Cleon Peterson paints the first mural underneath the Eiffel Tower for Nuit Blanche Paris

LA-based artist Cleon Peterson is painting the first ever mural directly underneath the Eiffel Tower for this year’s Nuit Blanche festival in Paris. Endless Sleep fuses references to ancient Greek frescos and street art, depicting energetic, intertwining bodies in black and white.

Nuit Blanche is an all-night art festival that takes place from 7pm – 7am at various venues across Paris on the first Saturday in October every year, this year on 1 October.

Palais de Tokyo director Jean de Loisy is curating this year’s festival, the latest in a roster of artistic directors since the festival began in 2002. Jean and his team of curators has put together a programme of works designed to rethink urban space for an artistic purpose, dotted on a route along the Seine, where artworks can be found every 300m.

Other artists taking part in the festival include Alain Séchas, who has illustrated a large mural in Gare de Lyon and British artist Oliver Beer, who will live-mix sounds of the river at Pont des Arts. Stéphane Thidet is creating an installation described as a forest “floating on a frozen lake,” and American artist Bridget Polk will exhibit a series of precariously balanced totem sculptures. 

Nuit Blanche Paris takes place from 7pm – 7am on 1 – 2 October 2016.

Excited to be painting the first mural ever painted below the Eiffel Tower. Big thanks to Palais de Tokyo, Nuit Blanche and hugovitrani for inviting me to do this #cleonpeterson #eiffeltower #nuitblanche2016 @palaisdetokyo</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A video posted by Cleon Peterson (cleonpeterson) on Sep 25, 2016 at 10:07am PDT