurring representation of the anti -Semites. Anti -Semitism is this bacillus of the plague which always reappears. No weakness is tolerable” , had reacted on Twitter the first secretary of the Socialist Party , Olivier Faure. Contacted by AFP, the town hall of Avignon did not react on Friday.
On the wall of this car park, Emmanuel Macron was represented in Pinocchio, activated by Jacques Attali. The latter, adviser to several presidents of the Republic, is deemed close to the President. The work represents him with a disturbing look, his hands above the puppet he manipulates. At the foot of the building, the work is titled: the beast 2.
claiming that it disappears, the Jewish Defense League believed in particular that anti -Semitic symbols were present in the fresco:” Jewish and influential personality (here Jacques Attali), (…) The worrying look [and the] hands that actuate puppets, understand: they belong to those who direct the world. “The