"M. Chat" by... M. Chat

The story of this cat is unique. It is M. Chat, who first appeared in 1997 in Orléans/France (the "M" stands for Monsieur, meaning gentleman, and "Chat" is of course French for cat). In the meantime, Mr. Cat can be found not only in Orléans and Paris, but also in New York (where this picture was taken), Geneva, Vienna and many other cities around the world. In his homeland France, however, M. Chat had a special significance.

In 2002, he became a symbol of Parisian resistance to the war in Iraq and "M. Chat" by Thoma Vuille | © Éditions Alternatives the rise of the radical right-wing Front National. In 2004, the filmmaker Chris Marker became aware of the animal and released the documentary film Chats Perchés (The Case of the Grinning Cat), which was about this mysterious mural that appeared wherever something was going on. Then in 2007 in Orléans there was the arrest of a certain Thoma Vuille who was in the process of putting a M. Chat on a wall. M. Vuille admitted in the following interrogation to be the inventor of M. Chat and author of its -illegal- pictures. He was autistic and M. Chat was his way of existing. He had to pay 300 EUR fine, M. Chat got a place in the museum and both are famous now. There is even a book about M. Chat.




► Wikipedia on M. Chat (in French)
► M. Chat Website
► M. Chat Instagram

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